Tag: The Way It Is

Cramer Still Stickin’ It to Fargo, Cass County Citizens

Sen.-Elect Kevin Cramer should pay the bills for President Trump’s two campaign visits to Fargo. In North Dakota, we pay our own way. It’s the way it is. And it’s the right thing to do.

Pay Your Campaign Bills, Senator-Elect. It’s the Right Thing to Do.

One of Sen. Heidi Heitkamp’s last acts of her term once again reveals a person of character and class.

The headline in the Nov. 15, 2018 edition of The Forum, Fargo, N.D., says it all: “Heitkamp campaign picking up all costs for Biden visit.” She’s paying all the bills for hosting former Vice President Joe Biden’s visit to Fargo to campaign on her behalf.

And why wouldn’t she? Doesn’t sound like that big a deal, really. Right?

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When Gun Violence Hits Close to Home

When your 11-year-old is imploring you for answers about gun violence, when she’s afraid to go to school because of a shooting threat, things get real in a hurry. We need reasonable – and absolutely necessary – gun violence laws. Right now.

The Innocence We Enjoyed is a Fairy Tale to Our Children

“Why do we have to live this way?”

The evening before, a Thursday, one of our older kids received a snap from a friend who rides the bus that takes all three of our children to and from school. It said a middle schooler next to her had just muttered, “I’m going to shoot up that school tomorrow,” apparently referring to our 11-year-old’s school.

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You Can’t Judge a Bison by His Coat

We make judgements about people all the time without knowing much, if anything, about them.

We All Have Our Colors

The guy I roomed with for most of my first two years of college is one of the best.

Brian Johnson started as an architecture major, then became a mechanical engineering student at North Dakota State University from 1986 to 1991. We shared rooms, first in Stockbridge (a.k.a., “Jockbridge”), then in University Village. 

You’d be hard pressed to meet a kinder, more laid-back or unassuming person. Highly intelligent, too. Today he’s the vice president of global engineering for a Twin Cities firm.

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I Am a Patriotic American

It’s BECAUSE I am a patriotic American that I…

Don’t Try to Tell Me Otherwise

I am a patriotic American.

BECAUSE I AM – 

I believe life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are unalienable rights. For everyone.

I believe all people are created equal, regardless of country of origin or citizenship, race, gender, color or creed.

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Pour, Water, Tamp, Mix, Tamp…

Good Fences Make Good Neighbors

170427_Dennis-Fence

His name is Dennis.

Five years of living 60 or 70 yards away, just over the backyard fence, I really should’ve known that already.

I stood on his front step, shaking his hand and explaining that the posts that should’ve been holding up a couple of sections of our shared fence had rotted out. He’d noticed it, too. 

Yeah, we should replace them.

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N.D. Dem-NPL, It’s Time to Stand Up

And, Please, No More “Republican Lite”

170420_NDDemNPL_StandUp

Byron Dorgan once got my ass kicked.

That’s not literally true, of course. I can’t remember the name of the kid who actually trounced me in a back alley half a block from Jamestown Junior High when I was in the 7th grade, but it did start with our future senator.

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Pops References

No one has called me “Pops” to my face yet, but it’s only a matter of time.

161016_Pops-Bus

A young colleague recently showed me a graphic meant to accompany a client’s social media post. It dealt with clean water in underdeveloped areas. Prominently featured was a blue bus. I shook my head. “Makes me think of Jim Morrison,” I said, assuming the underlying narcotic use suggestion was obvious. “We don’t wanna go there.”

I could have been speaking Swahili. Blank look. “Who?”

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Carson Wentz – “The Dakota Kid”?

The great ones have nicknames.

Peyton Manning was and forever will be “The Sheriff.” Brett Favre is “The Gunslinger.” And despite the drubbing the Pittsburgh Steelers took at the hands of the Philadelphia Eagles this past weekend, “Big Ben” Roethlisberger rightfully commands the respect of defenses across the National Football League.

So here’s a thought….

The Dakota Kid-2The great ones have nicknames.

Peyton Manning was and forever will be “The Sheriff.” Brett Favre is “The Gunslinger.” And despite the drubbing the Pittsburgh Steelers took at the hands of the Philadelphia Eagles this past weekend, “Big Ben” Roethlisberger rightfully commands the respect of defenses across the National Football League.

So here’s a thought:

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Sacred Things

She died on Palm Sunday. I think that would have made her happy, as she drew her last breaths, knowing that she was going to die on a significant day on the church calendar. I held her hand all that morning. Now I hold the bean stone.

I’ve been carrying a rock around in my pocket for a couple of months.

The smooth, bean-shaped stone is about an inch and a half long, half an inch wide and five sixteenths of an inch thick. It’s smooth, like a worry stone. Not perfectly smooth, like the kind you’d find in a gift shop. But smooth in a natural way, with some imperfections and slight ridges that make you know it’s real.

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Is SAG Sagging in Its Duty?

I’m still trying to come to terms with the loss of Philip Seymour Hoffman, the most recent victim of self-inflicted drug overdose in Hollywood. The man was an amazing talent.

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