Editorial

A personal glass ceiling?

July 18th, 2017

"No, not rich. I am a poor man with money, which is not the same thing."

-Gabriel Garcia Marquez

This idea is something that has been gnawing at me for awhile, but I don't know where to express these thoughts or how to communicate them. I grew up between poverty and working class, where our family vacation was spending two nights in a hotel with a pool every other year. It was an environment and class capital that replicates itself, because the aspirations of college or something more…

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Back in Oslo

June 28th, 2017

By Robert Reeder

robertreeder@me.com

I am back in Oslo after living and working here for a month last summer. Nearly two full weeks passed this year before I noticed that I was going places without a map, getting on and off of metros without paying much attention to the signs indicating the upcoming stops. I pretty much knew where I was going like I do in Washington DC, where I live.

As part of the ieiMedia study abroad program in 2016, we were fortunate enough to have a local instructor…

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58th Annual Great Midwestern: Viva la revolución!

June 21st, 2017

Albert Einstein once said, “The revolution introduced me to art, and in turn, art introduced me to the revolution.”

This past Sunday marked the 58th year of the Rourke’s Great Midwestern. Though Jim O’Rourke, founder of the Rourke and father of the F-M arts scene, has been gone for a number of years, his spirit is alive and well.

Each year artists from around the country are invited to submit a piece of art with a common theme assigned by the curator. The theme of the Midwestern…

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Celebration and disgrace

June 15th, 2017

By Sabrina Hornung and Tom Bixby

sabrina@hpr1.com

Adventure series

This is the first issue of HPR’s Adventure Series, focusing on Medora. If you go hiking in the badlands, look out for brown humps. See Race Heitcamp’s article in this issue on what to avoid, how to avoid it, and what kind of music buffalos prefer.

The oil companies again

Speaking of Medora, you don’t have to walk far in any direction to see oil wells and other evidence of extractive industry.

We’ll double down on…

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Shelter in place

June 7th, 2017

The employment ads run something like this: some school district is accepting applications for paraprofessional positions for school year 2017-2018. Positions require a high school diploma. Experience working with students will be preferred. Hiring begins now and will continue throughout the summer.

Yes it will. School districts always need as many paras as they can get. In their areas of expertise, they are at least as skilled as the average teacher and they are cheap, $11 an hour to…

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Thankful for the trip on a tankful

June 1st, 2017

Artwork by Max Patzner

I’m a big advocate of the day trip some call it a trip on a tankful. In fact I’ve been known to refer to it as “gravel road therapy.” I find that driving is a good way to sort your thoughts and a decent way to gain perspective. You can meet a lot of interesting people along the way and maybe even see a bit of wildlife -- and we’re not just talking about the locals at Hanson’s Bar.

It’s important to explore and acknowledge your own backyard. We highly…

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The governor’s wake-up call

May 24th, 2017

We’ve just read Mike McFeely’s interview with Governor Burgum, are intrigued by the governor’s vision of the future of higher education; that online courses will largely obviate the need for campuses, tenured faculty, and other obsolescent features.

We know about Stanford University’s online high school because we know a middle-school student who aspires to it.

Stanford’s online secondary school starts in the seventh grade. Admission is not easy. They are looking for bright,…

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​Our opinion: Fargo’s alleys are an urban amenity

May 17th, 2017

We don’t like cars all that much. We’re wary of meeting white van man, constant texter, boy racer, and orange light go-through. And in Fargo, we don’t have to.

Because there are so many alleys in the older part of Fargo, and so many parking lots in the newer, it’s possible for a bicyclist to cross the city almost without crossing paths with fast-moving vehicles.

We believe that our alleys will someday be cherished and treasured, and we hope there will be a goodly number left.…

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The state legislature is starving NDSU of funds

May 10th, 2017

“I felt compelled to write,” said Dr. Lawrence P. Reynolds of NDSU in a recent letter to the editor, “because of the statements attributed to ND Senate Majority Leader Rich Wardner (R-Dickinson), who said, ‘Everybody has to cinch it up,’ and then later stated he ‘was confident funding could be reinstated after this biennium for programs and jobs that are needed…I understand we could lose some quality people, but it is what it is. You can’t spend money you don’t…

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​Use that energy to combat hate speech with love

May 3rd, 2017

Last week a handful of posters appeared spewing hate speech and singing the praise of the alt right. Fargo resident Christopher Smith took photos and posted them on his facebook and the comment response lit up like wildfire.

It’s hard to understand, rationalize, or logically justify this hate speech, but it seems to be contagious--not just for the people who support the alt right ideology but also from those of us who vehemently disagree. The posters elicited a response of anger and…

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