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Local news is good for business

It’s no secret that recent years have been tough on small businesses and on newspapers. A bipartisan bill, the “Community News & Small Business Support Act,” that has been introduced in Congress would offer relief to both newspapers and local businesses. For too many newspapers, help can’t come soon enough. Economic challenges have resulted in too many communities seeing their local newspapers being forced to lay off staff, cut back on publication days or – worse yet – close. On average, two newspapers are closing each week. That hurts local businesses and residents in the ...

Homeland group wants destination status

"This here emergency meeting of the Homeland Security Committee will come to order,” Chairman Ork Dorken demanded as he pounded an old Coke bottle on his table – a makeshift hallow core door. The raucous crowd of 12 electors quickly seated themselves under the biggest community hall window, where a 16-mile wind was sweeping through and tamping down 93 degrees of stifling heat. “We have only one thing on our agenda – the third-year report of the Committee on Destination City,” Ork explained. “This is the third year Orville Jordan will report – with some progress we ...

History says bigotry is institutionalized

CRT (Critical Race Theory) is the latest acronym to be added to the American vocabulary by state legislatures that lack the courage to admit the streak of bigotry that permeates the phrase. The North Dakota legislature has fallen in line and teachers are not allowed to talk freely about African-American history.  Of course, the law doesn’t specify the targets but it is no secret that white supremacists and Christian-Nationalists are aiming primarily at the African-American community.  To conceal their bigotry, CRT is written generally about the idea that racism is ...

The power of pixie sticks

The Fourth of July came and went, and fortunately we all were spared a sunburn on what proved to be cloudy and windswept. While the lake goers fled to their favorite body of water, we found ourselves moseying across the bridge on Burdick for the first annual Minot Shrine Club parade. I grew up in a farm depot in the southwest corner, so it goes without saying this wasn’t my first rodeo, but our toddler November was amped to get a chance to see cool cars, firetrucks, and all the usual trappings that go along with the proverbial parade. My wife decked the kid out in pigtails and face ...

Can God Bless America?

e have just passed the greatest annual event in civil religion when we all – even some atheists – joined the chorus “God Bless America” to honor the United States, believing somehow that God is still dealing with countries even though the New Testament made faith a personal rather than a national matter. So by what authority can we order God to bless America when we are not sure of the status of nations in His theology? Indirectly, this idea is based on the assumption that America is worth God’s blessing.  A Secular Nation The religious right is convinced that the ...

Should we worry about nuclear bomb?

The transfer of nuclear weapons from Russia to Belarus has stirred comment about the possibility of a nuclear war. Since invading the Ukraine, Putin has said repeatedly that Russia would use nuclear weapons if it became necessary. NATO said that it did not see any need to adjust its nuclear strategy, although the military alliance casts Putin’s rhetoric as “dangerous and irresponsible.” Putin Talks Tough Defense analyst Richard Weitz, a foreign policy wonk in Washington, noted that there was tough talk by the Russians about the risk of nuclear war if NATO gave Patriot ...