In The Forum's Dec. 25 "Saving North Dakota" series on page A11, Editor Lou Ziegler's column has a paragraph that is attributed to "James:"
" ... I feel that sticking money into western North Dakota towns in order to keep a few leftovers from a dramatically changed farming system is a huge waste of taxpayer dollars ... Let's use our tax dollars to develop places like Fargo that have real potential and not some unrealistic fantasyland like western North Dakota ..."
James is echoing what I hear more regularly than I like from the man on the street from Fargo. I believe that James and The Forum are doing the state a great injustice in giving a voice that is beginning to be heard loud and clear across the rest of the state.
This has been going on for a long time. When one of the Fargo TV stations complained about coming out to Williston, N.D., to broadcast a national baseball tournament, he commented for the state and for the rest of the country, "Williston, it's not the end of the world, but you can see it from there."
But back to James. "Unrealistic fantasyland?" Western North Dakota produces food that feeds a hungry world which will disappear once you shut down western North Dakota and it becomes a grazing pasture for the prized buffalo.
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"Unrealistic fantasyland." Not so many years ago the state production tax from western North Dakota oil was greater than the state's biennial general budget.
We in western North Dakota sincerely hope that Fargo's potential prosperity will be great as with all of North Dakota. We must work together in the spirit of cooperation to help that become a reality, not only for Fargo, but for the rest of the state as well.
Dean Winkjer
Williston, N.D.
