Articles written by Lloyd Omdahl
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The bitter realities of growing old
After one week in first grade, my daughter came home with a conclusion about life: “Life is hard and then you die.” Fast forward that through job losses, divorces, chronic ailments and kids for...
Legislature casting eyes on huge Legacy Fund
After 10 years of waiting for the courage to tackle spending the $8 billion Legacy Fund, the present legislature has blossomed with more ideas than dandelions in an unkempt cemetery. Legislators and c...
The Brick: Enrollment equation is getting worse
When Professor Elwyn Robinson wrote his comprehensive history of North Dakota in the 1950s, he coined a phrase that stuck. He called it the “too much mistake” because Dakotans in the 1880s had...
Governor: Let's Talk About COVID-19
At this stage of the political campaigns, the votes are all determined so we should be able to discuss the COVID-19 without all of its political rhetoric. We have nothing to lose if we are open and ci...
Home committee takes on pandemonium
Chairperson Ork Dorken hadn't even rapped his Coke bottle on the table when Old Sievert burst into the community ZCBJ hall to join the town's 13 other electors for a meeting of the Community Homeland...
Measure #2 solves nothing in higher ed.
Proposing to double the size of the Board of Higher Education, Measure #2 threatens to burden the system more than help. This November 3 ballot measure has yet to be explained by its legislative...
Legislature trying to block amendment measures
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 stra...
Adult conversations need some adults
A few weeks ago, Senator Cramer suggested it was time to have an adult conversation about the national debt, Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. Once again, initial thoughts of the “haves” is...
North Dakota is facing realities of coal decline
With the closure of the state’s largest power plant and coal mine a certainty in 2022, North Dakota is forced to accept the realities facing a coal industry that has existed since settlement days....
Praise God! Churches not going bankrupt
“Church donations have plunged because of coronavirus. Some churches won’t survive.” That’s what the newspaper headlines blared a couple of weeks ago as the financial problems of churches...
Is state bankruptcy waiting in the wings?
The Founding Fathers, mostly Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, didn’t expect that a by-product of federalism would be state bankruptcies. But that is what could happen if we adopted U.S. Senate...
North Dakota has a lot of social distance
While most people have been badmouthing the coronavirus, I am trying to look on the positive side. This hope that we will bounce back the better for it is unfounded. We need to search for the good...
Pain of true believers in body politic
The country is now in the grips of a mysterious bout with polarization not seen for generations in American society. Hate and anger seem to have displaced civil discourse and honest disagreement. For...
People need a sense of belonging
One Sunday morning the pastor said that “everyone has a need to belong.” He was confirming God’s earlier statement that it was not good for man to be alone. That profound observation stuck with...
This is the season for ceasefires and love
The era of good feeling between Thanksgiving and Christmas is an excellent time to take a serious look at a country muddled in violence, bigotry, intolerance, polarization and hatred. And, on top of...
Wanted: Democratic candidate for Governor
WANTED: Gubernatorial candidate with no previous political experience to defeat a man who has been governor for four years. Any young man, resident of the state, preferably a veteran, fair education,...
Stamping out the stigma of mental illness
October is “Stamp Out Stigma” month being sponsored by the Association of Behavioral Health and Wellness (ABHW) to reduce the public stigma of mental illness and disorders caused by substance...
Ole gets 300 years in clean machine
Ole Thornerson was wheezing and snorting as he stumbled up the last golden step to Pearly Gate 333. He expected a huge crowd of friends and relatives cheering him for making it but he was faced with...
Legislature's hostility to ethics proves the polls
By choking the effectiveness of the new Ethics Commission, the legislature proved that the negative polls were right. EMC Research of Washington, D.C. conducted polls to assess the voters’ perceptio...
Prices keep rising but lives are still cheap
There is little doubt that we are seeing a universal rise in prices. Nevertheless, lives are getting cheaper as society continues to tolerate deadly public policy, usually in exchange for money and...
Greenland Lust revives Manifest Destiny
Manifest Destiny was born in 1845 when U.S. politicians sought to justify the seizing of other countries’ territory as God’s plan for America, starting with the annexation of half of Mexico....
Let's treat everybody like people
The state legislative leadership recently announced that they were going to the people to get suggestions for the use of the interest running into the hundreds of millions generated by our $6 billion...
Attorney General: 'it's the right thing to do'
When Director of Corrections and Rehabilitation Leann Bertsch announced a new Justice Reinvestment program to reduce the prison population and cut recidivism, this column hailed the program with a...
Home committee has more votes than voters
Chairman Ork Dorken scanned the town’s electors gathered in the community hall for the quadrennial testing of the presidential waters with a seminar on voting. “Eleven persons being present, I...
'Send her back' brings Emma to tears
Congresswoman Ilham Omar, a Somali-American, expressed some partisan criticism and was immediately trashed by a crowd in North Carolina with the chant “Send her back,” indicating that she had no...