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This is not a column

I knew going in that my initial draft for this column was going to be a tough sell. I had already hoed this row more than once in the last year and had rewritten the thing four or five times after my wife read through a draft and commented that I “went a little hard in the paint.” So, I took some time softening it where it was too strident and taking a weed whacker to the overwrought word count. Believe it or not, I wasn’t even a little upset when I got the word it wouldn’t be running, and I needed to take another stab at a blank page. Not even an ounce of me was indignant if ...

Ignorance costs more than education

Ignorance costs more than education. This point has been made over and over, yet we treat education as though it was just another governmental function. It isn’t. It’s the only opportunity that can provide a stepping stone for all of the dreams of North Dakota children. The media are carrying all kinds of concerns about the impact of ignorance on a democracy. We seem to have gotten along with a mediocre system in spite of the warnings from civil leaders and educators. While many school districts may be content with “average,” average won’t be enough in a crisis arising ...

US celebrates racial justice, equality

Juneteenth commemorates the emancipation of enslaved African Americans in the United States. On June 19, 1865, Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas – home, at the time, to 250,000 enslaved Black people – and announced that the Civil War was over, slavery had ended, and Black people everywhere were free. The raising of the Juneteenth flag is a symbol of solidarity and pride among Black Americans. The flag consists of a star representing freedom; a burst representing a “new beginning;” an arc representing a “new horizon;” and set in the colors of red, white and blue ...

The Power Elite, their enemy and Kelly Armstrong

Did you know that the bank JP Morgan agreed to a settlement recently with the victims of Jeffrey Epstein to pay them $290 million? The bank apparently chose to avoid a very ugly and public accounting in court for their business dealings with the convicted sex offender during a discovery process that would churn up facts and internal documents that show JP Morgan executives were aware of Epstein’s guilty plea and other dubious activities after his conviction. It’s a costly settlement but the cost of the facts being enumerated in court would be even greater, including one JP ...

Here’s why our government doesn’t respond

Even though we are a democracy, our government was designed to defy any democratic impulses that could sweep through society. After listening to campaigns full of promises, the people get fired up for action and then nothing much happens. Disappointed, they curse the incumbent and go searching for another Pied Piper with better promises. But those promises are equally useless. The Founding Fathers stuck us with a system of government that has barely kept the United States afloat for two centuries. Preventing Good As I have often repeated, Alexander Hamilton put his ...

What is freedom? What is taking away freedom?

The annoyance of inappropriate things being posted to our Facebook page got us thinking. What is freedom, and what is taking away freedom? Again, we’re going to use our pie analogy to tie this all together. Imagine freedom as a nice, steaming apple pie. You have different slices of all the wonderful freedoms that we enjoy as Americans. Freedom of speech is, clearly, a very important freedom or slice of the pie. On our Facebook page, we allow commenting. Ugh, sometimes it is a headache. If we introduced a rule for posting to social media, rule number one would be: put yourself in ...