Post Special Election

A special election was held in Fargo on Tuesday to elect a new mayor and city commissioner due to the death of Dennis Walaker. Congratulations to Mayor Tim Mahoney, who ran a campaign that proved he was by far the most credible and competent candidate to lead Fargo in the future. Under Mahoney, Fargo will continue its tremendous growth and leadership in the state of North Dakota.

The results in the Fargo City Commission, however, give us pause. Conservative Tony Gehrig came out victorious. Of course, anything is possible in a six-person race where fragmented factions of supporters could split the vote in many different possibilities based on turnout. But here we now have the most progressive city in the state that has now elected two consecutive conservatives to the four-person city commission. That doesn’t make sense.

The Democratic party in Fargo needs to do some soul searching to figure out why it could not coalesce support behind one candidate and instead handed one of four precious city commission seats to a man who will rubber stamp the word “no” on his forehead at city commission meetings.

Perhaps the best thing for city politics would be for the state party apparatus to get out of the way of local elections and let local citizens decide themselves what is best for their future, because clearly their political strategies are inept about doing anything except putting Republicans on the city commission in a city that is anything but. Hopefully the egos of the vanity candidates who didn’t have a chance to win and put Gehrig in office don’t disrupt the flow of growth and expansion in Fargo too much.

To Gehrig, we say congratulations and we wish that you will use your seat not for partisan purposes, but to continue the extraordinary progress that the city has been experiencing for years. Had the city commission race had two candidates such as the mayor’s race, the results would have been way different. And it’s important for any victor claiming a huge mandate to remember that.

Baltimore protests

The scenes coming out of Baltimore in the wake of Freddie Gray’s funeral are ones that no American citizen wants to see. There is no doubt that there are some criminal elements who are taking advantage of the situation without wanting to effect change in a positive manner. However, it is important to state clearly that something needs to be done about the systematic and repeated murders of African Americans by law enforcement in this country. Is it so surprising that a boot on the throat of a race of people after years of oppression and economic injustice was met with a radical reaction? No one is advocating violence as a justified response to what happened. But it’s important to remember things aren’t as black and white as the images you are receiving from 24-hour news channels hell bent on increasing viewership by painting the worst possible picture that may be inaccurate but sure as heck makes their breaking news coverage warrant the overhype mode. Perhaps if we dig deeper and actually finally end repeated abuses by law enforcement instead of acquitting the majority of them or look at the root causes of economic disparity in America, we might go a long way toward solving things in this country.

Most of all we need to listen to people who are different from us and then makes sure that when they feel oppressed that their voices are heard. That hasn’t been happening for years and when their innocent brothers and sisters are dying for senseless reasons, is it any wonder the powder keg we have in inner city America? Try to understand where they are coming from instead of condemning them based on distorted, simplistic media narratives that fail to see the big picture.

ND Lawmaker outed

A Fargo lawmaker made national news this week when he was outed as gay by major newspapers in the state after it was revealed that he used gay apps to send explicit photos of himself while also voting against discrimination protections for LGBT citizens in the state. We don’t advocate for anyone to be publicly outed in this manner and it’s unfortunate how it was done. This state representative had not told some of his family and friends and it no doubt must have been difficult for him to know they were informed by opening up their daily newspapers. However, when someone publicly supports policies that are antithetical to their entire existence, it’s hard to have a ton of sympathy for them.

Perhaps if Rep. Boehning doesn’t see discrimination as a problem for his sexual orientation in North Dakota, he should speak to some other LGBT citizens in the state about whether they experience it. In fact if discrimination isn’t a problem for gays in North Dakota, maybe he wouldn’t have hidden his sexual orientation in the first place. Someone’s decision to come out publicly is very personal and should be their own. We just hope Boehning opens his heart and mind to the damage his rigid social conservative policies are causing a whole class of citizens in the state including himself.