Editorial

Happy 25th Birthday, HPR

September 4th, 2019

That the Reader has had 25 birthdays is nothing short of significant. It goes without saying we are proud as can be. Yet newspapers are challenged these days in unprecedented fashion. That said, The Little Newspaper That Could is reinventing itself so as to be relevant and important for its next 25 years.

Back in the beginning, HPR was a Grand Forks bi-weekly newspaper. We’ll always admire Peter Ryan, Len Schmid, Ian Swanson, Jim Johnson and others who were instrumental in those early…

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Whither the Resistance? Comfortably numb

August 29th, 2019

Photograph by Ty Singman

By Gary Olson
olsong@moravian.edu

"All efforts to reform the American system is capitulation."
— Chris Hedges

"Without massive resistance to white supremacy and war, the U.S. empire threatens to devour itself alive and will no doubt attempt to take us with it."
Danny Haiphong

"No serious change, remotely popular sovereignty, no protection and advance of the common good will be forthcoming without prolonged, organized, and massive civil disobedience — genuine popular resistance."
Paul…

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The power of song

August 21st, 2019

Where the deer and the antelope play - artwork by Sabrina Hornung

In this issue David Crosby said, “You know, music is like a lifting force. It makes things better.” Truer words have never been spoken.

This week we decided to change things up a bit and offer our readers an exclusive music issue. We chatted with Maria Cree in Minot to see what the scene was like in the Magic City, then we headed to Grand Forks to see what the haps was with the Greenway Takeover Festival and then on over to Ojata Dogmajal to treat not only your earbuds but your…

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Pride and Prejudice

August 14th, 2019

Pride - photograph by Raquel Smith

Thousands of people gathered for Pride Festival in Fargo-Moorhead last weekend. It was absolutely stunning to see and to experience. The Festival truly has become a community event and the inclusion of families gave testimony to how far we’ve come on that front. All this in the only state in the country without even a gay bar!

My, how times have changed.

Though it’s no secret at all that LGBTQ folks do not have anti-discrimination protections here in North Dakota, we can only sense…

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​If thoughts and prayers were horses then beggars would ride

August 7th, 2019

Guns and flowers - photograph by C.S. Hagen

This past weekend there were two mass shootings within a 13-hour period. More than 30 people were killed in less than 24 hours in two mass shootings in Texas and Ohio. Now hold your horses buckaroos, we’re not going to talk about guns today, yeah I can already see your jaws tighten and fists clench. What we really need to talk about is the healing process and we need to talk about the epidemic of hate that’s spreading throughout our country.

Where do we even start? As of yesterday,…

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Maybe they’re not snickering about North Dakota… Maybe it’s you

July 31st, 2019

Stutsman County Fair - photograph by Sabrina Hornung

On Tuesday, the Washington Times reported Senator Kevin Cramer as saying, “I could be a victim of racism, but I don’t offend easily, I just don’t offend that easily.” When a reporter asked how he was a victim of racism, Cramer responded: “Well, if somebody said something about being from North Dakota, every now and then I get a snicker about it, somebody will say something about North Dakota in some snide way, I don’t offend because I’m comfortable with where I come from,…

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​The misogyny has got to stop

July 24th, 2019

Photograph by Raul Gomez

The demonization of women in power needs to stop. Trump whipping up his minions in a froth with chants such as “Lock her up!” and “Send her back!” are further examples of normalizing misogyny in our country. Afterall we don’t need no wimmen tellin’ us what to do… right? When did America turn into the “Heman woman hater’s club?” to reference “The Little Rascals.”.

We’re not even going to get into the pussy grabbing, the attack on women’s reproductive rights,…

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Where’s Teddy when we need him?

July 17th, 2019

Editorial artwork by Punchgut

It’s no secret Theodore Roosevelt loved North Dakota. It’s also no secret North Dakotans love Teddy. He left us with a legendary legacy and it’s no wonder that the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library will be in the badlands of Medora, where he said, "the romance of my life began."

Though he was born a New Yorker, he came to North Dakota in the fall of 1883, at the age of 24, shortly after he lost both his wife and mother on the same day. He came to North Dakota a “City…

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​Become acquainted with multicultural mermaids via folklore

July 10th, 2019

Every time there’s a big dumb internet controversey winds down I can’t help but think what the next big thing that’s going to come along and piss off the internet. Whether it’s a bunch of yokels blowing up overpriced coolers, people threatening to boycott wranglers, folks smashing coffee makers or kids eating laundry tide pods for 15 seconds of fame and an ambulance ride. This week’s proof that the internet is contributing to our de-evolution and even more proof that Americans…

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​The Critical Role of Cultural Capital

June 26th, 2019

HPR crew and HPR alumni at the capital - photograph by Sabrina Hornung

By Gary Olson
olsong@moravian.edu

When categorizing my class background I’ve invariably replied “working class” but in truth that was more aspirational than factual. My father was either unemployed or underemployed and died of a heart attack at age 46 while working as a night shift orderly at a veteran’s hospital in Fargo, ND. I was 12-years-old, with a 7-year-old brother, and thereafter our family income consisted of whatever my mother earned from doing infrequent odd jobs and…

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