Letters to the Editor

AIR, COAL, WATER, AND CHEAP POLITICIANS

To the editor,

The history of North Dakota is a two-century litany of exploitation, from the earliest arrivals of Europeans on our prairies and rivers to the present.

With these reminders, I picked up my copy of the book “One Time Harvest,” published in 1975, which delved into the relatively nascent North Dakota lignite coal industry.

The title came from speeches by Governor Arthur Link contrasting agricultural productivity with fossil fuel…

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The judicial system primarily acts to inflict punishment as opposed to rehabilitation.

To the editor:

The BCI's use of Confidential Informants is unwise and by definition holds the CI hostage to the performance of information leading to the arrest of persons with the use of search warrant's and quotas imposed on the confidential informant. I of course agree with the judicial need to prosecute offenders, however, it is impossible not to infringe on person’s constitutional rights when…

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To the Editor:

I was raised on our family farm near Buffalo, North Dakota. After college I served in the U.S. Army, worked in the Fargo Public Schools and eventually returned to my hometown of Buffalo about thirty years ago. I am a past Mayor of the community and am involved in our American Legion Post #10, the City of Buffalo Historic Preservation Commission, the Buffalo Community Club and the City Park Board.

The proposed Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation, or CAFO, to be…

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To the editor:

I don't like the Caucus system. Caucuses are archaic and exclusive and usually take place in the evening, when many people have to work, thus eliminating them from the whole process (no absentee voting in a caucus). It's also not nearly as representative as a Primary, where there is one vote for one person. For example, in the 2016 Iowa Caucus, at one precinct in Iowa City, Bernie Sanders had over 400 people choose him, while Hillary Clinton had just over 90 people choose…

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To the editor:

Corporate farming is not the future of agriculture in North Dakota. Local communities all across the country are fighting against corporate farms for good reason. Recently, the community of Buffalo, ND was blindsided by a proposed 9,000 hog factory farm, which will drastically worsen the economic, environmental, and social dynamic of Buffalo. These types of factory farms do not invest in local communities. They do business wherever they can get the best deal, which is…

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To the editor:

The Saint Paul District U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has recently released a document touting the value of the Alternative Delivery plan, called the P3, for funding the FM Diversion.

The P3 funding is a private public partnership to fund projects that were not funded in the Water Resource Reform and Development Act of 2014.

Among the reasons stated in this document for using the P3 funding method are the following:

“It will save the federal government $400 million.”

This…

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To the editor:

I am tremendously excited at the prospect of the tallest building in North Dakota someday soon coming to downtown Fargo. I have no doubt that this will be a fantastic addition to the area and will draw in new business to our city. I know this project will be a great success for the Kilbourne Group. All the more reason why public tax dollars should be left out of the equation.

My stance on special incentives for private development is not limited to the Kilbourne Group, a…

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To the editor:

In the online version of the Forum on Sunday December 6 edition sandwiched between editorials by Jack Zaleski about a poetry book of regional and local people describing past memories of Christmas and Jim Shaw’s sadness at the loss 35 years ago of arguably one of the most famous contemporary musicians, John Lennon; was a letter listing the reasons for government not supporting public art by city commissioner Tony Gehrig. The contrast in sentiments of that letter sandwich…

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To the editor:

Late one night in December 2014, Congress decided in the blink of an eye to take away 400,000 seniors hard earned pensions rights when they passed the Multi-employer Pension Reform Act. I believe they did this without most of Congress even knowing what they were voting on. This gut-wrenching decision is having serious consequences to the 400,000 people affected by the bill’s passage. I am one of those 400,000. 

I worked at UPS for over 30 years. I worked hard, causing …

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To the editor:

I feel very sad for Mrs. Sadek, as no parent should lose their child due to government corruption, whether it be agenda driven military action or narky narks run amok. As a fellow victim of Smilin' Wayne's rather unique take on "law" enforcement as facilitated by "confidential informants", I pray she gets answers, but I fear that unless she gets Federal help- or perhaps Gloria Allred- the culture of abuse created and facilitated by our wannabe new governor will stall,…

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