I’m not a native North Dakotan so perhaps it is why I admire the state so much. People in North Dakotas are consistent, hardy, hardworking, creative, honest and so much in making the state such a great place to live.

I always thought the quality of North Dakota schools played a huge part in their citizenship. I think those who have graduated from the university system feel their experience prepared them for a changing world.

So I was surprised of the assertion in yesterday’s editorial colum by Hamid Shirvani, chancellor of the North Dakota University System, that the system he inherited was in such disrepair in preparing students for that changing future.

Shirvani criticized our state’s higher education as one that avoids using national averages, Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System peers and aspirational peers, ignores “best practices” unless they are homegrown.

Shirvani was hired to improve an educational system that was considered by most far from broken. Education, like anything important in life, is constantly changing and so should the university system. There will always be those who are resistant to change but moving slow and asking questions is not a bad thing.

Shirvani admitted that these past several months have been challenging for him and the members of the State Board of Higher Education. Their ideas were scrutinized by those he works for, which comes with the job. You would have thought he would have been aware of politics in our state and the State Board of Higher Education would have done a better job of preparing him for the fray. The board’s violation of the state’s open meeting laws did not help build trust with the Legislature and the public.

Citing the need for change, he referred in his editorial to the April 12, 1963, letter from eight Alabama clergymen who wrote Martin Luther King Jr. that his civil rights efforts in the city of Birmingham, Ala., were not only too much, too soon, but that as an “outsider,” his views and methods were deemed out of touch with the city’s historical values.

Shirvani wrote: “Believing as King did that ‘waiting’ means ‘never,’ permit me to suggest that educational transformation too long delayed is education denied.”

Comparing the need to the change North Dakota’s higher education system and his role of “outsider” to the need for basic civil rights in Alabama in 1963 and even the loosest comparison to Martin Luther King Jr. is shameful.

Dr. King pushed for basic human rights and there is nothing remotely similar to changing the state’s university system. He heroically fought to change a system he suffered in every day and his determination to do so ultimately cost him his life.

The chancellor’s editorial reads largely like someone so self-absorbed he can’t believe that his ideas and leadership style could be questioned and any problems are the result of those who would dare to do so.

I don’t know what he hoped to accomplish with his column, but I doubt it will do little help him accomplish his objectives or endear himself to those who pay his salary.

Brock is the publisher of The Dickinson Press.

Not opening the Painted Canyon overlook this summer shouldn’t be an option.There has to be a way to safely allow for motorists passing through our state to enjoy the breathtaking beauty of Theodore Roosevelt National Park for a few moments, even if the National Park Service can’t figure it out.People will stop to take in the view with or without an exit ramp — and that will be awful dangerous with the increased traffic in western North Dakota.Sorry at first glance if closing the overlook seems like the easiest way to make a statement about how the sequester effects TRNP.Park officials say their budget was cut 5 percent. Did they lay off 5 percent of their people? Couldn’t they reduce their operating hours by 5 percent? Could they seek volunteers to help man the visitor center at Painted Canyon?Unlike our state, the nation does not have a surplus because Congress and the president haven’t been able to think like private businesses and households. Federal agencies like the National Parks lack innovation when money is tight.Still, if TRNP can’t find a way to open the scenic overlook, than it’s time to let someone else be responsible for it. Why can’t they let the state operate it as a visitor center? Seek volunteers to man the center for blocks of hours during the day or let it join one of the many unmanned visitor centers along Interstate 94.The center has been an invaluable portal to our state and to close it during the tourist season seems beyond foolish.The state of North Dakota is spending hundreds of thousands dollars on tourism and keeping the Painted Canyon visitor center open would be relatively inexpensive.Think about how it looks for our state, in the midst of an historic economic boom and the envy of the country, to have arguably our most scenic vista closed because of out-of-state problems?

Seems like everyone I know has been sick this winter and flu and cold

season has been exceptionally hard on everyone.

Thankfully, I had dodged both and was one of the few folks at work who hadn’t missed a day. I have always been blessed with good health and couldn’t remember the last time I called in sick. Ten years ago?

Now there were some days I probably should have called in sick, but I love my job and

can’t stand sitting around.

I was that annoying guy who lacked empathy and smugly told everyone I didn’t get sick and bragged about never spending a day in the hospital but all that changed Jan. 8 when pain woke me up from a dead sleep.

The major reason I seldom get sick is because I am without a doubt the biggest wimp when ill with

even the smallest of ailment. In the wee hours of that morning I

experienced pain that required an emergency room visit that would only be appeased by really strong drugs. Kidney stones were detected, passed and I was sent home with instructions if I wasn’t better in a couple of days to see my own doctor. Things didn’t get better and that Friday my doctor thought I had a sick gall bladder which an ultrasound confirmed.

I was put in the hospital Friday night with surgery planned for Saturday. Removal required the relatively old-fashion surgery of being opened up and an additional five days in the hospital. My time in the hospital confirmed things I knew, what others have told me and taught me things I had no idea of.

First, I really am a big wimp and a horrible patient. Hospitals are nowhere to go to for rest, being sick will let you know who cares about you and nurses are the most underappreciated folks in health care. Did I say how miserable a patient I was?

My nurses were extremely professional and caring to me and several others despite working 13 to 15 hours a night.

The first night was the worst and each day I gradually got better while experiencing an appreciation for what nurses do for those most in need.

Thank you to my wife, the doctors, nurses and the folks at St Joseph’s for making me well, and for all the support, thoughts, prayers, cards, flowers, gifts and prepared meals from family, friends and employees at The Press.

I left the hospital with a new appreciation for the blessing of good health, praying I’ll never have to spend another night, but comforted knowing that if need be it will be there.

Three year-old Lady Bug Braelyn Versen helped her parents Mark and Jessie hand out treats for the Ramada Inn at Treat Street Monday night.

Some things people come to expect and look forward to like Halloween, and area kids and their parents have come to make Malloween and Treat Street a large part of a safe trick or treating experience. Malloween is held at Prarie Hills Mall where merchants hand out treats inside the mall and out of the weather. Malloween and Treat Street have been happening long enough that they certainly qualify as Dickinson traditions. To those new to the community Treat Street is where businesses gather at the Ramada Inn to hand out treats to kids. Kids like at the mall don’t have to brave the cold or snow  and are in a safe environment. Dan Porters Motors the Ramada Inn and businesses have partnered for years to make the event much enjoyed by kids and their parents. Until this year businesses would rent motel rooms at a fraction of the normal rate and decorate them for kids to travel through to pick up treats and be spooked in the process. This year it looked for a while there wouldn’t be a treat Street but at the 11^th hour the Ramada Inn staff stepped up and rerouted kids through their beautiful new meeting rooms. The Ramada did a fantastic job decorating and directing traffic for the event. Thanks to the Ramada Inn the tradition continued uninterrupted. The Press was lucky enough to participate again and I think the new format was even an improvement to an already great family event. Once again there were really great costumes some store bought and others the product of great imagination. All of them took some planning before and on Halloween creating the type of memories that kids, parents and grandparents will remember forever. Bonita Ellis from our sales department and I handed out treats to probably a 1000 kids. Handing out candy is almost as much fun as getting it, and when people asked me how many kids we had for Trick or Treat the next day I could honestly answer over a 1000.  The Prairie Hills Mall and the Ramada Inn deserve a big thank you from our community for helping to insure that our community can continue to have a safe and fun Halloween. 

To every kid growing up in Arizona in the 60’s baseball was king. I played two innings in right field for Arizona Sash & Doors little league team, because everyone was guaranteed to play. Still despite a lack of talent I love to watch baseball and largely because the game hasn’t changed much in the last 150-years.  

My wife and I were lucky enough to catch a Texas Rangers game this spring and I have been pulling for them ever since my Chicago Cubs and Baltimore Orioles fell out of contention sometime in late April, that and the fact they are playing the hated St Louis Cardinals the Cubs biggest rival. The one thing that has changed about baseball is how and when we watch. During the 60’s there was no ESPN and ABC’s Saturday game of the week was the only chance we had to watch a game on TV. If we wanted more live coverage the Dodgers broadcasted their games in our area on the radio. Night games we listened to Vince Skully’s play by play in our rooms with the volume turned down on our transistor radios, because bedtime was 8:30 and west coast night games didn’t get over to near midnight. Day games could be listened to at our leisure, except for those played during school hours. Transistor radios were strictly forbidden at school even during lunch and recess. Radios would be seized and every kid knew you would be in big trouble. Your parents would have to retrieve your radio, and that presented a double dose of big trouble.  No teacher ever accused me of being a model student, but even I accepted that finding out who won the days games would have to wait until after school. That was until the fall of 1967 when I was a 6^th grader at Julia Keen Elementary. Like a lot of baseball fans I was mesmerized by the Boston Red Sox who had won the pennant after finishing in 9^th place the year before. Add they were playing the hated Cardinals made it all the harder to sit in class knowing I could be watching or at least listening to the World Series. When the Series reached game seven it was too much for a 12 year-old to take. That morning after installing fresh batteries I hid my radio in my jacket and snuck it to school hoping no one would notice. I quickly ate my lunch and rushed to the farthest point on the playground.  I turned my back to school and tuned in the game. Just about the time I thought things couldn’t be better from behind me I heard an adult ask who’s winning? Standing behind me was not just a teacher but the principle herself Mrs. McBride. Damn Cardinals I said without thinking. I don’t know what possessed me to swear to the head teacher, but my thoughts quickly switched to the impending reprimand. To my surprise she simply replied rats and continued on her way.  I don’t know why I received the reprieve but knew better to question my good fortune. I quickly turned off and hid the radio and joined the rest of the kids in school. Tuesday I was watching the World Series when my wife came in to the room and asked who’s winning? Damn Cardinals I said once again with out thinking!

Rocky Butte Park

Like every place I’ve lived up north people in Dickinson love to talk about the weather, and relish the opportunity to preach about the impending worst winter ever. The only thing more fun it seems is warning newcomers from the south about winters past and the coming perfect storm. I experienced this phenomenon my first winter in Bozeman when a fellow worker Tom warned me all summer long and beginning with the first frost and everyday after how cold it was going to get. I grew up in Arizona and that first winter was nothing like I had ever experience, but there was no way I would give him the satisfaction of knowing how cold I really felt. Every time he would ask if I was cold and remind me it was going to get colder I would shrug nonchalantly and say it isn’t so bad. My breaking point came in February working outside and the temperature about ten below and a twenty mile an hour wind.  I finally broke and asked Tom if this was cold yet.  To his credit he admitted that it was in fact really cold, and at least than I had a point of reference. I have lived my adult life in Iowa, the Dakotas and Montana and have never heard anyone forecast a particularly mild winter.  In addition to the Almanac and the National Weather Services, I have heard forecasts based on the heavy hair of animals, storage piles of rodents, early waterfowl flights and last year the spleen of a pig. Sometimes they’re right other times wrong and quite honestly none more accurate than the other.  Winter can be beautiful but dangerous and preparing just makes sense. I’ve learned to not spend so much fretting about winter that I don’t enjoy arguably the best time of the year. This year we have had so many beautiful fall days that are too gorgeous to waste. The fall is the perfect time for that last round of golf, a drive through the Badlands, walk in the park, my favorite pheasant hunting, and even raking leaves.  Still the Farmer’s Almanac weather bible to so many is predicting a colder and snowier winter than average, and the national weather service is predicting a colder than average winter with slightly above average snow. With out hearing from the pork spleen yet let me add my forecast to the rest. Winter will be here soon enough so don’t waste the last days of fall and no matter what Mother Nature brings it won’t be anything most of have not been through before and nothing we won’t survive.

Driving back from lunch I noticed a kid riding his bike at the Badlands Activity Center and thought to myself he was enjoying his last day of freedom. School is starting and I can remember how much bigger the first day of school use to be.

 I can’t remember starting kindergarten, but can my kids first day. Before my daughter started school she would sit staring out the window as neighborhood kids climbed on that yellow school bus. She couldn’t wait to join them, which lasted till the first day when she came home and told her mom and me she had enough of school.  Two years later her brother joined her decked out in all the latest Barney garb money could buy, only to find out in the eyes of his fellow students Barney was definitely preschool and it never again saw the light outside his closet. Peer pressure is cruel no matter the age Every year offered new challenges and anxiety whether starting at new schools because we had moved are they had moved up to middle or high school. I remember wondering which was worse sharing your school with your little brother or older sister. Was elementary school better once your older sister had moved on? There was the high school freshman who was hardly recognizable as the senior four years later what seemed a millisecond to me but surely an eternity to them.   I’m sure all parents have similar memories. Now that the kids are grown the first day of school isn’t the event it use to be for my wife and I, but for parents and kids in school the first day of school is every bit as exciting as it has always been.  The start of school always adds a little more stress to an already hectic schedule for families. I always try and remember to be a little more cautious driving when school starts. To the student are parent it is hard to imagine there are only so many first days of school to enjoy and before they know it won’t be near the event it is today.