PRAIRIE ROSES: To the hundreds of parents and local businesses who donated time and money to put together another successful Senior All-Night Party. More than 500 graduates from Fargo's public high schools attended the June 2 event, which lasted into the early morning hours of June 3. It was another smashing success.
PRAIRIE ROSES: To America Crystal Sugar Co. and Riley Trucking for diverting their trucks from Clay County Road 3 (Oakport Street North) through Crystal Creek, River's Edge and Johnson Park and moving them to Highway 74. This has made for a much safer road for area residents who use Oakport Street to get to the park.
PRAIRIE ROSES: To Alfred Ngong and Abraham Deng, the first so-called Lost Boys of Sudan to graduate from high school in Fargo-Moorhead. They graduated from West Fargo High School. Ngong will train as a civil engineer at North Dakota State University and Deng will attend Minnesota State University Moorhead. The two 19-year-olds have been on their own since they were 4 and have seen the horrible side of life few of us will ever have to endure. They are hard-working and friendly. We wish them every success in their college endeavors.
PRAIRIE ROSES: To the linguists from schools in North Dakota and South Dakota, and Indiana University, who have consolidated resources in an effort to preserve Lakota, the dying language of the Sioux Indians who once roamed much of the Great Plains states. Experts fear that in less than a decade, fewer than one in 20 Sioux will be able to speak Lakota. Within a generation, it could become a dead language, studied by scholars but no longer spoken. That would be a tragedy.
LEAFY SPURGE: To those who have had a hand in failing to ensure that support for the arts communities in both Minnesota and North Dakota remains strong. Trouble is brewing in the arts community and many arts organizations are fighting for fewer dollars these days. Support is down across the board -- from the corporate world to foundations to public support at the state and local levels of government. Sometimes it seems that the arts aren't even on the radar screen, and that's a shame because a world without art is a much duller place in so many different ways.
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LEAFY SPURGE: To House Judiciary Committee Chairman, Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., who maintains the Justice Department has gone too far in giving the FBI broad new authority to monitor Americans. This authority does not, as Sensenbrenner maintains, "throw respect for civil liberties into the trash heap." These are extraordinary times and extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures. In this age of terrorism, being safe is better than being sorry.
LEAFY SPURGE: To the towboat pilot who claims he blacked out recently before his barge struck an interstate highway bridge in Oklahoma. Vehicles plunged into the void after the barge he was pushing took out a 500-foot section of the span, killing 14 people. He claims he has a heart condition he didn't know about, but investigators said he had less than 10 hours of sleep in the two days before the collision. The state of Oklahoma has sued him. There may be more here than meets the eye.
Forum editorials represent the opinion of Forum
management and the newspaper's Editorial Board. "Roses and Spurge" appears today instead of its regular Monday slot because of election editorials.
