Dakota Beacon

ND has a reputation for people who live healthy lives and report few sick days.  Herald columnist Ryan Bakken offers an alternative view.  MAYBE NODAKS ARE SIMPLY STOIC.  A health administrator said, “The people around here don’t complain much.  Sometimes, they don’t feel good, but just do what needs to be done.”  FEMA noticed many people in the state don’t ask for help, a FEMA lady said, “People up here just kind of take care of things themselves.”  Bakken’s take, “Not only will you live longer in this state, but you also have to listen to less bitching.”

We are well aware those in the “GREATEST GENERATION,” who served in WWII, are becoming fewer and fewer.  Usually, we think of men, but the obituary of Shirley Erickson (88) of Cooperstown reminds us of the WWII role of brave women.  She was pure Norwegian, her parents were Knute and Inga Ueland.  Shirley became a Registered Nurse and a 2nd Lieutenant in the Army Nurse Corps, serving in Saipan, Okinawa and Japan.  After the war she married Lester Erickson and enjoyed a long life on their farm.  Shirley was active in almost every local civic and historical group you can imagine, including, of course, the Sons of Norway.

For other women, WWII presented different alternatives.  Helen Brandt Nelson (90) spent her adult life in Cass County, where she was a door-to-door ELECTROLUX SALESPERSON FOR FIFTY YEARS.  In retirement, she cooled down at Minnesota lakes and played golf.

In 2001 and 2002, the Herald reports UND and Grand Forks had the worst series of sexual assaults in memory.  The assaults resulted in the surprising arrest and conviction of Paul Sambursky, an ex-Marine and active Catholic, who was a leader in the criminal justice program at UND.  Sambursky was sentenced to 30 years in prison in 2004.  STILL, HE DIDN’T CALM DOWN—at his sentencing, Sambursky attempted to attack a Herald photographer.  In July this year, Sambursky and a cellmate bent a bar in their cell window—they couldn’t squeeze through, so they attempted to crawl through an air vent, failed and surrendered.  Expect to hear again from this “Clint Eastwood” wannabe.

The Minnesota media was full of it—the next stage in the varied career of ex-governor JESSE “THE BODY” VENTURA.  Jesse will be the host of a reality TV show featuring conspiracy theories.  GF Herald Editor Mike Jacobs believes Ventura is more likely to spread conspiracy theories than resolve them.

The Cooperstown Country Club is plagued with deer on its golf course.  Sometimes,  as many as 60 to 80 animals.  About once a month, they have to remove a dead deer.  The club has a solution—YOU MAY LIKE IT OR HATE IT.  They have obtained permission from the Cooperstown City Council to start a youth bow hunting program.  Will life be better with kids firing steel arrows across the golf course?

OIL TOPS COAL.  Slope County, ND’s smallest in population, has the highest average annual wages in the state ($53,500), displacing Oliver County ($50,400) in coal country.  Slope County Auditor Lorrie Buzalsky said, “We’re not making that much . . . we assumed it has to be the oil field.”  Slope County has 770 people and average employment of 680.

Hopefully, by the time we are adults we learn that people who regularly describe events in extremes are either uninformed or untruthful.  So when someone says something “is the worst there ever was,” and his opposite says “it is the best there ever was,” we know how to interpret their statements.  JACK ZALESKI of the Forum devoted a column to citizens who question the health care bill at town meetings.  Zaleski said “the disrupters actually are in the employ of Washington special interests” and “are paid out-of-state agents,” in other words, “carpetbaggers, mercenaries, liars.”  Who is the extremist?

Alerus Financial of Grand Forks acknowledges it operates in a slow market, but it is still able to grow steadily.  The conservative bank moves cautiously, waiting and husbanding its resources.  When the time is ripe, it pounces and acquires failed institutions.  THE TIME IS RIPE—in the past two months Alerus has purchased businesses in Fargo, Minneapolis and Phoenix.  Since 1985, Alerus has averaged an acquisition every other year.

ND legislators may act a little slow and cautious, but their laws generally reflect prairie common sense.  There are a few exceptions.  As a state, ND is almost alone in its opposition to acquisition of land by wildlife and conservation groups.  The attorney general is SUING THE AUDUBON SOCIETY for adding 263 acres to a bird sanctuary near Jamestown in 1988.  Apart from the fact the acquisition is over 20 years old, the bird sanctuaries are considered to be an economic asset of central ND and attract bird tourism from around the nation.

DAKTOIDS:  Maybe things do move a little slower in ND—Dickinson police report a driver pulled a $139 gas-and-dash at a local Cenex station by speeding away—in a dump truck . . . The UND football team is in its second season of transition to Div I—the Sioux season opener could be a rude experience—they play the Red Raiders of Texas Tech in Lubbock.