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Compassion entails supporting Somali friends

Letters to the Editor

Interfaith Alliance of North Dakota Board members: Marty Toepke-Floyd, Jamestown David Myers, Moorhead Fowzia Adde, Fargo Barry Nelson, Fargo Gretchen Deeg, Bismarck Every major religious tradition calls us to walk in the ways of love and compassion. This is not always an easy path, but it is a sacred path of wholeness, health, communal wellbeing, and faithfulness. It requires firmly declaring the deep value of every human being, when some of our leaders are quick to guide us toward hate and fear. It requires us to welcome the stranger who may look or speak differently than ...

Endangered Species Act offers safety net

Letters to the Editor

Lisa Finley DeVille, Mandaree Recent actions taken by the Trump Administration that weaken the Endangered Species Act should concern every one of us who depends on clean water, healthy land, and the survival of the wildlife we share this planet with. In the past year, the administration has moved quickly to undo long-standing protections that were put in place to keep species from disappearing and to ensure their habitats remain intact. They brought back the “God Squad,” a federal committee that can override endangered species protections when industry wants it. They reversed ...

They’re coming for your credit card

National Columnists

In a scene that perfectly captures the strangeness of American politics today, President Donald Trump, a billionaire and self-styled champion of American business was all smiles during an Oval Office visit from Zohran Mamdani, the democratic socialist and mayor-elect of New York City. For months, the two men traded the harshest of insults. Mamdani was a “communist” and “radical left lunatic”; Trump a “fascist” and “despot.” Yet with New York’s mayoral election over and cameras clicking, the insults were on hold. The men praised each other as “rational” and ...

US has tools to contain China, preserve global order

National Columnists

The United States is confronting an existential threat — but not the kind defined by ships on the horizon or missiles in the air. The danger instead stems from a waning sense of national purpose and a growing doubt about America’s global role. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the emerging geopolitical alignment linking China, Russia and Iran. This threat does not imply that China is preparing a direct attack on the United States. Rather, it reflects what will happen as America retreats from the world stage. Russia will expand its influence throughout Eastern Europe. China will ...

Minn. fraud scandal should not have happened

National Columnists

Minnesota is now facing one of the largest documented government service fraud scandals in United States history. Under Gov. Tim Walz’s evidently unwatchful eye, federal prosecutors have estimated that approximately $1 billion in taxpayer funds have been siphoned from multiple state- and federally funded social service programs over the last five years. As of this writing, 87 individuals have been charged in connection with the scheme, with 61 convictions already secured and more charges continuing to be filed against these fraudsters. The bulk of the fraud scheme centers around two ...

Girls’ wrestling is fastest-growing sport

National Columnists

When Ben Fallon was growing up in Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania, all he ever wanted to do was play football. Fallon was in fourth grade, and in Western Pennsylvania, pretty much every boy wants to play football. However, his parents had some strong feelings about that sport. Wrestling was a sport in which he competed during middle school, high school and college. It was a passion for the sport he never really lost because, as he says, it shaped his character and his adult life. When he and his wife, Corrine, got married and started having children, Fallon always believed he might ...