Opinion

Not Holding Our Breath

2009-11-12T18:51:25+00:00

Fargo’s Parking Commission was not very interested in the message some 600 of you sent them in petitions opposing the new 90-minute Saturday parking ordinance on Broadway downtown.

Yes, they heard from citizens at their regular early morning meeting in October. They heard from folks who organized the petition effort. At the end of the meeting they decided to carry the discussion over to the first Friday in November.

Come November 6, again at 7:45 a.m., the Parking Commission met and, wouldn’t you know it, the 90-minute Broadway enforcement topic was not even on the agenda.

At the end of the meeting, the commission asked if there were other issues to be discussed. Well, yes, in fact there were.

Long story short, we are disappointed the Parking Commission effectively skirted this issue. While they say and may even believe they are open to public feedback, the truth is that feedback falls on deaf ears.

In October, Parking Commissioners wanted to question the wording on the petitions passed around and also printed in HPR. Their contention was that it was misleading, in that it referred to Saturday 90-minute enforcement downtown, as opposed to spelling out that enforcement would be on Broadway only.

Our contention is that the Parking Commission’s decision was based on a very flawed survey of just over 50 downtown businesses, and that their ultimate decision was based on a very small number of businesses who actually said they wanted further parking enforcement downtown on weekends. They suggested that we publish a new, more “accurate” survey. We offered to comply with this request, given that they put a moratorium on Saturday ticketing while we collected more data. No takers.

We gave them our interpretations of their survey that resulted in the new ticketing procedures on Saturdays on Broadway. Ok, so?

We asked them to please listen to the 600 folks who signed petitions protesting the new Saturday. They said they appreciate hearing from people and will weigh this feedback in their decision-making process. Or something like that.

We got nowhere. The horses were already out of the barn. The law was already in place. We were more than a day late and a dollar short.

The Parking Commission let the people down on this one. They fixed a problem that did not exist, and in fact, likely helped create other new problems, like a plugging up of avenues on Saturdays, while successfully helping to empty out Broadway on a new weekend shopping day, to the detriment of most businesses.

From what we have gathered, one downtown business got this ball rolling over supposed parking problems on Broadway on Saturdays. The city’s survey was then interpreted to implement that change, even though only a small percentage of those businesses surveyed actually wanted Saturday enforcement—with more opposing such enforcement, in fact. The 90-minute ticketing sailed though the Parking Commission and was assured passage when placed on the City Commission’s consent agenda.

We’d like to see a genuine respect for the voice of 600-plus people. We don’t see it in the Parking Commission, and that is disappointing.

While we wish the City Commission would reverse this action, we are not holding our breath.

Meanwhile, with Sunday business activity on the rise in Downtown Fargo, we wonder how long before the Parking Commission applies the same logic and extends enforcement through Sundays. Might as well keep the ball rolling. What’s 15 bucks here and 15 bucks there?

Thumbs down to the Parking Commission for this one.

HPR Growth

We would like to toot our own horn for a minute here. Beginning with this issue, we will have surpassed the 10,000 mark of HPRs distributed in Fargo-Moorhead-West Fargo each and every week.

Exceeding the 10,000 threshold means we’ve increased our local presence by nearly 50 percent in less than half a year in the local market. You won’t read that in the local daily paper, but you will read it here in HPR.

Thanks to our readers, advertisers and extended family for this continued growth in particularly challenging times.

Questions and comments: jas@hpr1.com

Saddle Sores and Second-Hand Smoke

2009-11-12T04:58:35+00:00

It’s always fascinating to wonder about the unintended consequences of political decisions and natural occurrences in the world. I am currently reading “Napoleon’s Hemorrhoids: And Other Small Events That Changed History,” by Phil Mason, an amateur historian who supposedly has the world’s largest collections of weird happenings, incidents and events. It’s great fun –- and often lowers the high mucky-mucks to our level –- or below.

The title is derived from the fact that Napoleon Bonaparte was a very active supreme commander on the battlefield, rushing from one cavalry charge or fire fight to another, directing and commanding his army in making pincer moves and defensive stands. Napoleon spent much of his life making war to acquire land or defending France from numerous invasions. But a battle in 1815 fought against the British really proved to be his “Waterloo.” It seems that Napoleon had spent too much time in the saddle dashing from one spot to the next in preparing his battle plan and had a severe case of piles or hemorrhoids.

On the morning of the decisive day – minus the bliss of Preparation H – Napoleon was unable to climb into the saddle to guide his troops. As a matter of fact, Napoleon was so saddle-sore, his orders were somewhat muddled and were sent out to his field commanders at 11:20 in the morning, much too late to take advantage of the morning sunlight in the eyes of his British attackers. Because of the lateness of the attack, the Duke of Wellington was able to call on Prussian reinforcements late in the day, and they saved the day for Wellington. But the possibility exists that Napoleon, free of the hemorrhoidal squirms and pain that so concentrates the mind, might have used his often superior battlefield strategies to win the day.

Remember the Song Line “Little Things Mean a Lot?”

The world may have been sheltered from the art of Pablo Picasso had his uncle not been a cigar smoker. I am such a poor artist I have never been able to make the judgment that Picasso progressed much beyond a third grade art lesson. But when his drawings and paintings bring tens of millions of dollars on the international art market, it is convincing that someone out there likes him.

Picasso was stillborn – not breathing at birth – so in a panic the nurses attempted to revive him through spanking his feet and butt among other physical treatments. In desperation, his uncle blew cigar smoke in Pablo’s face and he immediately started to cough, spit and breathe. The founder of cubism, child-like scrawls, spilt watercolors and weird looking subjects lived to be 92. I have to find out if he smoked cigars to the end. Who says second-hand smoke kills?

Mason’s book is filled with this style of anecdote, but being a political junkie, I must bring up one about Richard Nixon. When Nixon was a young struggling lawyer at 27 he and a small group of businessmen in Whittier, Calif., put their money together and started to make and sell frozen orange juice. As there are a few billion oranges in California, with a national market available to enterprising entrepreneurs, Nixon’s friends made him president of the company because they felt he was driven to make lots of money. The business failed – and the rest is history.

This story reminds me of another Republican president, even one possessing an MBA, who failed in business –- several times. I think one of the amazing things about George W. Bush is that he couldn’t find any oil to sell in all of Texas, one of the leading oil-producing states. I remember when Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone’s campaign manager told the Democratic National Committee that he could defeat Bush with just one campaign ad makeup. He would put Bush in the center of a huge Texas oil field with a simple caption: “Here is a man who couldn’t find a drop of oil in the whole state of Texas.” The Committee turned him down, but I think he was right.

What if Ronald Reagan Had Been a Card-Carrying Member of the Communist Party?

Being a socialist-commy-pinko liberal with some libertarian family values, I must pick on the legacy of that great conservative president Ronald Reagan, who never balanced a federal budget and ran up our national debt by about 2.5 trillion. It seems that when Reagan was a 27-year-old actor in Hollywood in 1938 he discovered that many of his close friends were members of the Los Angeles section of the Communist Party. Howard Fast, who later became a very famous Hollywood scriptwriter, revealed that Reagan was very “passionate” about joining the group. Poor Ronnie was rejected. From conversations with sources, Mason determined that the party figured he “was a feather-brain… a flake who couldn’t be trusted with a political opinion for more than 20 minutes.”

Reagan survived as a “B” movie actor because he wasn’t on the blacklist during the anti-communist campaigns of the late 1940s and 1950s. The unintended consequences of his rejection by commies? Can you imagine Reagan winning the California governorship and the presidency with a record of being a member of the American Communist Party? He not only ended up being a mediocre but busy actor in his day, he actually played president on TV – complete with 3X5 cards and script.

I have never understood the anti-intellectual attraction of conservative Republicans for Reagan. He was gregarious, told a good story, could partially memorize a political script, had a great smile, but here was a president who put everything on credit cards for future generations to pay, created out-of-control budget deficits, shifted billions of dollars to the already rich through tax cuts for his buddies, didn’t understand the Constitution at all by starting the Iran-Contra scandal, and started the greed mode of the Bernie Maddoff crowd.

Reagan’s official biographer Edmund Morris, perhaps the most reliable of the many writers who have written about Reagan, wrote that the guy with the big smile and happy laughter was actually remote and distant if you really got to know him. Morris sided with Washington lawyer and power broker Clark Clifford who said that Reagan was an “amiable dunce.”

Could Fidel Ever Hit a Baseball and Other Stories

Back in the early 1950s when Corky and I lived in Washington, D.C. I followed the Washington Senators baseball team – later the Minnesota Twins – when cheapskate Clark Griffith wore out his welcome in our national capital. Clark always looked for baseball talent from Latin America because the players were cheaper than those from Kansas City, Modesto, or Maxbass. It was one of the funny stories circulating in Washington that Griffith was often seen down on the docks with pockets stuffed with baseball contracts waiting to sign anyone between 15 and 45 carrying a baseball glove or carrying a bat coming off a boat.

Mason reveals in his book that a 21-year-old Cuban by the name of Fidel Castro had a tryout with the Senators in 1947 but was not signed. No one seems to know too much about Fidel’s baseball potential, but I bet he wasn’t signed because of an argument over the size of a possible contract. Fidel was a member of a rather wealthy Cuban family, so he understood the value of a dollar. I think it’s hilarious that Fidel might have been a Hall of Fame player in the U.S. because he was considered a fine athlete in his day. Instead, he has bedeviled and made life politically miserable for our last ten presidents.

“Landslide” Lyndon Baines Johnson

Texas politics was once accurately described by an Oklahoma Indian named Will Rogers when he mused that whiskey bottles in the backroom of the counting office put more men into office than any ballot count. In Lyndon Johnson’s first run for the U.S. Senate he was behind by 87 votes when the last precinct from the tiny border town of Alice came in. Lo and behold, Lyndon had garnered 202 of the total of 203 votes sent in by the precinct chairman. There was another oddity. All of the people had voted in the same order as they appeared on the tax rolls of the town!

There was also another story about “Landslide” in his run for the House in his very first elective try. Lyndon won by just a few votes when, in what was later called “The Night of the Living Dead Voters” in Texas, it was later determined that many dead from one cemetery voted and put “Landslide” in office for the first time. A resident later conceded that he had observed Lyndon and a “friend” late at night reading and copying the names of “residents” off tombstones with the aid of a flashlight. That cemetery had one of the best voting records in the county. Such practices must have encouraged one of the Udalls from that political family to say he wanted to be buried in Chicago so he could “remain politically active.” That remark was made after Jack Kennedy defeated Richard Nixon in 1960 with the help of a few Chicago cemeteries.

How Can the Starving Poor Own a Car? Could “Family Values” Have Saved Jack Kennedy?

John Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath” has always been considered the best novel about the Great Depression ever written. When the book about the Joad family was made into a classic movie, Russian censors decided to approve its viewing in the entire Soviet Union because it portrayed the hard life experienced by the working class in a capitalist country. After the first few Russian showings it was quickly banned. It seems that poor Russian citizens were impressed by the fact that poor Midwest farmers seeking better lives in the fields of California owned their own cars. That was impossible in Joseph Stalin’s Russia.

Sometimes ignorance can compound the problems of unintended consequences. A Wisconsin newspaper editor – during the 1950s hysteria about Communist influence in the government charged by Wisconsin Senator Joe McCarthy – wanted to run a series about the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. He had reporters stand on the corners with petitions containing the very words of the Declaration, asking them to sign the petition if they wanted the “bill” to be passed by the Wisconsin Legislature. Of the first 112 approached to sign the petitions, 111 refused to sign them because the petitions contained “subversive” language!

Only after President Jack Kennedy’s assassination did we learn that he was a womanizer of the first rank. In Seymour Hersh’s 1997 exposé of Kennedy’s “private” life called “The Dark Side of Camelot,” he recalled that Kennedy had pulled a groin muscle in “muscular activity” with a female partner while on a quickie vacation in the late September of 1963. Presidential doctors ordered him to wear a stiff canvas-to-groin body brace that kept him rigidly upright. In that Kennedy always wore another back brace because of a football and war injury, he was virtually immovable. When he was shot in the neck in Dallas by Lee Harvey Oswald, those braces kept him from falling forward in the car. The second shot blew his brains out. The neck wound would not have been fatal and would have pushed his body violently forward. So if Kennedy had behaved himself….

Charles DeGaulle, president of France, led France after WW II during the Algerian War between 1954 and 1962. DeGaulle survived 31 known separate assassination attempts. He always traveled in an armored car. In one incident his car suffered 14 bullet holes caused by armor-piercing bullets. He was not hurt. In another incident his motorcade passed a vehicle that had one ton of explosives in it. The person who was supposed to detonate the bomb as he passed picked that time to go to a nearby bathroom. DeGaulle lived to the ripe age of 80, knowing that he had led a rather charmed life.

Questions and comments: raymond@loretel.net

Walls of Concrete Come Down in Germany; Walls of Ignorance Remain

2009-11-10T06:23:19+00:00

Far from being planned, November 9 might have been a colossal misunderstanding—and, quite literally, a media event.
- Robert Darnton, Berlin Journal, 1989-1990

I wish I could believe that the human impulses which give rise to the nightmares of totalitarianism were ones which Providence had allocated only to other peoples and to which the American people had been graciously left immune.
-George Kennan, Memoirs

A liberal friend of mine called this weekend to complain that right wingers were attempting to cover up their guilt for lying the U.S. into the hot war of Iraq by crediting Ronald Reagan with bringing down the Berlin Wall, and thus “winning” the Cold War.

Headlines quote East German-born Chancellor Angela Merkel as crediting Mikhail Gorbachev with doing the job. Others credit Polish leader Lech Walesa.
Naaaaahhhh.

The guy who did it was George Kennan, author of America’s bipartisan containment policy from 1944-1947.

Kennan had a lot of help from Republicans as well as Democrats, believe it or not. Also, despite some scary deviations [JFK (Cuba) and Reagan (Star Wars)], every President, from Democrat Truman to Republican George H. W. Bush adhered to the common sense notion that a full scale “hot” war with the Soviet Union was unacceptable to basic interests of the American people. Actually, erection of the wall in 1961 to stem the flight of young working people, showed that Kennan’s containment policy was working, long before internal contradictions of Soviet Empire brought it down.
Cold War stalemate between the U.S. and the Soviets allowed softer subversive forces, like the Lutheran Church in East Germany and the Catholic Church in Poland to work their way through prayer and music. These had as much effect, I think, as the more publicized, ghastly wars with China in Korea, Vietnam, and Afghanistan.

Music to Germans is a mighty wall busting language. I discovered this in seven trips to West and East Germany from 1960-1989, one of them for a year, from August, 1962-August, 1963 [Munich] as a student and Professor of German History.

My only weapons the first three times were a guitar, Bob Dylan and the Kingston Trio, quite effective in a West Germany which was still coming out of its Nazi dogma hangover, not unlike current tea baggers and birthers spouting totalitarian fantasies similar to those cooked up by Dr. Goebbels.

By day I visited the Modern History Institute, where archivists were compiling TV documentaries to let Germans know, for the first time in their own language, what their country had done between 1933-1945. As of 2002, Japan had yet to do this.

By night I was getting my beer free for singing American folk songs at a place named after German-American Henry Miller’s “Tropic of Cancer,” that wonderful, filthy, book Americans were not supposed to read in the 1930’s, that seems tame nowadays.

In February, 1963, I drove through East Germany from Munich to West Berlin, and then walked through “Checkpoint Charlie,” in order to photograph the Brandenburg Gate from close up in a then-desolate East Berlin. As a civilian American from Chicago, speaking German, I was a curiosity rather than a threat to the young East German border guards.
My own feelings were different. As I crossed in my car at Hof, Bavaria, I was among pine trees similar to where I grew up in the summers in northern Wisconsin. The landscape was the same in both West and East Germany, but as I instinctively slowed down to gape at an armed border guard, who lowered his rifle until I resumed speed, I felt an inner message that though the trees were the same, nothing else was.

I took the Helmstedt crossing on my way back to West Germany and picked up a young student hitchhiker in West Berlin. He was from Magdeburg in East Germany, and when we neared the outskirts of his city on the Elbe River, he asked me if it was OK to get out and take a picture.

I said “sure,” being young and dumb, and just too used to a free way of living to imagine that he might be engaged in some sort of spy work. I’ll never really know, but one thing is for sure. East Germany was a sieve long before the walls came down.

My other four trips were with German-American choruses from Chicago, where we sang in small towns all over West Germany. In September, 1989, we were forced to change hotels in the Rhineland city of Rastatt at the last minute. The Mayor collected us at City Hall to apologize and explain. Amidst our gifts of chocolate and champaign, we were told that East Germans in great numbers on “vacation visas” had entered West Germany through the Hungarian/Austrian border, had no intention of going back, and were being resettled in as many hotels as West Germany could find.

I remarked to my singing buddies, some of whom had left East Germany before the Wall went up, that “it’s all over but the shouting.” They agreed, but we had more important things to do,...like singing Schubert and Negro Spirituals. That sure beats dogma,...every time.

Questions and comments: cmcbarb@msn.com

Logo Failure

2009-11-05T22:53:06+00:00

Even though we have NDSU green and gold blood coursing through our veins, we are not without sentiment regarding the UND logo and mascot issue.

Long story short, North Dakotans have one last opportunity to raise the UND Sioux logo issue up out of a path destined for doom. That’s if North Dakotans want to.

That the UND Fighting Sioux mascot and logo is considered to be hostile has left our Native American and Immigrant communities at odds. That the logo and mascot have been used without the immediate blessing and support of the majority of Native peoples has necessitated change either in the logo and name itself, or a change in our use of it such that it truly honors our Indian heritage and peoples.

We know folks on both sides of this issue. Frankly, we cannot blame Native Americans who find our use of their heritage hostile and unacceptable. However, now we are at a point where we can redefine the logo and mascot’s use such that all parties are satisfied, where we can reinvent our terms of understandings for the Sioux name and images, where we can truly and honorably hammer out an agreement that represents a win for each side.

North Dakotans would appreciate such a resolve. North Dakotans would prefer some sort of continuance of the Sioux identity at UND, we believe. North Dakotans would expect a fair and reasonable settlement that assures voice and representation of Native peoples in the decision-making process from here on out.

Somewhere, somehow, we are expecting the clouds to open and the moment to happen and for someone to find a way to make peace with our Native American people who feel so strongly about this issue and who are not happy with its current use.

But we don’t see that happening.

What we do see is the same old over and over again. Stalemate. Miscommunication. A lack of empathy.

In our opinion, the UND Sioux name can truly be a keystone to genuine honor and respect, if we so desire. The name saved has more potential to catapult North Dakota into a better future than the name lost, we believe. A negotiated and satisfactory settlement protecting the UND Sioux name would spell victory for both sides, truly. The name lost into history will be accompanied by a deeper wedge than any of us want between native and immigrant peoples here in North Dakota.

Fighting for Indian rights is part of fighting for the Sioux name at UND. When and if that transformation is true and present in the hearts and minds of predominately white people representing the government’s side of the UND Sioux logo issue, then we have an opportunity to find common, higher ground and settlement.
Native Americans have more than enough reasons to suspect something less. Now we have opportunity to earn their trust. We hope that is the end result. Otherwise, we’ve failed.

Downtown Tips

Fargo rakes in more kudos for downtown all the time. A great place to live, work and play. Halloween, however, tipped the scales and confirmed our downtown’s place in the hearts of young people looking to go out and have fun.

Sure, Halloween this year fell on a Saturday night. What more could you ask? And on top of that, the bars extended their day by one full hour due to Daylight Savings Time kicking in at 2 a.m., moving the clocks back to 1, giving even more time to revel.

But the massive turnout said everything. Hundreds upon hundreds of people in costume, AND in character. There was a literal parade up and down Broadway. We can’t say we’ve ever seen anything like it.

We would also like to commend Fargo’s Finest for their entirely sensible and pleasant approach to what could have easily been a very chaotic night. Our guess, however, is that more folks than could be counted were in fact jealous of the impeccable law enforcement costumes walking in tandem in and out of the crowd all night long, only to find out they really were police and they really did look authentic in uniform.

Our downtown has reached its tipping point. It’s the place to be. It’s the place to have fun. It’s the hippest spot in all of North Dakota.
And the word is out.

Artist Reception

We’re inviting everyone, friends we have and friends to be, to Nichole’s for a very special artist reception, featuring HPR covers designed by HPR Publisher Raul Gomez and eminent local artists like: Willie Block, Ben Hamilton, Gabe Haney, Janeen Kobrinsky, Punchgut, Modern Man, Matt Mastrud, Wade Myszka, Jeff Nelson, Donnie Renner, Randy Schwartz, Sara Watson and Jesse Anderson. Raul will be there in person along with guests and various artists.

Nichole’s Fine Pastry, 13 8th St S, on Thursday, November 12 from 4 to 9 p.m. 701.232.6430

November Birthdays

Happy birthday to the following this month: Joel Heitkamp, Jamie Thorfinnson, Nicci Deconcine, Brett Bernath, Jo Grover, Shirley Johnson, Judith Feist, John Peterka, Don Faulkner, Tony Slavens, Sureshi Jayawardene Anaman, Aaron Skjerseth, Erin Ceynar, Kervin Wyatt, Louis Hamilton, Jim Gompf, Keith Elston, Mark Durcop, John Hanson, Laura Strand, Mary Strand, Jon Cossette, Octavio Gomez Jr., Heidi Echola, Dolly Stromstad, Erin Morgan, Roger Demers, Barbara Burgum, Terri Aldrich, Jeff Clary, Diane Minor, Liz Pearce, Fred Hagen, Alice Smette, Jeff Nelson, Jack Lubka, Jeff Pearson, Kathy Wentz, Brad Berger, Tama Smith, Larry Biri, Bob Kurkowski, Jason (Mobey) Moberg, Andrea Heldt, Darren Shaw, Linda Coates, Margo Evenson, Dawn Morgan, and Mark Gilbertson.

Questions and comments: jas@hpr1.com

Bible Bigots, Stadium Gods, And Vatican Vampires

2009-11-04T19:19:00+00:00

One thing about 21st century days, there’s hardly a dull moment. On Tuesday I was greeted with the story that Fargo’s First Lutheran Church is challenging the Evangelical Lutherans In America (ELCA) decisions made on participation of gays and gay ministers in governance and the pulpit. A resolution stating that the church “will not participate in the ordination of pastors and calling of pastors in same-gender-relationships” was passed unanimously by the 24-member church council.

Corky and I were members of First Lutheran for almost 30 years from the 1970s to almost 2000. We had no idea we were surrounded by Bible Bigots at the time because most churches and organizations practiced the universal “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy presently used by our military. It was always that “Hate the sin, love the sinner” crap, used by many churches to sweep bigotry and sex discrimination under the altar carpet.

I see that First Lutheran members set the stage for Pontopiddan Lutheran and Hope Lutheran in Fargo to follow them down the Bible Bigot path. So far Hawley and Moorhead Lutheran churches are just talking about it.

It is generally accepted that five to 10 percent of the world populace is gay. So just these three Fargo churches with 16,000 “souls” must have between 800 and 1,600 gays sitting in pews and joining all the straights in the Lord’s Prayer and that beloved hymn “All Creatures Of Our God And King.” That is, unless the gays have gotten sick of having their sin hated while being “loved” by the hypocrites.

Blaise Pascal, a 17th century philosopher and mathematician, had a practical view of religion. He believed that people should believe in God–-even if they didn’t (!)–-because if God exists, only believers will go to heaven. He wrote “If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing.” Then he cited a real truth: “Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.” (Witness the American and Muslim Talibans–and the rejections of the decision to allow gays in the ELCA ministry.)

It has to be coincidental that on the same day First Lutheran threw its red flag for the sex challenge, I got the Sojourners daily Bible passage (Romans 14:10-12): “Why do you pass judgment on your brother and sister? Or you, why do you despise your brother or sister? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. For it is written, ‘As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall give praise to God.’ So then each of us will be accountable to God.”

Along with this verse was a passage from the Book of Common Prayer that had some additional meaning: “God, see your children growing up in an unsteady and confusing world; give them strength to hold their faith in you, and to keep alive their joy in your creation. For peace, for reconciliation, for wholeness, for grace, for love–may these things characterize your children.”

To Add to “An Unsteady and Confusing World” We Have Discovered GRB 090423

On the same day Hope Lutheran nailed its anti-gay resolutions to the front doors of the ELCA offices, astronomers discovered a gamma-ray burst from an extremely violent explosion that blew up a star 13.1 billion light-years away from earth. When this explosion took place our universe was nine times smaller than it is now and was only 630 million years after the Big Bang. The astronomers said that the burst identified as GRB 090423 “is an invitation to unfetter our imaginations.” If we were near that burst and had survived we would have the chance to observe what has happened in our universe the last 13 billion years. When we have such exciting things happening in God’s universe, worrying about being ministered to by a gay pastor seems trivial, irrational, and pathetic.

Also on this day Spain was beginning the process of finally resurrecting one of its own heroes, the poet Federico Garcia Lorca, who at the age of 38, was killed by the Dictator Francisco Franco’s Fascists because he had joined the revolution against Franco–-and was gay. Two of his killers later bragged that they fired two bullets into his head “for being queer.” During my days as an undergraduate—and since—I have thoroughly enjoyed the poetry of Garcia Lorca because of its simplicity, power, and passion. His play “Blood Wedding” is a classic. The Spanish government wants to find his body in a mass grave where thousands of revolutionaries were killed so it can build a proper monument for him. As Spain’s leading literary figure of the 20th century, the government wants to “extend a strong rebuke to the enemies of liberty who killed him and to all their kind.” Actually the family wants his body to stay with the thousands of others who were killed. They feel that is a better common memorial.

A Remarkable Girl Handicapped by Bigotry

It was also revealed this week that 17-year-old Ceara Sturgis of Jackson, Mississippi will not have her graduation picture in her high school yearbook because, being gay, she had her picture taken in a tuxedo. Her mother Veronica Rodriguez has been fighting the school’s ruling for a year. She describes her daughter as “a perfect child, a straight-A student, star goalie on the soccer team, a trumpet player in the band and active in Students Against Drunk Driving. She just feels more comfortable in boy’s clothes. She’s not a troublemaker. She is gay. She wants to wear the tuxedo because that’s who she is. She’s not ashamed of that.”

Ceara will be attending Mississippi State University next fall. Should she be treated as a second-class citizen? Should she be denied appointments to the Navy Academy, West Point, or the Air Force Academy because she’s gay? According to certain Bible verses each one of us is checked out by God in our mother’s womb. If God were against gays, why did Ceara and millions of other gays pass God’s “perfect” and “no-fault” physical? Perhaps some Bible Bigots could answer this question.

A teenager who wore men’s clothes and known as “the Maid” transfixed a nation with her leadership. She was Joan of Arc, born of poor peasants at Domremy, France in 1421. Joan was illiterate but was skilled in sewing and spinning. At thirteen the church claimed she started to hear voices directing her to lead the French in their war against the English. After leading the French in several battles she was handed over to the English through treachery. She was tried in an ecclesiastical court by twenty-two “learned” religious judges. One of the reasons for her being found guilty was the fact she wore men’s clothes. While imprisoned she was kept in chains by her jailors. She was sentenced as a heretic, and was burned to death at the stake on May 30, 1431. She was canonized in 1920 by, oddly enough, Pope Benedict XV. Well, the Catholic Church burned her for several reasons, including wearing men’s clothing, so I suppose they have the right to make her a saint.

God and Satan, Battling for First Downs

In the same week that Lutheran gays were told they had to remain second-class citizens because God said so in 171 major translations of his word, high school cheerleaders in Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, who call themselves Warriors for Christ, were told by school authorities they had to stop using banners displaying Bible verses on the football field. The school district did not want to be sued by the American Civil Liberties Union.

I have been on 0-10 football teams and 10-0 teams. I suppose it would be handy to claim that God played a role in our wins and Satan played a role in our losses, but I think Voltaire was right when he said God was always on the side of the army with the most battalions. Am I cynical enough to believe that God could be on the sideline bench with the biggest offensive tackles and the fastest wide receivers? Some would say so. If God is in the stadiums, why do California atheists always seem to beat the crap out of University of Notre Dame religionists?

If these three churches maintain their position that gays cannot serve their churches in positions of leadership, I just might start to believe that Brett Favre was sent by the Holy Spirit to dash through spiritual banners held by Viking cheerleaders wearing purple and gold—burqas.

Seeking Fresh Blood Among the Spiritually Crippled Around the World

In this busy “religious” 21st century week Pope Benedict XVI sent an invitation to Anglicans , saying the Roman Catholic Church would gladly accept the bigots and pro-life fundamentalists who were opposed to the Anglican Church acceptance of gays in the ministry, women in the pulpit, and same-sex marriages. Like a Vatican vampire bat searching the earth for fresh blood, Benedict seems to be looking for anyone who can transfuse his rapidly declining church in both Europe and the United States. Example: Ireland had 160 Catholic priests die in 2007. Only nine replacements were ordained. Shouldn’t that be a message to the old inquisitor? The Anglicans are divided by the same sexual decisions the Lutherans are having a hissy fit over.

Although celibacy for priests is still the Vatican rule, Benedict has declared he will welcome married Anglican priests to his fold to serve in Catholic pulpits. Many Protestant church leaders were “shocked” by Benedict’s invite–-although it gave them an opportunity to keep the peace in their own church by dumping their sex bigots and women haters on the already overloaded Catholic Church. Benedict, known as the Vatican’s “Rottweiler” when he was head of the Congress of Doctrine of the Faith (Inquisition), has even enraged his nuns by questioning whether they are religious enough. What an attitude to have toward the women who are (or were) the absolute spine and servants of the church. When Pope John XXIII tried to open up the Catholic Church through the changes of Vatican II, women entered convents in droves. Not any more. The average age of nuns is now 70. And one wonders how the wife of an Anglican priest can love a husband who has such contempt for women he thinks them incapable of handling the routine chores of a priest–and then compounds his problem by joining Benedict in his anti-woman and anti-gay crusade!

A survey of why people leave churches indicates that the Catholic Church has had the greatest net loss due to religion switching. Six in ten former Catholics say they left the church because of dissatisfaction with teachings about abortion and homosexuality. Half cited teachings about birth control and its treatment of women. Evidently Benedict is trying to fill all these holes with people who could survive any Inquisition.

This is just a story but I think there is a lot of truth in it. A father who had been in a nursing home for decades and had seen many people die told his daughter he had never heard a dying person call for his father. The call was always for the mother. He added that calling out for the mother just seemed more natural. With Benedict’s attitude toward women, when he dies he might just call for his father. It’s also interesting that he headed up the same organization in the 21st century that came up with the plan to burn heretics such as St. Joan of d”Arc at the stake in the 13th and 14th centuries.

What Would Happen If We Taught a Composite of the 171 Major Translations of the Bible?

Having gone to catechism classes when I was a Roman Catholic boy and having listened to thousands of readings and sermons over the years I have never heard Numbers 31 from the pulpit or lectern. In Numbers 31 Moses instructed his men to kill all the little boys and non-virgin women, and to rape all the virgins after they had defeated the Midianites. I use this only to make the point that too often people use verses in a Bible to make a point while neglecting verses which might counter that point. The verse might be from a Bible that has been translated from many languages by hundreds of men. That’s what translations are all about. Hanging your hat on Bible verses when there is so much at stake would be like trusting your credit card company and banker to have only your interests in mind.

Questions and comments: raymond@loretel.net

Presidential Debates: Third Parties Silenced

2009-11-03T19:41:55+00:00

I feel it is very important to voice an issue that never sees the light of day in any major media publication. That issue is the presidential debates. 66 million people tuned into the 2nd presidential debate last fall. The League of Women Voters served as a genuinely nonpartisan presidential debate sponsor from 1976 until 1988, ensuring the inclusion of popular independent candidates and prohibiting major party campaigns from manipulating debate formats.

On October 23, 1988 the League of Women Voters submitted a press release. The opening sentence: “The League of Women Voters is withdrawing its sponsorship of the presidential debate scheduled for mid-October because the demands of the two campaign organizations would perpetrate a fraud on the American voter.” The same year, the two major political parties assumed control of organizing presidential debates through the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD).

The commission has been headed since its inception by former chairs of the Democratic National Committee and Republican National Committee (Frank Fahrenkopf and Paul Kirk). Any proponent of a just democracy should be questioning the CPD. The voice of any third party or independent voice has been completely silenced on a stage before 25-60 million potential voters, each debate. Since the two main parties seized control of the presidential debates, funding has been primarily sourced to multinational corporations with regulatory interests.

We are continually cheapening our democracy by silencing conservative and progressive voices alike, leaving voices of dissent to the two major parties in the dark. Historically, third parties have much precedence in the advancement of society in America, by introducing popular issues that were eventually co-opted by major parties. Such as: The abolition of slavery, women’s right to vote, child labor laws, public schools, direct election of senators, paid vacation, unemployment compensation, social security, and the formation of labor unions.

Excluded voices can’t break the two party gridlock. Since 2000, the CPD has required that candidates reach 15 percent in national polls to participate in the presidential debates. This criterion is the greatest obstacle to democratic presidential debates. The Seattle Times editorialized, “The 15 percent threshold suits the two parties. It unduly restricts the American people.” 76 percent of registered voters supported Ross Perot’s inclusion in the 1996 debates, and 64 percent wanted Ralph Nader and Pat Buchanan included in the 2000 presidential debates. They were excluded from the debates.

Six weeks before the 1998 gubernatorial election in Minnesota, The Star Tribune pegged Reform Party candidate Jesse Ventura at 10 percent in the polls. Three debates later, on October 20, he was at 21 percent. Remarkably, Ventura’s cash-strapped campaign had not yet aired a single television advertisement. On Election Day, Ventura captured 37 percent of the vote and became the governor of Minnesota. Governor Ventura explained his astounding victory, “I was allowed to debate. I proved that you could go from 10 percent to 37 percent and win if you’re allowed to debate. Rest assured these two parties don’t want to ever see that happen again.”

We must reform the debates as a catalyst towards a just democracy, which will free the voices of all political viewpoints. The logjam stifling all political issues is the presidential debates.“We’re not going to apologize for trying to influence political elections,” said Fahrenkopf.

“These are the guys,” author George Farah points out, “deciding who gets to participate in the most important political forums in the United States of America.”

Questions and comments: earthnsky17@yahoo.com

The Direction of the Conversation

2009-10-29T19:28:32+00:00

On October 22, Senator Kent Conrad told a reporter that the “direction of the conversation” in Washington is pointing towards a public option in the Senate’s version of the health care reform bill.

Four days later, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said an opt-out version of the public option would be included in the bill voted on by the full Senate. The opt-out means states can vote, through their legislatures, to remove themselves from the nationwide plan.

The real question is not whether the public option will pass the Senate (there are at least fifty votes for a public option), but whether enough Democratic senators will vote for cloture when Republicans inevitably filibuster the bill.

Yes, inevitably. Anyone who has followed the debate knows the Republicans are more interested in scoring political points at the expense of good policy than in actually accomplishing anything of value. They’re wasting their opposition status by whining about lies, like death panels and Communism, instead of promoting any of their own ideas. After the town hall shenanigans masquerading as political debates over the past summer, we were happy to see even bad ideas offered, like the co-op compromise offered by Senator Conrad.

The public option consistently receives support from the general American public. A recent Washington Post/ABC poll suggested nearly 60 percent of Americans support a public option.

A Research 2000 poll from the beginning of October also showed broad support for a public option at nearly 60 percent in favor. But the Research 2000 poll also had an interesting caveat.

Respondents to the poll from the Northwest, Midwest, and West all supported the public option at higher levels (72, 62, and 61 percent, respectively) than the South, which supported the public option at only 46 percent. This mirrors public opinion polls of President Barack Obama, who consistently ranks very highly everywhere but the South.

Should people in the southern states determine how North Dakota’s congressional delegation votes?

Absolutely not.

Regardless of whether Conrad supports the public option, at least he’s interested in reform and willing to offer ideas. Credit where credit is due: he’s been very straightforward about requiring any plan to come within certain budgetary restraints. Our budget hawk hasn’t changed colors, and it’s good to see Conrad promoting fiscal responsibility.

That said, will he vote for cloture on the GOP filibuster sure to face any health care reform bill, regardless of whether it contains a public option? A call to one of his spokesman revealed little. Sean Neary, one of Conrad’s press staffers, said they couldn’t speculate on how the senator will vote on a “hypothetical” filibuster.

The Opt-Out

The opt-out idea allows conservative states to get out, while the states most supportive of a public option (and also the states with the largest populations – California, New York, etc.) can enjoy the fruits of health care reform.

Opting-out also provides additional cover to conservative Democrats, who can vote with their party without incurring the wrath of conservative constituents. And yes, that previous sentence was directed towards our own delegation.

Of course, whether any state would opt-out is debatable. On one hand, the public option is socialist and will kill grandma or ration care or some other nonsense. On the other hand, sensible health care reform that works would be incredibly popular and lower costs for everyone, regardless of whether they had the public option or kept their current insurance policy.

When the insurance companies promised to raise rates should a public option pass, they may have sealed their own fate.

Reverse psychology aside, this bold and frankly idiotic move on the part of Big Insurance probably rankled more than a few politicians. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid may very well be leaning towards a public option because of the threat.

Don’t believe the insurance companies have a lot to lose if we require them to play fair? Why did their stocks go up when the public option’s demise seemed imminent over the past month?

Despite some free market worshippers who claim otherwise, fair play and honesty are American values we hold dear in North Dakota. We hold those values in much higher regard than a ruthless drive for profit above all else. When insurance companies consider victims of rape to have a pre-existing condition, something is inherently broken in our unusual patchwork of insurance coverage in America.

A public option would level the playing field and enable us all to make better choices. With the winds slowly shifting in its favor, the public option may still end up in the Senate bill. It’s up to Senator Conrad to determine which side of history he’ll be on.

Questions and comments: rmgustaf@gmail.com

Commentary on the Best-Selling, Least-Read Book in the History of the World

2009-10-28T18:47:52+00:00

Commentary on the Best-Selling, Least-Read Book in the History of the World (Certified by the Gallup Poll)

The Bible quotes have been flowing locally like the Red River over flood stage ever since the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) had their big assembly about sex, rampant genes and whose shoes were under the bed. At the same time we had the fascinating case of Caster Semenya, the South African girl-boy track star who possesses some of the parts of both sexes. I presume there must be a Biblical quote that solves all of his/her problem –- and maybe I could find it if I really tried.

But I got derailed from the search by the revelation, if I may use that word in a biblical sense, that European astronomers have found 32 new planets outside our solar system, making a total 0f 400 discovered so far. If these discoveries have anything to do with our religions and the Bible, please let me know.

I’m just agog over the facts. About 120 of the planets are considerably larger than our Earth. Six of the 32 recently discovered are several times larger than Earth, two being five times the size of Earth and one being five times larger than Jupiter. So far we have not had any messages from the 400 possibilities for life outside our solar system. Frankly, if I were out there on a planet which could observe Earth, I wouldn’t respond either.

There seems to be an awful lot of sex in the Bible – and some of it is just awful. I wonder if there is a Biblical expert out there who has come up with a figure of how much discussion of the benefits and drawbacks of the sex drive, or worrying about sex, or doing sex dominates Biblical pages.

God: The Owner, Publisher, Editor, Columnist and Beat Reporter

A local man recently outlined the thoughts of some Bible-thumpers with this rather definitive statement: “Like it or not, God placed every word in the Holy Bible for a reason. I believe the Bible to be the infallible, divinely inspired and only authoritatively written work of God. This means to me, the Bible is without error. I interpret scripture literally. To me, it is the Lord’s guidebook for my life. Although many men wrote the various books of the Bible, they were ordained of God to do so.”

I suppose it does make life simple if you can carry the books of the Bible around as if they are tablets of granite. I suppose God could supervise and play editor for the 171 major translations and the thousands of minor ones completed since the 14th century, but wouldn’t it have been easier if all men could have been “inspired” to understand every adjective and comma placement written by God in the first place?

The Old Testament was first written in Aramaic and Hebrew and the New Testament in Greek. These versions were translated into Latin in the 4th century and called the Latin Vulgate. This was the first Bible printed on the Gutenberg press in 1456, although some attempts to translate the Bible into English started in the 7th century. The first complete English translation was finished in 1382 under the leadership of John Wycliff. The Vatican was ticked by the attempt at English translations.

Complicating the interpretations of English Bibles is the fact that there are four major “languages” in English: Old (700-1066), Middle (1066-1500), Early Modern (1500-1800), and Modern Christian (1800-present). To complete my degree in English literature I was required to read Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales in Middle English. Try it some time. I think I “misinterpreted” a few words.

Can the Bible Be Without Error? Thousands of Translators Have Said “No!”

The King James Version of the Bible, the most reliable translation, was translated by 47 scholars utilizing what is described as the Byzantine family of manuscripts called Textus Receptus. Some people think the King James Bible is hard for the young to read because of the use of Elizabethan terms and grammar. There is a new King James Version completed in 1982 by 130 translators who “corrected” errors in translation. (I wonder if God was overwhelmed by the 130 experts correcting his work.)

The New American Bible translation was completed by 58 experts in 1971. The writers expressed the opinion that this was a more academic look at the Bible and is the most accurate translation. Over 100 translators worked on the New International Version, completing their work in 1978. Bible experts say this is the easiest to read. The Living Bible, basically for children, was finished in 1971 by James Taylor. It is an “easy” version of the King James so that young children can understand the Bible.

There are hundreds of other Bibles on the market, including the Dartmouth Bible. It’s described as “an abridgment of the King James Version, with aids to its understanding as history and literature, and as a source of religious experience.”

I have a copy of the Dartmouth because it was written by academics so it could be used by students of general courses, whether history, political science or literature. I also have a copy of The Guideposts Parallel Bible, which compares the four most popular translations in parallel columns. The four are The King James Version, The Modern Language Bible, The Living Bible and The Revised Standard Version. It is fascinating to see the difference among various interpretations of the Bible.

For those who think the Bible is “without error” and that it is infallible, there are many different versions to study. The Christian Right is now “interpreting” its own Bible, cleansing others of “liberal bias,” endorsing “free market principles” as parables, and giving advice to investors!

One critic did not hold back: “Dismayed by the fact that the Bible seems utterly to contradict their crazed, bigoted and preposterous ideology, U.S. conservatives come up with a clever response,: simply re-write the Bible…. Next up? The re-writing of logic. The re-writing of science… is in full swing. Man walked with the dinosaur! The Earth is only 3,000 years old!”

Phyllis Schafly’s son Scott is behind the Conservative Bible Project. He evidently learned bigotry, intolerance, and white supremacy from his mother. Remember when she was opposed to the Equal Rights Amendment for women? It is amusing that her son is working on a Bible when the discovery of the oldest hominid skeleton is making news.

At 4.4 million years old, Ardi (Ardipithecus ramidus) is 1.2 million years older than Lucy, the previous world record holder for our ancestors. Ardi was alive only 61.6 million years after the dinosaurs disappeared so she didn’t walk with them either. She was found with the parts of 36 of her fellow “missing links” between chimps and humans.

By the way , if you don’t want to spend a lot of time reading all of these Bibles, the Holman Christian Standard Light Speed Bible is designed to be read in 24 hours flat. You don’t have to be a speed reader!

Can One Accept Portions of the Bible While Rejecting Others?

The real enthusiastic Bible-thumpers say: “If you reject even one part of the Bible, you reject it in its entirety.” This answer has always bugged me. Corky and I have traveled extensively throughout the Bible Belt and we have never seen a big pile of rocks behind churches so the congregation could enforce Exodus and Leviticus.

It is curious that the Bible Belt leads the nation in divorces, hanky-panky and illegitimate children. Adultery requires stoning as does homosexuality.

Leviticus 20:10 (depending upon the Bible you’re using) says: “And the man that commiteth adultery with another man’s wife, even he… the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.” Is there something about “Thou shall not commit adultery” they don’t understand?

Evangelicals, particularly members of the Southern Baptist Convention, are concerned about all of the changes in Bible translations. As an example, the phrase “sons of God” was changed to “children of God” in The New International Version. “Brothers” was changed to “brothers and sisters.” God created “human beings” in his image instead of using dust to create “man.”

Well, what was Her real intention? What if He really liked “sons of God” and “brothers” instead of the religiously and politically correct versions endorsed by very important ministers and biblical experts and translators? Only He-She knows. In the 1984 edition of the NIV, Mary is described as being “with child.” In the latest TNIV she is “pregnant.”

Perhaps in the 1984 version Mary is “with child” because the child is walking with her. Translating accurately is a risky proposition, particularly when you have had others go through Hebrew, Aramaic, Latin and Old English translations. Heck, I’m basically just a troublemaker asking questions. One of our kids has me figured out. She gave me a placard with the statement: “It’s better to go fishing and think about God than to go to church and think about fishing.” At least it’s something to live by – but dying by it is another matter.

What Did God Know and When Did He-She Know It?

AP writer Richard Ostling wrote an article in the Tribune in August about a new religious movement called “open theism” which denies that He-She knows absolutely everything about absolutely everything, including the “total” future. Open theism poses two major questions according to Ostling: “Does God know everything? Does that knowledge include everything that will happen in the future?”

The literal interpreters would say that “classic” Christians (as opposed to liberal Christians) believe that God has foreknowledge of all future events besides knowing everything about the present and the past. The Southern Baptists worked very hard to come up with an all-inclusive statement: “God is all powerful and all knowing; and his perfect knowledge extends to all things, past, presentand future, including the future decisions of his free creatures.” Doesn’t leave too many openings, does it?

But the “open theists” look at Genesis 6:6 and say, “Wait a minute!” It reads: “And the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the Earth, and it grieved him to his heart.” If He-She was sorry and grieving, why did She-He fool around making man in the first place? I suppose this controversy will end up being a battle of the Bible verses colored by interpretations. People might be thinking: “There go those liberals again.” But a few evangelicals think there is something to this.

Open theists also examine Jeremiah 7:31 and ask: “If He-She didn’t even think about it, how can we say that She-He has perfect knowledge about the past, present and future?” In Jeremiah God sees children burned to death in pagan sacrifices and says: “I did not command, nor did it come to mind.” Sounds pretty fallible to me.

Ordinary Roman Catholics Are Getting Pretty Rambunctious

A recent Forum article about an abortion poll may also reveal there are a number of open theists in Catholic ranks. The survey shows Catholics view abortion much like the rest of the people in the country do.

A local spokesman said: “God has told us… that certain things are always and everywhere evil, including abortion.” A Catholic pro-lifer added: “Abortion isn’t a health issue in our opinion.”

A pregnant woman discovers at seven months that her fetus has no brain – and she doesn’t have a health issue? I guess a future-perfect God would have recognized her problem at conception and granted her a miscarriage. Some time ago I asked the local bishop in another column how he would counsel this woman. I never got an answer. I guess the bishop is an open theist.

Questions and comments: raymond@loretel.net

Medical Madness

2009-10-22T17:49:59+00:00

The U.S. Justice Department told federal prosecutors to back off their Bush-minded vendetta against medical marijuana users in sanctioned states on Monday. Prior to that, even though 14 states have legalized medical marijuana, state-licensed users/suppliers within those states were still vulnerable to prosecution from the DEA and federal agencies.

The practice of busting state-sanctioned users/suppliers stems from a 2005 U.S. Supreme Court decision under the Bush administration. The court case, Raich v. Gonzales set a precedent that federal mandate takes priority over state mandate when it comes to the handling of medical marijuana use.

Monday’s new developments will hopefully see an end to the prosecution of the sick (another testament to our ailing health care system) and provide them their due medicine. Whether or not the recreational use of marijuana should be allowed is not being questioned here. However, when a state votes democratically that they wish to allow the use of medical marijuana, it seems obvious to respect their wishes. These states came to a majority decision to allow such a practice, and while federal government may represent United States as a whole, they do not necessarily represent the beliefs of the individuals within those states (see electoral college for further examples).

The tyrannical reign of Bush the Second has come to an end, and in his place we have a sympathetic and logical leader. While a federal mandate still seems far-fetched, at least the staff of our newly acclaimed Commander-in-Chief has the decency to give states their due sovereignty.

14 states currently allow varying levels of use for medical marijuana:

-Alaska
-California
-Colorado
-Hawaii
-Maine
-Maryland
-Michigan
-Montana
-Nevada
-New Mexico
-Oregon
-Rhode Island
-Vermont
-Washington

Medical marijuana can have extremely helpful and practical uses. Cancer might be the most clear indicator of this. The fact is, medical marijuana may very well be the only substance that can truly quell the nauseating symptoms of chemotherapy sickness. Being well-nourished plays an important role in the recovery from most, if not all ailments, and medical marijuana can enable those in the depths of chemotherapy sickness to feel less nauseous, and most importantly, to eat.

I have personally seen what chemotherapy sickness looks like, perhaps more than most. And while “the munchies” may be fun to snicker at, it can be an invaluable side effect to millions in need. One in five Americans will experience skin cancer in some form or another… and that’s excluding the infinitesimal number of other types of cancers. When it happens to you, we’ll see how anti-medical marijuana you are. You may feel differently about it when the shoe is on your foot.

There is always the argument that pot can be addictive, but there remains no evidence to this day that marijuana can be physically addictive. It can induce a psychological addiction, but so can food. And look, over 2/3 of our population is overweight. Are we going to ban food? Any alleviation of physical distress is as, if not more vital to an individual undergoing chemo as food is to the average American.

Cancer is just one fair application of medical marijuana. Here are some others:

-HIV/AIDS
-anorexia nervosa
-multiple sclerosis
-epilepsy
-Alzheimer’s disease
-Crohn’s disease
-glaucoma
-cachexia
-hepatitis C
-amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

This new attitude put forth by the Justice Department is a monumental step toward an empathetic government. We salute the Obama administration in this endeavor, and while we may never see federal legislation to legalize medical marijuana during Obama’s presidential tenure, we would like to remind whoever does make it happen in the future that he/she rests on the shoulders of giants.

Students Took Downtown

The streets of Downtown Fargo were abuzz on Thursday as we celebrated HPR’s first “Downtown Student Orientation” event. It was a tremendous success. Over 40 Downtown businesses helped make this thing happen, and we fervently thank them for their participation. We would also like to thank Veronica Michael and her team of student organizers for all of their diligent work.

Some participating businesses fared better than others, but there seemed to be a direct correlation between businesses’ personal involvement and their success. As with anything in life, you reap what you sow. Those who put the greatest effort into making a great venue for the evening were rewarded accordingly with eager participants.

The HoDo was definitely a highlight of the night. The Upfront Troupe presented a full-on vaudevillian variety show. The music was nothing short of astounding as it underlined the acts of the night. They had stand-up comedy, tango dancing of the highest caliber, hula hoop dancing, beat poetry and everything in between. Again, the music was phenomenal, and it only accentuated the unforgettable theatrics.

Salon Why? hosted a Halloween-themed dance party with eyeball jungle juice for adults and live dance music by DJs dI:Sh, Star IV and Joyride. It must have been quite an experience to get a hair cut that night.

Newly-dubbed music venue The Drunken Noodle was in full force with the bluegrass experience of the Johnson Family Band. While bluegrass and Asian-style noodles might sound like an odd mix, we suggest you try it sometime… very rewarding.

Amanda Standalone (who you can read about in this week’s cover story) played Sammy’s Pizza with style, Cody Conner and Pat Lenertz made their presence known at Vintner’s, Below Radar was dishing out fine free chili, and the list goes on….

At the end of the night, the mob of students that filled the Black Building atrium was enormous. The prize packages given out were plump with goodies, and the night with good times. Wrap it all up with music by The Fillers and you have yourself one memorable evening. Thanks to everyone who made the event possible - musicians, students, business owners and everyone in between.

We’re now in the process of examining the event and finding ways to improve on it. If you have any thoughts or suggestions, send us your feedback. We’re eager to hear your input.

And Our Nomination Is…

As long as folks are going to be looking for an interim President at NDSU to replace Joe Chapman who resigns Jan. 2, there is one name we’d like to throw into the hat, for lots of good reasons.

HPR nominates Doug Burgum for the post. He’s a perfect fit. He not only has blood running green and gold, but he knows every NDSU cheer imaginable. Having served as NDSU Student Body President and later Senior Vice President of Microsoft, North Dakota would benefit immeasurably should we land developer and philanthropist Doug Burgum, if only on an interim basis.

It would be a joy to see him work his magic on his favorite institution in his favorite state.

Questions and comments: zach@hpr1.com

No Bull–The Noble Nobel Peace Prize Belongs to Obama

2009-10-21T17:01:24+00:00

When I heard that President Barack Obama had won the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009, my first reaction brought up the image of two cowboys in old Tombstone strolling down the boardwalks to the saloon. When spying a cowboy riding his horse in the street, one of the walkers raises two fingers in a “V” sign. One cowboy asks the other: “Why did you give him the victory sign?” The other said, “That wasn’t the victory sign. One big finger was for him and the other one was for his horse.”

I thought immediately that the Nobel prize was for anybody but George W. Bush. The Nobel Committee had captured the mood of the world by giving a world-wide, industrial-sized finger to Lurch, a final goodbye to him and his cowboy policies. Obama had been president about three weeks when nominations were due for the 2009 prize. But we must remember that the Nobel Committee examines what all of the nominees, some 205, have done up to about October. Then the decision is made.

Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, specifically stated in his 1895 will that the prize should go to the person who has contributed most to the development of peace in the previous year. He added: “The award should go to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between the nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies, and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.” Since the prize was established in 1901, 17 institutions and 84 individuals have been awarded the prize. Among the 84 individuals are statesmen, humanitarians, lawyers, champions of human rights, and religious leaders.

There has been a great “to-do” about the fact that Mahatma Gandhi was never awarded the prize for his work in India and the world. He was one of the top people considered for the award in 1948—until he was assassinated. The Norwegian selection committee of five, elected by the Norwegian Parliament, then indicated there would be no award in 1948 “because there was no suitable living candidate.”

Obama’s Critics Had a Field Day in Their Ignorance and Stupidity

Naturally the anti-Obama “birthers,” Tea Party patriots, right-wing talkshow hosts, and the Republicans went IED-berserk over his award. Trash Limbo said: “Our president is a laughingstock” and is “the darling of European leftist elites.” The editor of Rupert Murdoch’s Weekly Standard, Bill Kristol (Dan Quayle’s brain), stated on the Republican network Fox News that Obama should have turned down the prize because it was awarded by an “anti-American committee.”

The Chairman of the Republican National Committee Michael Steele tried to use the selection within hours as a fundraiser with this line: “Democrats and their international leftist allies (Trash would have loved this) want America made subservient to the agenda of global redistribution and control.” He wrote that “up to a $1,000 from each partisan” would help to redistribute money to Republican control. Even the Taliban, Hamas and President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela agreed that Obama didn’t deserve the award.

Of course, the Cheneys will never go away. Liz Cheney evidently spoke for Daddy and Mommy when she said that Obama’s prize was an absolute “farce” and that Obama “should send the mother of a fallen American soldier to accept the prize on behalf of the U.S. military.” I wonder if Dick Cheney is mad because Obama beat him out of the award. Those Cheneys are tough. Liz described Obama as a “radical, callow, golf-playing appeaser whose foreign policy will make us weaker.” There’s no doubt that when Dick Cheney was co-president in Lurch’s first term it was his foreign policies that eventually made our position weak in the world. The world is simply giving the Bush administration a huge finger so we can move on.

A few Republicans paid tribute to Obama. Senator John McCain said: “Americans are always pleased when their president is recognized by something on this order.” Henry Kissinger, the 1973 recipient, offered his congratulations and said “the award, beyond the tribute to your person, honors America and the cause of peace.” Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina added: “If he can successfully turn around Afghanistan, deter Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, I will build a bookcase for him to put it in.”

What Has Obama Done to Earn the Award?

In a unanimous decision made by three liberals and two conservatives elected to the Nobel Committee, the five agreed on the reasons for the award to Obama. His main commendation states: “ For his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between people.” George W. Bush and Dick Cheney routinely violated the Geneva Convention rules and numerous treaties on treatment of prisoners.

Abu Ghraib, Gitmo, and Bagram in Afghanistan were constant reminders to the world that the U.S. had gone rogue among law-abiding nations. We had descended into lawlessness by using rendition flights and “black sites” in countries that used torture as national policy. Lurch’s statement that “We don’t torture” was an outright lie.

The Nobel Committee noted the following Obama policies and pledges in making the award:

(1) London, April 2: “We are committed to growth and job creation…. Together, we must put an end to the bubble-and-bust economy that has stood in the way of sustained growth and enabled abusive risk-taking that endangers our prosperity.”

(2) Strasbourg, France, April 4: “The United States has recommitted itself to a clear and focused goal – to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat Al-Queda in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and to prevent their return to either country in the future.”

(3) Prague, April 5: “Today, I state clearly and with conviction America’s commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons.”

(4) Ankara, April 6: “The United States strongly supports the goals of two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security. That is a goal ... shared by people of goodwill around the world. That is a goal I will actively pursue.”

(5) Baghdad, April 7: “We have committed ourselves to a strategy that ensures an orderly, responsible transition from U.S. and coalition security forces to Iraqi security forces… the drawdown that will take place will ultimately result in the removal of all U.S. troops by 2011.”

(6) Cairo, June 4 (Muslim relations) : “So long as our relationship is defined by our differences, we will empower those who sow hatred rather than peace, those who promote conflict rather than the cooperation that can help achieve justice and prosperity. And this cycle of suspicion and discord must end.”

(7) Moscow, July 7: “I have called for a ‘reset’ between the United States and Russia…. It must be a sustained effort among the American and Russian people to identify mutual interests, and expand dialogue and cooperation that can pave the way to progress.”

(8) Italy, July 9 (on climate change): “In the past the U.S. has sometimes fallen short of meeting our responsibilities…. Those days are over. One of my highest priorities as president is to drive a clean-energy transformation of our economy.”

(9) Iran, Sept. 25: “We have offered Iran a clear path toward greater international integration if it lives up to its obligations, and that offer stands. But the Iranian government must now demonstrate through deeds its peaceful intentions or be held accountable.”

In addition to the above policies, Obama has increased diplomatic contact with Cuba, something that ten other presidents have failed to do (It has always been my contention that if we had backed Fidel Castro in the beginning instead of the dictator Fulgencio Batista, Cuba would now be our 51st state!). Lurch always wanted to put anti-missiles in Poland and the Czech Republic to allegedly protect us from Iranian missiles. Russia objected to this placing of our missiles in its backyard. Obama has cancelled this program and relations with Russia have improved.

There’s no doubt that Europe welcomed the election of Obama. The Nobel Committee chastised Lurch by praising Obama: “Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position… dialogue and negotiations are preferred… the U.S.A. is now playing a more constructive role.” Take another finger, George.

Perhaps We Should All Get a Chance to Read Our Obituaries Before We Kick the Bucket

We have the Nobel Peace Prize and the other Nobel prizes in economics, medicine, literature, physics, and chemistry. We wouldn’t have any Nobel prizes if Alfred had not had an opportunity to read his own obituary. Stunned by the emphasis on the destructive power of dynamite which he had invented, Nobel immediately established the Nobel Peace Prize to counteract the publicity from his fortune created by dynamite.

In his will Nobel outlined the philosophy and the processes for the awards. In any mention of the Peace Prize he always noted that it be given “to the person who, during the preceding year, shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations….” Although he was a Swedish inventor and industrialist, he decreed that the Peace Prize be handled by the Norwegian government and presented to the winner in Oslo because Sweden was “too militaristic.” The prize money is based on the amount of interest earned on the principal. Each winner this year will receive $1.4 million.

Besides his interest in explosives, Nobel also created an armaments company out of an iron company he purchased. World War II vets will remember the Bofors 40 mm. multiple-barreled anti-aircraft guns that were employed on aircraft carriers and larger ships.

Nominations, Selections – and Controversies

Each year the Nobel Committee invites “qualified” people to submit nominations for the Peace Prize. By Norwegian statute, information relating to nominations, considerations, or investigations cannot be revealed for 50 years. When the nominations for 1939 were exposed in 1989, people were fascinated by the fact that Adolf Hitler had been nominated for the Peace Prize by Erik Brandt, a member of the Swedish Parliament! Brandt did withdraw the nomination after a few days. Joseph Stalin and Benito Mussolini were also nominated but neither made the final cut.

I thought it was interesting that the most disputed awards, according to various Nobel committees, were given to Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Shimon Peres, Yitzhak Rabin, Yasser Arafat, Le Duc Tho (North Vietnam), Henry Kissinger, Mikhail Gorbachev, Jimmy Carter — and Barak Obama. The award to Henry Kissinger and his opponent Duc Tho for negotiating the end of the Vietnam War resulted in the resignation of two committee members. Among notables who did not win the Peace Prize are Pope John Paul II, Dorothy Day, and Eleanore Roosevelt. Franklin Delano didn’t make it either.

I do get a kick out of the Obama haters who claim he isn’t qualified for the award because he hasn’t solved the Israel-Palestine conflict, the Iran march to nuclear weapons, the North Korean nuclear problem, hasn’t brought peace to a defeated Iraq and Afghanistan, and hasn’t convinced the Muslims to lay off. Hell, folks, give him until the end of his first year at least!

Questions and comments: raymond@loretel.net