The guy I roomed with for most of my first two years of college is one of the best. Brian Johnson started as an architecture major, then became a mechanical engineering student at North Dakota State University from 1986 to 1991. We shared rooms, first in Stockbridge (a.k.a., “Jockbridge”), then in University Village. You’d be hard pressed to meet a …
In the context of the hearings to determine if Bret Kavanaugh is fit to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, Rep. Kevin Cramer has proven beyond the shadow of a doubt that he isn’t fit to represent anyone. Again. Again. The only time North Dakota’s lone congressman makes national news is when he’s inserted his foot so far down his …
Gender Bias Needs to Be Removed from Dress-Code Enforcement in Fargo Public Schools Each year, Fargo Public Schools officials tell our daughters — sometimes explicitly, often implicitly — they will be a “distraction” to other students and teachers if they wear spaghetti-strap tops that are “too revealing,” pants that are “too tight” or skirts that are “too short.” The “too” statements are …
Flowers are Spectrum-Colored. People are Weird. And Nothing You Say Can Change My Mind. And she said, “Flowers are red.” “Flowers are red young man / Green leaves are green / There’s no need to see flowers any other way / Than the way they always have been seen.” She’s a teacher, a character in a late 1970s song by …
The Forum of Fargo initially said it was $104,528.22. Then the mayor said it was more like $10,000 over the daily cost of law enforcement. The deputy police chief said city law enforcement “… accrued only $1,200 in overtime.” A commentator from The Forum said it was actually $31,147.58. The cost of President Trump’s event in Fargo in support of …
Don’t Try To Tell Me Otherwise I am a patriotic American. BECAUSE I AM — I believe life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are unalienable rights. For everyone. I believe all people are created equal, regardless of country of origin or citizenship, race, gender, color or creed. I honor the American flag and what it symbolizes. And because I …
I’m proud to announce “About Faces,” https://aboutfacesfargo.wordpress.com/ a new community project featuring images and stories of people who illustrate — we hope — the extraordinary in our ordinary, work-a-day lives. “About Faces” is a collection of portraits — in images and words — about people who make Fargo-Moorhead and the surrounding communities what they have been, what they are and what they can be. Here …
Please join me in saying NRA? No Way! and using #NRANoWay on social media. My Facebook friend, Steven G. Johnk, better known as Spider, created this graphic (on top of this blog). It’s right in line with what many of the survivors of the Parkland, Fla., school shooting are saying. Here are the comments of three Marjory Stoneman Douglas High …
The National Rifle Association’s key talking point rolled out as predictably as the sad reality that another mass shooting will happen soon in a U.S. school. “This is not the time to discuss gun control.” Let’s add just one word to the key talking point: This is not the ONLY time to discuss gun control. In fact, it’s EXACTLY the …
It’s been 26 years and 29 days since I wrote this piece. I was fresh out of North Dakota State University and in my first “real” job — editor of The Courant, the “Official Newspaper of Bottineau County, N.D.” I think of it every year about this time. I’ve always thought it’s not half-bad. I hope you do, too. For the …
I grew up in Medora, N.D. It was the 1970s, about the time a previous oil boom was running full-tilt in the western part of the state. The air was still fresh and clean, whitetails walked down an empty Main Street in the early evenings this time of year, and the 100 or so souls who called the place home …
Invaluable. That’s the Real Answer, Mr. Commissioner; A Fusion of Smiles, Languages And Colors No matter how you slice it, surgery is no fun. More to the point, it’s no fun no matter how they need to slice you. Painful stuff. Recovery is no walk in the park, either. After nearly eight days in recovery at Sanford, I can say this with …
Pour, Water, Tamp, Mix, Tamp… His name is Dennis. Five years of living 60 or 70 yards away, just over the backyard fence, I really should’ve known that already. I stood on his front step, shaking his hand and explaining that the posts that should’ve been holding up a couple of sections of our shared fence had rotted out. He’d …
And, Please, No More “Republican Lite” Byron Dorgan once got my ass kicked. That’s not literally true, of course. I can’t remember the name of the kid who actually trounced me in a back alley half a block from Jamestown (N.D.) Junior High when I was in the seventh grade, but it did start with our future senator. It was …
Two Events Bringing Together Friends, Neighbors & Civic Leaders So you say you want to protect the environment. That you’re for clean air, safe water and a livable planet. Mr./Ms. Sustainability… that’s you. Well, then. You need to be at a couple of events coming up in Fargo, N.D., this month. They’re great opportunities to put your environmental action mind/feet where …
As POTUS 45 rolls back environmental protections, climate change is sickening the Earth, us and the species we depend on The rusty patched bumble bee probably would have preferred to remain in obscurity, humming from one flowering plant to another, pollinating away and quietly contributing to the estimated $3 billion in pollination services bees and other insects provide in the …
Call Your Senators — Oppose Efforts to Repeal the BLM Methane Flaring Rule The splash of light in the center of North America at night, seen from space, shines like the opposite of a black eye. It doesn’t mark a big city or conglomeration of cities like the other light spots across the continent. In fact, it’s coming from where there …
Chance has worked in the garden all his life. “It’s a good garden and a healthy one,” he says when asked about a flailing U.S. economy. “Its trees are healthy and so are its shrubs and flowers … I agree with the President: everything in it will grow strong in due course.” His interviewer, a late-night TV talk show host, …
As the North Dakota Senate considers a two-year moratorium on wind energy development, a definitive answer remains elusive A group that calls itself North Dakotans for Comprehensive Energy Solutions has a campaign under way in North Dakota that suggests it is an advocate for more wind energy development in the state. More wind power development in North Dakota? Sign me …
Safe drinking water. Clean air. Wild lands that maintain plant and animal diversity. The very health of the planet itself. They were all here, in great shape and in abundance before any of us arrived. In my judgment, they should all be here when we turn things over to our children and grandchildren. If you agree, start paying attention. Not …
The recent gag orders from the White House — I have but two words: Freakin’. Brilliant. The Don said he’d create jobs, right? Well, let me tell you, the pingpong ball, tennis ball, cord and handkerchief manufacturers of the good ol’ USA are tip-toein’ across their shop floors today. The latest numbers I found at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management …
Sometimes things don’t work out the way you want / I don’t know if I’m gonna laugh or cry … / But listen, I’ll tell you / I’m glad to be alive and kickin’ / I’m glad to hear my heart’s still tickin’ / So pass me the wine, baby, and let’s make some love. — The Rolling Stones, “Pass …
The great ones have nicknames. Peyton Manning was and forever will be “The Sheriff.” Brett Favre is “The Gunslinger.” And despite the drubbing the Pittsburgh Steelers took at the hands of the Philadelphia Eagles this past weekend, “Big Ben” Roethlisberger rightfully commands the respect of defenses across the league. So here’s a thought: Carson Wentz, “The Dakota Kid.” After only …
The press is in a pickle. By their own guidelines for what constitutes news, journalists have to report on Donald Trump, aka The Donald, or, as I like to think of him, Big D. But every time they do, he gets more free exposure for his message. Even so, the presumptive Republican nominee for president of the United States has been beating up …
The front porch of our little, off-white stucco house in Medora, N.D., was a magical place to be on hot, muggy summer evenings. I’d sit on Dad’s lap while he rocked in his chair, watching heat lightning writhe across the buttes that form a high wall on one side of town. The clouds seemed to gather on the ridges and the sparks would …
No one has called me “Pops” to my face yet, but it’s only a matter of time. A young colleague recently showed me a graphic meant to accompany a client’s social media post. It dealt with clean water in underdeveloped areas. Prominently featured was a blue bus. I shook my head. “Makes me think of Jim Morrison,” I said, assuming the underlying narcotic …