​Now Is the Time to Find Common Ground

By Sabrina Hornung

sabrina@hpr1.com

Our Opinion: Dissolve partisan lines and elevate the voice of the people.

As cliche as it sounds, who would have thought that when we ”sprang ahead” into daylight savings time in March, we’d be setting our clocks back by at least 50 years by July. Denying close to 47% of North Dakotans bodily autonomy. Ironic considering the state’s stance on property rights and personal freedoms.

According to ballotpedia 64% of North Dakotans voted in favor of pro-choice legislation.

I can’t take credit for this train of thought, but let us entertain the notion of state’s rights. Now whittle the conversation down further, to county rights, city rights and – what the heck – what about individual rights? What am I trying to say? You guessed it. Stay away from my uterus. If it wasn’t a joke in such poor taste I’d joke about how to weaponize it, just to stay in the line with North Dakota being a loud and proud second amendment sanctuary state meaning guns can find sanctuary here on the prairie but our uteri are plum SOL.

I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, our North Dakota lawmakers have blood on their hands and we’re not just talking about Cramer’s gardening incident.

Sad. Sad indeed, talk about the understatement of the century, or at least half century, and these righties were trying to tell us that the libs were going to take away our constitutional rights. Boy oh boy is the joke on us, and jeez Louise could it be less funny.

In other news that’s no less concerning, somehow Bill Gates sniffed out some land in the Red River Valley from none other than Campbell Farms near Grafton. You may remember State Senator Tom Campbell who opted out of the 2018 senatorial race, and was quoted in an August 2018 piece that C.S. Hagen wrote for HPR titled “Master of Puppets” that made some solid points regarding Harold Hamm’s political influence in N.D.

Campbell was quoted as saying, ““I was communicated with by some other people that kind of persuaded me not to run, I’ll just leave it at that,” Campbell said. “There’s a whole other side of the story that maybe someday I’ll discuss, for now I’ll probably just remain mum about it. But definitely there are reasons I did what I did, not saying it was right or wrong, it’s just what I chose.”

There may or may not be a Microsoft tie-in between Burgum and Gates and there may or may ot be a billionaire tie-in between Gates and Hamm. Which sounds pretty convoluted but it’s definitely worth noting.

In 2013 Gates was a keynote speaker at Concordia College on behalf of the dedication for the then newly dedicated Grant Center which housed the Offutt School of Business. The “big name speaker” was accessible “through a network of friends and supporters” including the oil patch mogul Harold Hamm. Is there a connection or are our tin foil hats misshapen? If you don’t believe us, check out the February 27, 2013 edition of the Grand Forks Herald.

Who knows but our Spidey senses are tingling and if this is the direction that our state is going we need all hands on deck and to collectively wake up, collaborate and listen, because whoever is running the show– isn’t working for us, and we should all be concerned as an agrarian state.

Dougie Burgum isn’t just salt in the eye of the left leaners of the state. He's managed to less than impress the righties as well by pimping out our state and violating the rights of almost half of its population.

Remember, Doug, it’s your job to work for us. Though the women directly in your life more than likely have nothing to worry about. the rest of us do, and the landowners who voted you in aren’t too impressed with you either. I hear murmerings all over the prairie and it’s not the echoes of my own kvetching.

Is it possible that the left and right have finally found common ground on something? Is all that it takes to unite us the saddle sores in our state’s political system? Now is the time more than ever that we need to push for common ground and these “senseless dividing lines.” As North Dakotans, it's our legacy: let's dissolve these partisan lines and move closer to our roots. Let’s work together, let’s become more politically involved and encourage candidates to work for their constituents. We know our values and we know our worth. Now let’s vote like it.