Melvin Schramm

Carrington

As the battle over gun control, school shootings and school students marching in protest of school shootings, maybe it’s time for the real Christians to assert them selves into the conversations. I’ll give some examples.

A number of years ago, the school in my town took down the 10 Commandments, they banned prayer in school, the Christmas program changed to a winter concert. The Superintendent and School Board no longer let a Christian Men’s group the “Gideons”, distribute Bibles and testaments to school children near school property.

Then they put locks on all the doors that are locked while school is in session, plus if you go to the school, you have to ring a bell and they will take your picture to see who you are. The point I am making is that when they took God out of school they let Satan have free run of the place.

When God created man, he instilled in him the desire to worship a higher being. We all know about God and Satan, but it is common knowledge that even uneducated natives or nomads believe in some kind of a God, whether it is a Sun God, Rain God or what ever. That is why when the school cast out God they let Satan fill in the vacuum.

That is why the strong Christian families have to step up and fight for the Christian principles that determine the quality of life that we need in our communities. Where God’s influence is present there is contentment and compassion, when the Devil is in control there is violence and destruction.

Another troubling occurrence is the expanding use of drugs and alcohol. North Dakota was just ranked #1 in drunkenness! If you watched the high school basketball tournaments you saw the ads about alcohol and drug addiction.

1 out of 7 North Dakota people are listed as addicts. Conservatively, North Dakota has about 630,000 people. That means we have 90,000 people addicted to drugs or alcohol! We have the highest percentage of alcohol related traffic deaths in the nation. We have too many people trying to get medical and recreational marijuana legalized. What do you think the addiction rate will be if we legalize marijuana? How many of those addicts will be your relatives?

Another thing going on in North Dakota that is very troubling is the abuse of the judicial system by our judges and attorneys. Another example: The ex-Sheriff of Wells County, Judge Daniel Narum, and the attorneys involved with the plea bargaining for ex-Sheriff Johnny Lawson. As stated in the Minot Daily News on Feb. 24, 2018, Lawson, who was facing two felony and three misdemeanor charges since his arrest on May 30, 2017, pleaded guilty as part of a plea agreement.

The agreement included the dismissal of two felonies and one misdemeanor, leaving the former sheriff to face sentencing for only two remaining misdemeanors. Kathleen Murray, Wells County states attorney, told the court that her office concurred with the plea agreement. The plea agreement that Judge Narum agreed to called for a 30 day sentence, with credit for five days served at the time of his arrest. Lawson would have to serve another 25 days to fulfill his sentence.

Lawson’s attorney, Peter Welte of the Vogel Law Firm, Grand Forks, expressed disappointment at the consideration of any jail sentence imposed on his client. He cited concerns for Lawson’s safety should he be housed with other prisoners and suggested “home monitoring”

What a sad song! This man was hired to up hold the law in Wells County, instead he was no different than any other common criminal. Why do we have laws that can be so blatantly disrespected by the judicial system. Narum scheduled sentencing for Lawson on March 26, 2018. If they sentence him to 25 days and home monitoring, I would add that they have him do 300 hours of community service (12 hours x 25 equal 300), the other 12 hours a day he could serve at home watching TV but the community service hours would be served by him picking up trash along Highway 52 from Fessenden to Minot and other roads in Wells county. That would give him some time to think about where his life is going.

As far as Judge Narum and States Attorney Murray, every day they go to work, they can remember that the majority of residents of Wells county and around North Dakota are very disgusted with their poor end results in this case.