‘What would Jesus do?’

Jessica Arneson

Fargo

As a nation “built on Christian values,” the current influx of immigrant children fleeing their homelands in hopes of finding safety begs the question, “What would Jesus do?” Would he speak of them like vermin, scare them with guns, barbed wire, and drones to keep them “down where they belong?” Capture the ones who dare enter “His” land and jail them until hand delivering them back to the gangs who jump them, rape them, murder them?

Or would he wrap them in His love and protection, listening to them, weeping with them, and wiping their tears as he feeds them, bandages them, clothes them, keeps them safe and goes after their oppressors? Whenever man draws a line between people, Jesus has been found on the side of the suffering. Not into Jesus? OK. What would Superman do? Or Batman? Or Spidey? I’m pretty sure they would protect the children and go after the real bad guys. The question on my mind is in regards to those who have the power in the situation we are currently in. “What will Sen. John Hoeven do? … Sen. Heidi Heitkamp? … Rep. Kevin Cramer?”

The story

of the fox and the $20

M.L. Berg

Minot

In keeping with the frontier atmosphere of the article about Fort Stevenson that appeared in the News for Friday, July 11, there is an anecdote from the 1870s that is still recalled by McLean County residents to this day.

Joseph Taylor was an early McLean County resident, having arrived at Painted Woods in 1869. The issue of the “Bismarck Weekly Tribune” for Wednesday, Dec. 6, 1876, featured this item: “J.T. is in luck. He shot a fox near Painted Woods. The fox had a $20 bill in his mouth.”

In an article Taylor published in 1904, he gave this explanation for this odd event: “After the surprise of the incident was over, I took the back trail of the animal to discover, if possible, the place where the money had been picked up and, after about 900 yards trailing over the snow, came to a place where the fox had been pawing through the frozen crust. After digging away the snow, I picked up about $120, which, upon enquiry, proved to have been lost by a wagon boss of a train from the Indian agency at Fort Berthold the previous autumn, being on his way to Bismarck for supplies. About 200 yards from the spot where the money was found, the train was moving along, when the boss, preparing for a smoke of his pipe, fished in his side pockets for matches and tobacco, when his roll of money was accidentally pulled out with these articles and, unknown to him, carried off by a violent gust of wind and deposited in a depression.”

I was told of this incident by a resident of Washburn about six years ago, and I’m sure he had never heard of Taylor or of his account of the fox and the $20 bill. It’s surprising how memories of frontier times can still be transmitted by current residents of former frontier communities. The article written by Taylor is entitled, “At the Painted Woods,” and it appeared in his book “Beavers – Their Ways” published by him in Washburn.

City Council overreaching again

Nikki Paulsen

Minot

An upcoming David and Goliath property rights case for the City of Minot sounds almost tailor-made for national publicity on Breitbart TV. The overreaching nanny-state Minot City Council recently passed an excessively restrictive zoning law to outlaw a disabled American veteran from continuing to park his own vehicles next to his own house on his own private property.

I am sure there is at least one hotshot young lawyer out there that can use the publicity.

PSC did right by the Sandpiper

Ken Sletten

Souris

Given the huge jump in N.D. oil production, I want to applaud all the current members of the North Dakota Public Service Commission for approving construction of the N.D. portion of the urgently-needed Enbridge Sandpiper Pipeline Project.

I testified at a PSC hearing on the Sandpiper Pipeline Project, and commend Commissioner Julie Fedorchak for leading the comprehensive but efficient approval process; and for her focus on the need to expand our vital pipeline infrastructure. Modern, monitored pipelines like the Sandpiper Pipeline Project are by far the best and safest way to get Bakken crude oil to U.S. consumers, and reduce our risky dependence on foreign sources. Plus, not building the Sandpiper Pipeline Project is projected to result in 4,300 more oil trucks on N.D. roads every day (or the equivalent in additional railroad tank cars), seriously impeding transport of N.D. ag products.

Now, while current members of the PSC deserve kudos for their work, we can only hope that the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission will be as effective in approving their part of the Sandpiper Pipeline Project, so it can start serving the needs of the entire USA.

Drowning

in alphabet soup?

Duane Stahl

Valley City

A nation has probably never drowned in alphabet soup, but it might with the ever-increasing “free” trade agreements.

Such agreements are hardly “free” with their non-elected bodies with unconstitutional sovereignty-draining grants of lawmaking powers. And they haven’t yielded increased U.S. production, more exports, or high-paying jobs.

In 1993, NAFTA started our downward spiral of moving manufacturing and jobs to other countries. Then came GATT – which begat the WTO with authority to override our country’s decisions.

NAFTA begat CAFTA with Central America. There also were GATS, TRIP and TRIMS, by the way.

Those have worked so well – for some, I guess – that we’re now negotiating TTP in the Pacific and TTIP with the European Union.

Now the most important initials for U.S. – Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) – or “fast track.” This president (and predecessors) want Congress to have very limited debate and then quick for/against votes on agreements, no amendments even considered.

Were our founding fathers wrong to have the Constitution stipulate ALL legislative powers be in Congress – or assign CONGRESS the power to regulate commerce with nations? (After all, we certainly can trust whatever a president decides, right?)

No wonder even liberals like Democrat Senators Max Baucus, Sherrod Brown and Elizabeth Warren and progressive House Democrats are joining with Tea Party Republicans against ceding more power to the president by giving him TPA.

Tell senators and representatives (Heidi Heitkamp, John Hoeven and Kevin Cramer in N.D.) to oppose TPA and do their jobs. (Type “Senator —–” or “Representative ——” to email them.)

Otherwise we may yet drown in alphabet soup.

Bottomless pit with no sense

William James Moore

Parsons, Kan.

Defined, a bottomless pit is “something that drains all one’s energy or resources,” and common sense is “good sense and sound judgment in practical matters.” Our federal government has become a bottomless pit – critically lacking in common sense.

Roughly speaking, our national debt is $17.5 trillion and growing – that’s $55,000 per citizen – $151,000 per taxpayer. Our U.S. unfunded liabilities, $121.9 trillion – that’s over $1 million per taxpayer (for Social Security, prescription drugs, and Medicare). From a population of 318 million – we have a workforce of 146 million, 116 million taxpayers, 9.7 million “officially unemployed, 18.7 million “actually” unemployed, 45 million food stamp recipients, 47 million without health insurance, 11 million disabled, 47 million live in poverty, 1.7 million homeless (including 122,000 unaccompanied minors), 1 in 6 live on incomes at risk for hunger, 14 million American children rely on food banks, and “food insecurity” exists in every county in the U.S. Our military is being downsized, Social Security solvency is doubtful, our country’s infrastructure is deteriorating, the middle-class is being destroyed, and a struggle is under way to find funds to cover healthcare obligations to our military veterans. In this age of high-tech global communications, rapidly expanding Internet access, and social-media frenzy – none of this should be “news.”

Faced with above mentioned burdens, common sense suggests that no “responsible” government would ever create, tolerate, or let stand, laws or other circumstances that would flood our country with untold thousands of illegal immigrants. An added load to our already over-stretched country that will entail untold “billions of dollars” for food, clothing, housing, transportation, medical care, education, attorneys’ fees, etc. While long-standing hardships and concerns of legal citizens go unaddressed.

Regardless of political affiliation, not only do “we the people” have ownership in our government’s critical “lack of good sense and sound judgment in practical matters” – we and future generations will also have ownership in the potentially devastating consequences.