March 8th, 2021
By Ed Raymond
fargogadfly@gmail.com
08 March 2021
Dennis: “Why Did Jesus Turn Water Into Wine When He Could Have Changed It Into Chocolate Milk?”
As I listened to our resident Mara-Loco psychopath Donald Trump address his cult at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) emphasizing his “America First” white supremacist program and ranting about immigrants, I thought of Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s poem about America and his second stanza written about a half-century ago:
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March 1st, 2021
By Ed Raymond
28 February 2021
How Can We Reform Victims of Trumpism, QAnon, and the New Ku Klux Klan?
In a Hialeah, Florida grocery store, a Hispanic man asked a white woman standing behind him, in both Spanish and English, to move six feet from him as they stood waiting to check out. She ignored him and “mumbled bad words” at him.
Out in the parking lot, as he was putting groceries in his car, she came within one foot of his face, yelled: “This is not going to…
February 23rd, 2021
By Ed Raymond
21 February 2021
Have We Eliminated ‘The Giants Of Racism, Extreme Materialism, And Militarism’?
In 1915 President Woodrow Wilson saw the first American motion picture ever shown in the White House, “The Birth of a Nation,” based on the book “The Clansman,” by Thomas Dixon. Jr.It was a three-hour movie, part fiction and part history, covering the lives of the Northern pro-union Stonemans and the Southern pro-Confederacy Camerons.
I first saw…
February 15th, 2021
By Ed Raymond
February 18, 2021
Maybe the Prophet Down on Interstate 94 Was Wrong
As a student of American literature, I have read some of Sinclair Lewis’s many books: Main Street, Babbit, Arrowsmith,Elmer Gantry, and It Can’t Happen Here come to mind. Born in Sauk Centre in 1885, Lewis was evidently a troublesome Minnesota teenager because he tried to run away from home at age 13 to become a drummer boy in the Spanish-American War (Philippines, Cuba, Guantanamo…
February 11th, 2021
By Ed Raymond
When the Free Market Gets Very Expensive for the Little Guy
About 15 years ago we spent two winters in Sun City, Arizona when the right-wing Republican legislature was playing a child’s game of “King of the Hill,” passing all kinds of junk aberrant bills about abortion, sex, gender, free speech, race, voting, and playing “doctor.” It was a constant source of entertainment because we didn’t have to live long-term with the craziness. After all,…
February 2nd, 2021
By Ed Raymond
Are We Heading for ‘Double, Double, Toil and Trouble’?
Shakespeare’s MacBeth is a play about chaos that results when a person in the human chain of being rises above his level of competence. In our society we call it the Peter Principle. We have just finished four years of chaos with many more on the horizon because we elected a man to the highest office…
January 20th, 2021
By Ed Raymond
The Ku Klux Klan Don’t Wear Hoods Anymore
In a December column I wrote the following: “We are in the middle of dangerous times. We are on a knife’s edge of losing ‘it’.” “‘It’ stands for country.”
On January 13, the day the House impeached Donald J. Trump, I saw 2,000 National Guard troops trying to sleep on the well-lit marble floors of our Capitol near their rifles and equipment, taking a break from guarding it from Trumplican…
January 13th, 2021
By Ed Raymond
Where Do We Belong in God’s Universe?
In the 16th century the dominant religious “theory” was that everything on the planet from God down to minerals and rocks were links in the Elizabethan Chain of Being. The earth that came from the disintegration of rocks was at the bottom of the chain. At the top of the chain was God. It progressed downward to angels, demons (fallen angels), stars, moon, kings and queens, princes, nobles, men, wild animals,…
January 11th, 2021
By Ed Raymond
The Scientific Method, Darwin, and Religious Erosion
People who study us and our surroundings use the five following methods to come to a conclusion, basing it on this scientific method: hypothesis, observation, prediction, experiment, and confirmation.
As an example, the experts in past pandemics used this scientific method to determine that a vaccine will work against COVID-19. They observed what the virus did to people. They predicted it was similar…
December 27th, 2020
The Gadfly: Autopsy of a Political Party
Ed Raymond
Why did Trump win Robeson County?
The southeastern corner of North Carolina is a low-lying area in one of the poorest sections of the state. It is the home of the Lumbee Indians, the largest Indian tribe east of the Mississippi River. The town of Lumberton is near the center of the county. It is poor farming country, and is heavily wooded yet rather swampy.
I became rather familiar with the area when our battalion…
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By Alicia Underlee NelsonLocal groups will speak out against current and projected federal budget cuts in downtown Fargo this Saturday, April 26. The Red River Valley chapters of Fearless and Indivisible will lead a protest from…
By Prairie Rose Seminolems.prairierose@gmail.com I was a child who walked behind my parents into classrooms and kitchens, spaces of song and prayer, where teachings lived in the air and settled on my shoulders. I didn’t yet have…
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Saturday, May 3, 7 p.m.-MidnightPlains Art Museum, 704 1st Ave. N., FargoDon’t miss the art party of the year! What goes on at the gala? There’s a silent art auction with music by Low Standards and DJ Star IV, hors d’oeuvres…
By Sabrina Hornungsabrina@hpr1.comIt’s no secret that there are folks among us who make our communities a more vibrant place through both their actions and means of creative expression. Heck, you could be one of them yourself.…
By Ed Raymondfargogadfly@gmail.comThere is a big difference between ears and legsOur English language adds words to dictionaries every year because there are more than 6,000 languages on earth and we do communicate with friends and…
By Rick Gionrickgion@gmail.com Holiday wine shopping shouldn’t have to be complicated. But unfortunately it can cause unneeded anxiety due to an overabundance of choices. Don’t fret my friends, we once again have you covered…
By Rick Gionrickgion@gmail.com After a very inspiring conversation with Kayla Houchin of Sonder Bakehouse a few weeks ago, I decided that it’s an appropriate time to write a column about some of the sweet people who are involved…
Mooncats and Pert Near Sandstone play Empire TheatreBy Sabrina Hornungsabrina@hpr1.comThe MoonCats describe themselves as “Americonscious Campfire Folk.” They have a clear acoustic folk sound with a sense of whimsy — think…
By Greg Carlsongregcarlson1@gmail.comRyan Coogler goes big and bold with “Sinners,” a sweaty, bloody vampire movie set in 1932. The filmmaker stuffs this universe with enough ideas to serve a limited-series season of episodic…
By Raul Gomez Modern Man was a gentle soul. If you were down or just wanted a friend, he’d be there for you. I remember the first day I met Modern Man. It was Jeremiah Fuglseth and me. He wanted to write about this legendary…
By John Showalterjohn.d.showalter@gmail.comHigh Plains Reader had the opportunity to interview two mysterious new game show hosts named Milt and Bradley Barker about an upcoming event they will be putting on at Brewhalla. What…
By Annie Prafckeannieprafcke@gmail.com AUSTIN, Texas – As a Chinese-American, connecting to my culture through food is essential, and no dish brings me back to my mother’s kitchen quite like hotdish. Yes, you heard me right –…
By Sabrina Hornungsabrina@hpr1.comNew Jamestown Brewery Serves up Local FlavorThere’s something delicious brewing out here on the prairie and it just so happens to be the newest brewery west of the Red River and east of the…
By Ellie Liveranieli.liverani.ra@gmail.com I remember when I was young, probably 11 years ago. One morning I was not feeling well because of my period. After I got ready to go to school, I went back to bed and it was hard to get up…
By Alicia Underlee NelsonProtests against President Trump’s policies and the cuts made by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are planned across North Dakota and western Minnesota Friday, April 4 and…
By Vern Thompsonvern.thompson.nd7@gmail.com Our trucking business has me driving almost daily from gas plants in western North Dakota's oil patch to Canada. I haul natural gas liquids (NGLs) products we used to see flared off at…
