Culture

​Our history is our strength

January 11th, 2017

Dr. Ashley Baggett is a professor at NDSU. She teaches history, philosophy and religious studies. She will be leading a panel discussion on the women’s movements of the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s at the Radisson this coming Saturday. The panel is part of an oral history project completed last fall by the students in her Women in American History class. The students interviewed women living in the Fargo area who grew up in the ‘50s, ‘60s, and ‘70s.

Dr. Baggett was kind enough to…

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The GSA initiative: help needed!

January 11th, 2017

The GSA Initiative is looking for teachers, counsellors, principals, parents, and/or students to be part of a project designed to research, create, and implement Gender Sexuality Alliances in schools within our state.

To refresh, a few months ago we did an article on Gender Sexuality Alliances: they are LGBTQ+-focused groups within the K-12 school setting, run either by guidance counselors or students. These groups are essential for helping to alleviate the impact of a hostile learning…

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​VIP Room: the ghost in the basement

January 11th, 2017

On the corner of the 600 block of Main Avenue, across the street from the historic site of the North Pacific Depot, lies a building scorned by the slights of time. The five-story building on Main Avenue houses more than just the residents of the apartments within, as it is also home to various businesses, creating a beating heart of business and commerce in a building that has long existed to thrive as such.

There are rumors that exist of another presence that lingers just beyond the…

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​Exhibit at Rourke Museum unpacks personal war stories

December 21st, 2016

photo by Ginny Pick

Project Unpack: Telling Stories, Creating Community is wrapping up its one-year program with a retrospective exhibit at the Rourke Art Museum. Project Unpack is funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) as a project to initiate dialogues in the Fargo-Moorhead and North Dakota communities about the legacies of American wars. It is a collaborative project between NDSU, North Dakota Veterans Affairs, and multiple community partners.

According to Dr.…

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​Let’s talk: dating someone who is transgender

December 21st, 2016

In the last few years, dating sites like OkCupid and Tinder have included the ability to identify as transgender, presumably to better represent the reality that we live in a gender-expansive world.

These days it is self-evident that there are more relationship types than straight, white, heterosexual couples composed of masculine men who seek feminine women, and that our preferences for partners can be multifaceted and varied. So, let’s take a second to examine some concepts that…

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​Is there interest in Google?

December 21st, 2016

Last month there were 1.6 billion unique monthly visitors to the Google web site. Most of us geeks use Google many times a day. Anyone with a computer uses the site. It is the most popular site on the planet.

So what is this site all about? I can't tell you everything. My editor only gives me so much space. Here are a few things you might like:

Searching - If you need a part for your dishwasher and you have the part number, type it into the Google search bar.

Doing some research? - Collect…

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Transgender history, part 2

December 14th, 2016

Last week, I brought up a question many individuals had asked me: why don’t insurance companies have to cover medically necessary transgender surgery? The easy answer is they don’t legally have to, but I feel it is more important to understand the history that led to this lack of coverage.

In “Transgender History Part One” I examined the origin of transgender identity and healthcare in America. The short of it is that the first widely known trans woman, Christine Jorgensen, found…

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​Unconnected and older than dirt

December 14th, 2016

I told you before that I am an information junkie. I read reports, surveys, investigations, whatever turns my crank. Since I am older than dirt, I have a tendency to read things that affect my generation. This time I read something that was put out by the Pew Research Center (a think tank) that said that 13 percent of Americans still do not use the Internet.

OK, here is the important part. Of that group, the most telling variable is no longer race, sex or even income. It’s age. Over…

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​Homeless, not hopeless

December 14th, 2016

A woman spends another restless night shivering on a concrete floor, the only source of comfort a rubber mat, thin scratchy blanket and a lumpy pillow. It offers temporary refuge from the bitter Fargo winter.

A man found passed out in an alley Downtown is whisked away in an ambulance to the ER, then the hospital, to be treated for alcohol poisoning and dehydration. A day later, he is discharged into the street where he drinks more alcohol to quiet the voices he hears because of…

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​The Gorman dogfight

December 14th, 2016

As you enjoy the crisp, clear Midwestern air and gaze up at the stars this winter, taking comfort in the security that a place like Fargo has to offer, it could be hard to feel any sense of unease. It could be hard to think that anything strange or otherworldly could effect a place like this. Unless, of course, one of those “stars” you were looking at happened to move in a strange way.

Let me fill you in on a little secret:

On the evening of October 1, 1948, while participating in a…

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