Smoke Signals

Smokers took yet another hit this week when the Fargo Park District passed a ban on smoking in and around playground areas.

It’s a massive victory.

Anti-smoking folks claim yet another victory while the smokers one more time got the wind knocked out of them.

It’s a pattern that is more than slightly disconcerting to those whose personal choices are dramatically affected by others. Their fears are coming true.

The mere notion that majority rule can steamroll its way over a statistically significant portion of the population is an interesting study in human nature and behavior.

It should be no surprise, after all, when our bullyish action around the world as a people trickles down to the local level and results in bullyish influence exerted on one group of people by another.

Smokers have been growing visible targets for some time now. We’ve gone full circle with smoking, transforming ‘chic’ into ‘scum.’ Some smokers express honest anger about the squelching of their rights.

Quite frankly, we can hardly blame them sometimes. Soon after they lost the right to smoke in bars, they were told they could not even light up on the swingset in the park. They question how the majority can stuff morals down their throats, somewhat like they themselves have been accused of doing with second hand smoke.

Maybe they should just get bright red cigarette-burn brands on their foreheads, making life much simpler for the masses. There could be all kinds of benefits to that, if you think about it.

More seriously, though, we disagree with the unnecessarily aggressive attack on smoker rights. Before we extract more flesh, perhaps we can kick back, catch our collective breath, and quit picking on others if only for a moment.

All of us.

An Online Date

We’ve been working a lot on getting our online version of the High Plains Reader running seamlessly and simply.
It gets closer each week.

If you haven’t checked our web presence out lately, perhaps you should. It’s http://hpr1.com. We are beginning to post content there that is exclusive to the web. On the other hand, virtually everything in our printed edition makes it to the web.

HPR’s archives are growing significantly online. If you want to check out cover stories, or columns or features, it’s easier than ever before.

Our calendar is evolving dramatically. Our goal is to have the most user-friendly, accurate data base of entertainment-related events in the Valley. The biggest change is that we can input into the future now because we’ve built a huge database of venue information into our system. While you don’t see that, it makes the job easier for whoever is inputting events information.

HPR is your most reliable, longest-running go-to source serving the entire Red River Valley.

Please join with us to help us do even better. Send us your event information. Email it to .

You Are Invited

It might be a good idea for you to set aside Friday, Sept. 19 to join HPR and its extended family for a fun-filled 14th birthday bash.

Events begin at the Plains Art Museum and conclude at The Aquarium.

Some of the finest musicians in the region will be performing, including Brenda Weiler, who recently moved back to Fargo, and The Palest Blue’s Jon Hartman, who recently moved away from Fargo, at the Plains.

Carl Clinton and the Great Divide lead off the party at the Aquarium, followed by a guaranteed crescendo-escalated-into-chaos-climax performance by Stupid Birthday and South Moorhead Scratch Dungeon DJs, including two coming from the Cities just for this party.

Other local music will fill the evening out. We promise you’ll be entertained by extraordinary talent.

Being loyal HPR-ites, you deserve it. So come one and all to the bash Sept. 19.