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Many citizens should be impeached

Citizenship is a public office in which electors are blessed with certain rights and charged with civic responsibilities. Unfortunately, more people demand their rights than their responsibilities so the state suffers from a chronic deficiency in participation and judgment. Government has hit bottom in public trust, now standing at one-third the level that prevailed in the Eisenhower-Kennedy years. Citizens spend more time bad-mouthing the government than appreciating it. This attitude is affecting the ability of the government to function. In spite of all the glitches in our ...

School system changes are an investment in ourselves

Creating a second high school in the Minot Public School District has been a topic of discussion for a number of years. In December, the community will have the opportunity to make a second high school become reality. The Minot Public School District recently announced that it will hold a special election on Dec. 7 to ask voters to approve a bond issue to fund a new 9-12 high school, renovate Magic City Campus into a 9-12 facility, and turn Central Campus from a school for grades 9-10 into Minot’s third middle school for grades 6-8. The special election will be held at the Minot ...

Christian churches defy God over COVID

Arrogance. Haughty arrogance. Self-righteous arrogance. Sinful arrogance. Killer arrogance. Regrettably, the time has come for someone knowledgeable in Scripture to respond to the instructions of the New Testament messengers who charged church parishioners with challenging the malfeasance of church leaders. Many churches, most prominently Evangelical, have defied the attempt of society to stop the COVID-delta pandemic from killing more people with mask and distance mandates. From the pulpits, they have preached defiance against the proposals made by expert health ...

Open letter to North Dakota Democrats

Oorth Dakota has become a one-party state with little hope for the Democratic Party to rise out of the ashes like a phoenix and magically create a competitive two-party system. Republicans have indisputable control of state government, holding the governorship and over two-thirds of both houses of the legislature. Some would say the Democratic Party ought to subcontract its job to some organization that has an agenda, like the PTA, if we have PTAs anymore. 30% for President With Democratic candidates racking up only 30% of the presidential vote, there is little light at the ...

2022 budget takes major step forward

The 2022 City of Minot budget took a major step forward this week when the City Council approved the budget on first reading. The budget approved by Council is approximately $175.271 million, a reduction of nearly two mills from the initial budget presented to Council by City Manager Harold Stewart in early August. Several Council members expressed a desire to keep the City’s mill levy as flat as possible for 2022, and I think this budget accomplishes that. The mill levy for 2021 was 121.29; the mill levy in the approved 2022 budget is 121.69. The removal of nearly two mills ...

Labor Day forgotten in North Dakota

We just celebrated Labor Day. No, we didn’t. Labor was forgotten while most of us only noticed that we had a holiday and spent it lounging, fishing, swimming, sunning, camping, playing – everything but recognizing the reason for the holiday. One thing for sure, we took no time to honor labor. Modern unions first appeared in the 1870s when working people had to fight, starve and die to organize. The idea of unions was repulsive to the growing corporate community when no fringe benefits were provided, 10 year-old kids worked for pennies, and 12-hour days were common. The road ...