Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883
Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883
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A friend of mine can’t for the life of him understand why some Americans are clamoring to replace capitalism with socialism. Born in Vietnam, he was a young boy when he and his family barely escaped that communist nation amid gunfire. America welcomed his family among thousands of Vietnamese refugees. His father, now in his 90s, sees his children living his vision of the American dream: they’re educated, with good jobs and flourishing families. My friend said all that he and his family ever wan...
I wrote a column a short while back about teachers who didn’t want to go back to school until they could be guaranteed that everything was safe. The reaction to my suggestion that teachers shouldn’t demand absolute guarantees of safety, which is pretty much what they’ve been doing, made me think about other “essential” workers during this time of crisis, people who really have no other choice than to show up for work and hope that the gods and a competent Secretary of Health are protecting them....
As we combat COVID-19 in North Dakota, there has never been a better time to prevent young people from starting to use e-cigarettes and to encourage existing users to quit. Current research indicates e-cigarette use or vaping suppresses immune function in the lungs and can cause inflammation of the airways, which heightens the risk of developing lung damage. Suppressed immunity and lung damage are factors associated with many COVID-19 cases. Therefore, it’s more important than ever for our policymakers to take strong action to reduce e...
Once again the North Dakota Legislature is trying to obstruct constitutional amendments proposed by petition of the people. At the present time, constitutional amendments initiated by citizens go straight to the ballot for an up or down vote. If approved, the amendment goes into effect. Under the Legislature’s proposal, a measure approved by the people would first go to the Legislature where, if rejected by the Legislature, it would go to the next biennial election for a second vote of the peopl...
I missed it again. So did the rest of America. July 1’s unofficial International Joke Day came and went without fanfare. That’s regrettable, because we could all use a good belly laugh right now - which gave me an idea. The other day, after hearing more doom-and-gloom news while driving, I said to the Apple CarPlay app on my truck’s stereo, “Hey, Siri, tell me a joke.” Siri, Apple’s voice-activated digital assistant, replied, “My cat ate a ball of yarn. She gave birth to mittens.” That’s an awfu...
“Shower the people you love with love/ Show them the way that you feel.” - James Taylor With all due respect to the five-time Grammy Award winner, I’ve seen fire and I’ve seen rain and I’ve seen sunny days when I wished people would put their advice where the sun DON’T shine. I think most homo sapiens do a serviceable job of unbottling our emotions when a special person is terminally ill or going into a battle zone. But some well-intentioned buttinsky is always trying to guilt us into openin...
Over 60,000 prisoners in the U.S. have been infected by COVID-19. And the number of infections is rising at an alarming rate. This gratuitous suffering and death – helpless people trapped in large numbers as the virus engulfs their close quarters – is a tragedy. The widespread release of vulnerable and nonviolent prisoners must happen. Right now. Yet the COVID-19 emergency only scratches the surface of the deficiencies in the American prison system. It has numerous fundamental problems. First, the conditions in US prisons have long been ter...
Much of the nation is experiencing a prolonged heat wave, so of course your humble columnist counterintuitively conjures up WARM MEMORIES to comfort himself. When I was in college, I sometimes supplemented my income by helping my late father with deliveries for Easy Pay Tire Store (the tires-and-appliances store where he worked for the Ritter family). One delivery should have been routine (installing an air conditioner for a countryfied elderly couple I had known since my high school job at...
Good grief: Apparently, America has yet to move past the anger phase regarding COVID-19. In 1969, you see, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross described five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. According to Fast Company, researchers from Singapore, China, Australia and Switzerland analyzed more than 20 million Twitter posts from 7 million users in 170 countries to gauge people’s state of mind regarding the coronavirus. Using keywords such as “Wuhan” and “corona,” they found...
No one wants to return to in-person teaching and learning more than North Dakota’s professional educators. The women and men who have dedicated their lives to educating our future know better than anyone about the physical, intellectual, and psychological benefits that in-person instruction affords our children. But no matter how anxious we are to return to the classroom and meet face to face with our students, we must do so only when we have mitigated the risk to the health of students and staff to the greatest extent possible. In leaving t...
"My fellow Americans, I am today ordering that Monday, August 3, shall be a national day of mourning. All of us should take time on that day to honor the memories of more than 134,000 souls taken by COVID-19. Flags will be lowered to half staff." – Donald J. Trump, President "When our leagues resume play for their shortened seasons, all players will wear black uniform patches to acknowledge the tragic coronavirus deaths." – Adam Silver, NBA Commissioner; Rob Manfred, MLB Commissioner "I am ask...
I can't recall the last time I wrote or received a handwritten letter- but it's time to send such letters again. The reasons why the handwritten letter died are obvious: e-mail, text messaging and cellphones. With how quick those innovations make whipping off a note, why would anybody take an hour to hand-write one? But how much better off might we be if we started sending such letters again? I've kept every handwritten letter I ever got, in boxes in my attic. One Saturday in 2000, when I was...
During a normal Major League Baseball season, by mid-July fans would be anticipating the annual All-Star Game. But in 2020, COVID-19, the great killjoy, has forced the game's cancellation, the first time since 1945 when World War II travel restrictions interfered and no players were selected. Baseball bugs that would have cast their 2020 ballots, and would be looking forward to watching the All-Star Game, are plum out of luck. Back during President Richard Nixon's White House years, sports...
I’m getting a whole-house attic fan installed this week – just like the one my father had installed in my childhood home – and I cannot wait to cool my house using his old-time methods. I have nothing against air conditioning, mind you. I run my central unit on summer’s hottest days. I can’t imagine how unpleasant life was before A/C brought relief. Willis Haviland Carrier invented air conditioning in 1902. Initially used for industrial purposes, it was being used for comfort by the mid-1920s...
Hello Transcript readers, I was in New Rockford for the Fourth of July this past weekend, and I'm writing to tell a little more about the little steam tractor that we had on a trailer in the parade. We were representing Central North Dakota Steam Threshers Reunion, which is still planned to go on Sept. 25-27 as nearly normal as can be with the current chaos in our world involving COVID-19. My name is Nick Werth, and I am the grandson of Ole and Isabelle Aslakson, who were both longtime New...
On July 1, 2020, the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) entered into force, officially replacing the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). USMCA is a ground-breaking achievement for U.S. small businesses, and is the first trade agreement ever to include a full chapter dedicated to small business interests. Supporting and expanding U.S. small business trade with Mexico and Canada is a top priority for me as the new Associate Administrator for SBA's Office of International Trade (OIT)....
There was even more yelling and screaming than usual in Washington this week. I’m not talking about the “peaceful” demonstrators in Lafayette Park, who were putting ropes and chains on the statue of Andrew Jackson and trying to pull it down. I’m talking about in Congress, where there’s always a lot brave yelling and screaming about “We gotta’ do something about this” and “We gotta’ solve that.” This week it was the police reform bill proposed by Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina. Calle...
Dear pandemic-battered readers, As you try adapting to the New Normal, just hope no diehards are waiting to confuse you with a plethora of ADDITIONAL configurations. It's best just to suck it up and accept the NEW Normal rather than navigating a world of Classic Normal, Zero Calorie Normal, Satin Finish Normal, Fun-Size Normal, Gelcap Normal, Crunchy Normal, Non-Clumping Normal and Extra-Absorbent Normal with Wings. Ever since getting assigned to inventory control at my day job, I've suffered in...
Here’s one good thing about the COVID-19 pandemic: Bike sales are booming. I hope that means kids will begin riding in big numbers again. There was a big bike-sales boom in the early 1970s, too— the result of millions of baby boom kids, like me, riding our bikes from dawn until dusk. From its inception in the 1800s, the bicycle had been produced mostly for adults. In the 1900s, bikes offered urban working-class folks an inexpensive way to get to and from work. Sales were brisk into the ear...
When she woke up last Thursday morning, 17-year-old Arlette Morales pulled on a “Home is Here” t-shirt. She didn’t know how prophetic it was. Hours later, Morales, who was two years old when her parents brought her to the United States from Mexico, learned he Supreme Court salvaged an Obama-era program that has allowed hundreds of thousands of young, unauthorized immigrants – just like her – known as “Dreamers” to remain in the country without immediate fear of deportation. “I was like, ‘Hold up. This is something that affects me,” she...
My wife and I experienced some vicarious living when our son Gideon (finishing up his junior year of high school) attended the senior prom. (Yes, VICARIOUS living. It’s not like we got him out of the house, jumped with glee and yelled, “Date night!” It was more along the lines of “Aw, but I yelled ‘Date night’ LAST time. Can’t YOU say it this… ZZZZZZ… .”) You see, we had to experience a high school milestone through Gideon’s eyes because neither of us went to our proms. My wife’s high school ho...
The North Dakota Emergency Commission is responsible for allocating the $1.25 billions dollars in CARE Act Funds the state received. These funds are intended to help families, workers, small businesses, and to preserve jobs impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Governor and five other male elected officials make-up the Emergency Commission. Together, they alone are deciding for everyone how to allocate the federal dollars coming to the state through the CARES Act (and possible future funds). One has to ask, where are the women? When e...
Great River Energy’s recent announcement that it intends to close Coal Creek generating station is, unquestionably, a blow to North Dakota. As someone who knows many of the people who work at the plant and the associated coal mine, I also find a personal sadness with the situation. GRE’s announcement has spurred much discussion about the future of electricity generation in North Dakota. Judging from some comments in the media and actions by some local governments, there is an emerging, but incorrect narrative: Coal Creek is closing because of...
If you noticed a lot more cash parked in your checking account lately, you're not alone. Americans haven't been saving this much money since the Great Depression, and antiquated Depression-era values such as thrift and duty are making a comeback. But embracing those virtues doesn't mean Americans have become more virtuous. The pandemic and resulting economic catastrophe have upended the how we respond to certain behavioral cues. In these unprecedented times, we're behaving quite predictably....
My father’s mission was to tame the stupidity out of me – a powerful blessing too few children are experiencing now. My dad had his work cut out for him. Over the years, I shattered a picture window with a baseball, accidentally broke neighbors’ lamp posts and once hit a golf ball through a neighbor’s window (I mowed a lot of lawns to pay for the repairs). The high point of my stupidity occurred when I was 10. Too lazy to go upstairs to the kitchen to dispose of an apple core, I tossed it into...
