Last Word

‘Our Water Is Our Single Last Property’

December 7th, 2016

The most consistent argument made by North Dakota regulators and the owners of the Dakota Access Pipeline against the protest actions of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe is that the Tribe entered the pipeline approval process too late; they should have made their feelings known earlier in the process.

In mid-November, just a couple weeks ago, Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) CEO Kelcy Warren told reporters “I really wish, for the Standing Rock Sioux, that they had engaged in discussions way…

Time for a reset in the Democratic Party

November 30th, 2016

By Bob Valeu

bvaleu@yahoo.com

Okay, a week is often a lifetime, let’s move on. Let’s redirect and focus our energy and political will on 2018. One great thing about our republic is that we, the citizens, get a chance every two years to make the decision on what direction, politically, our country will take. The clock is ticking, don’t be distracted any longer. Time is of the essence!

The Democratic Party needs a reset. We must focus on three things: middle-class stagnation; the…

A matter of context

November 16th, 2016

By Samantha L. Montano, M.S.

samanthalmontano@gmail.com

A few weeks ago I noticed a billboard in downtown Fargo that reads “All Lives Matter.” As a person who believes in equality, I was taken aback.

Some people have interpreted the slogan “Black Lives Matter” to mean that other lives do not matter. This belief led to some responding by saying “All Lives Matter.” First, let me say that I strongly agree that all lives do matter, regardless of race, gender, religion, or…

Historical Facts

November 16th, 2016

By Davin Wait davin.wait@hcsmuseum.org

I’m writing to address a common misconception about immigration. Our political and media climate has been more frequently lending itself to arguments and assumptions on the issues that are not grounded in historical facts.Immigrants are not new to our community. Fargo-Moorhead exists on the Red River, where Ojibwe and Dakota people fished for sturgeon or namé, the “king of fish.” French and English fur traders and their descendants, the…

This is their death knell

November 11th, 2016

The day after the election, I expected to be depressed but I rose invigorated. I have never been more centered on my core beliefs than I am right now. Hillary Clinton was a bad candidate only in that she herself couldn't bring this out in me. Donald Trump's presidency, however, has made me remember who I am. I am resolute. I have never been more ready to destroy them than I am now.

I am their Death.

I don't expect many readers of the High Plains Reader to have supported Donald Trump, but…

Corporate worship and compromising the police profession

November 2nd, 2016

“For the soldier’s (or policeman’s) trade,…is not slaying, but being slain. This…the world honors it for. A bravo’s (or hired gun’s) trade is slaying; but the world has never respected bravos (or hired guns)…the reason (the world) honors the soldier (or policeman) is, because he holds his life at the service of the State.”

–John Ruskin

“This is not about the pipeline…This is not about the protesters. This is about the rule of law.”

--Morton County Sheriff Kyle…

The Roots of Republican Party Dishonor: Part II

October 26th, 2016

“War Is Hell” -General William Tecumseh Sherman, USA

“War is a Racket” - Major General Smedley Butler, USMC

“Americans are an ahistoric people. We come to new situations asking ‘what’s the problem?’ when a more appropriate inquiry might be, ‘what’s the story?’ And the way we now get the news…strengthens this tendency toward the here and now at the expense of a longer view.

“It is a momentous thing to use American military power. The lives of Americans, allies,…

Of oil refineries and national parks

October 19th, 2016

By Jim Fuglie

jimfuglie920@gmail.com

I’m calling it “The Great Meridian Energy Smokestack Scam.”

Meridian Energy Group is a California-based oil refining company which has proposed to build an oil refinery in western North Dakota. The company has received zoning approval from local government and has submitted applications for groundwater and air quality permits to the State of North Dakota. State agencies which issue those permits have the applications under consideration. There.…

Joe McCarthy didn’t run for President…until now.

October 5th, 2016

“if he (Senator Joseph McCarthy) was anything at all in the realm of ideas, principles, doctrines, he was a species of nihilist; he was an essentially destructive force, a revolutionist without any revolutionary vision, a rebel without a cause.” – Richard Rovere

“…there is a vital difference between the paranoid spokesman in politics and the clinical paranoiac;…the clinical paranoid sees the hostile and conspiratorial world in which he feels himself to be living as directed…

Socialism and the North Dakota genius

September 28th, 2016

“[In England] the liberty of the individual is still believed in,…But this has nothing to do with economic liberty, the right to exploit others for profit. It is the liberty to have a home of your own, to do what you like in your spare time, to choose your own amusements instead of having them chosen for you from above.” -George Orwell, 1941

”The farmers in North Dakota were not attracted to socialism, since each person wanted to own his own farm. However, when the [Nonpartisan]…