Columns – Page 2 – Dustin Monke

Burgum Showed North Dakotans Want to Get Back to Business

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Color me shocked that Doug Burgum defeated North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem so soundly in the state’s Republican Party gubernatorial primary.

While we all knew it was possible, I never thought Burgum — a millionaire businessman and entrepreneur — would carry nearly every North Dakota county.

A friend, who is a huge Burgum supporter, asked me on Election Day how I thought it would all play out. I told him there’s no way western North Dakotans would vote for a Fargo tech millionaire to be their governor.

Boy was I wrong. And I wasn’t alone.

Few predicted a Burgum win, let alone a Burgum rout.

From the moment Burgum announced his candidacy, he just seemed to me like a guy with some good ideas who wasn’t going to get the chance to act on them. Sure, he had the money to win an election, but were small-town North Dakotans really going to turn out for this guy at the polls?

Perhaps the answer, in the end, is Burgum simply wanted it more.

He by no means ran a perfect campaign, but he did what North Dakotans wanted him to do — he went and talked to them.

He loaded up his crew in a 1974 bus and visited as many people in the state as he could. He went to places like the Dakota Diner in Dickinson to tell voters his vision for North Dakota. He made visiting small towns a priority, even going to Amidon (where he just happens to own a nearby ranch).

And he spelled out his vision to North Dakotans, who it seems clearly aren’t happy with the Republican Party’s wish for the status quo in the days following the oil boom.

Stenehjem — one of the biggest political faces of the oil boom as a member of the Industrial Commission — didn’t even come close to equaling Burgum’s campaign presence either in person or in advertising.

To his credit, Stenehjem should be commended for taking his job as the state’s attorney general seriously during campaign season and not shirking his duties to endlessly campaign.

Though if he wanted to be governor, perhaps he should have.

The biggest shift from this election, though, was that Democrats crossed the aisle in droves and cast votes for Burgum, who has many moderate to libertarian viewpoints. What that means for the general election, we don’t quite know yet, but signs sure seem to point to a Burgum landslide.

As Forum News Service columnist Mike McFeely put it Wednesday, Democratic governor candidate Marvin Nelson isn’t finding $8 million in a ditch in Rolette County anytime soon.

Sorry Marvin. But he’s right.

Republicans and Democrats came together to send Burgum on the general election, giving one of the state’s top politicians in Wayne Stenehjem a collective thumbs down and signaling a return to a business leader in the same vein as former governors John Hoeven and Ed Schafer.

Remember, neither Hoeven nor Schafer had political experience prior to taking over as governor, but were both well-known business leaders.

So now it’s time for Burgum to do what his Republican outsider counterpart on the national level can’t seem to do — unite his party (and others outside of it) behind him.

Then, should he win in November, he needs to make sure his money was spent wisely and actually do something to help North Dakota.

After all these years, Garth has still got it

Garth Brooks performs Thursday, May 5, 2016, at the Fargodome. Dave Wallis / The Forum — Garth Brooks performs Thursday, May 5, 2016, at the Fargodome. (Dave Wallis / Forum News Service)

There’s nothing quite like a Garth Brooks concert.

The energy, the sounds, the crowds and, of course, the man and his music. The reason why thousands of people are all there, screaming and singing along.

For my generation, there are only a few iconic performers who absolutely must be seen live. Garth Brooks is near, if not at, the top of that list.

For me, it was a 25-year wait to see the country music legend live in concert — perhaps for the final time — last Saturday when my wife and I went to his third of four shows at the Fargodome with a group of friends.

Regardless of if you’re a huge country music fan or just know his songs in passing, there’s no denying the man is a showman. At 54 years old, you’re afraid he’s going to have a heart attack the way he runs around the stage and mixes his energetic character into his musical performances.

I had been to a Garth Brooks concert when I was very young and shortly before he became a worldwide superstar, though I obviously don’t remember it well.

When I was 13, my family had tickets to one of the four sold-out Garth Brooks concerts at the Bismarck Civic Center. I was obviously excited and even though I was fighting the flu, told my parents I was going. Unfortunately, the illness got the best of me and, thanks to some nice security people, I ended up spending the concert sleeping on a couch in someone’s office in the bowels of the Civic Center so my family didn’t have to miss the show.

That tour ended up being one of the biggest in music history and came at the height of Garth’s fame. The Academy of Country Music has named him entertainer of the year six times. The Country Music Association has awarded him the same honor three times. One of those years was 1997, mostly because of the Garth Brooks World Tour that spanned three years and shattered concert tour records.

Needless to say, I was ready to finally see the man live in concert.

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Sitting behind and to the right of the stage, we were obviously a little worried about the seats. Our friends told us not to worry. They’d been to a different concert on this version of Garth’s tour with his wife Trisha Yearwood.

Of course they were right. The show was second-to-none, with 2½ hours of music and an intimate encore acoustic set that changes every night.

One of the most touching moments in ours came as Garth sang one of his biggest hits, “The Dance.” During the song, he pointed the house cameras toward two people in the crowd who had signs for their mom, Joyce, who was a huge fan but had passed away. Their signs said “Thanks for Being a Part of Joyce’s Dance” and had a picture of Garth and Joyce together. Garth got choked up as he sang.

I get goosebumps again just writing about it.

Today’s country music stars should watch a Garth Brooks concert and take notes. Few artists today have the ability to mix poetry and gravitas in their songs and lyrics like Garth, who doesn’t write all of his songs but co-wrote many with a select group of songwriters over the years.

Unfortunately we’re listening to a generation of country music seemingly hellbent on being pop and hip-hop stars — something Garth Brooks, ironically, was accused of during his rise in the 1990s — and singing more about pretty girls, big trucks and drinking beer rather than than putting a little substance and meaning into their music.

I’ve been to those concerts too. They don’t hold a candle the legend that is Garth Brooks.

Keep on Ropin’ the Wind cowboy, and we’ll keep coming back to see you.

Will some Democrats please step up?

Southwest North Dakota is by no means some bastion of political divisiveness. Though, we are absolutely blood-red Republican on the political map, there have always been Democrats willing and able to step up and take a shot at winning local and state elections.

Sometimes — and it wasn’t even that long ago — they won.

It begs the question: What the heck happened to the Democrats?

Last Tuesday night, southwest North Dakota’s Democrats held their party meeting in the conference room at Players Sports Bar and Grill in Dickinson. It was supposed to be part-Super Tuesday watch party, part-nominating meeting for District 36 candidates in the 2016 election.

Not a single candidate emerged from that meeting. No one stepped up as willing to seek the nomination for the district’s three legislative positions up for grabs this November. Instead, the district’s executive committee will likely nominate — i.e. appoint — candidates at the party’s state convention on April 1.

This lack of enthusiastic participation among Democrats is disconcerting to those of us who love the political process and, worse yet, anecdotal evidence suggests it’s a common theme across the state.

On Thursday night, three Republican candidates for governor held a statewide televised debate. The Democrats haven’t even put up one candidate.

Kylie Oversen, the state’s Democratic chair and a Killdeer native, has said numerous times that the party plans to roll out its governor candidate either before or during the state convention.

By then, it’ll already be too late. The Democratic candidate, barring some miracle, doesn’t stand a chance against a fired-up Republican base ready to hold on to the governor’s office for a 25th year and beyond.

So, have our state’s Democrats become defeatists when it comes to statewide positions, or is it something different?

The last Democrat to hold the governor’s office was George Sinner. He beat Dickinson’s Leon Mallberg in 1988 — his final term — with 60 percent of the vote. Since then, the only Democrat to garner more than 45 percent of the vote was in 2000 when our current U.S. senators John Hoeven and Heidi Heitkamp faced off, with Hoeven emerging the victor.

Still, until 2010, all three of North Dakota’s U.S. Congress seats on the left side of the aisle in Washington.

The past few election cycles have made for somewhat shocking turn to the right for a state that once prided itself in bipartisanism.

Now, Heitkamp is the only remaining left-wing politician who holds any major national or state office. And how did she do it? Simple. She has occasionally sided with the pro-oil and pro-coal crowds, often distances herself from President Barack Obama’s most liberal viewpoints and speaks not only to her party’s base, but to moderate swing voters.

So where are the Democrats’ future Heidis? Are they out there and just bad at getting their message out? Are they unelectable because they’re not willing to play the same political game Heitkamp does? Do they even exist?

We’re three months away from June primaries and just under 250 days from the Nov. 8 general election.

Democrats need someone — anyone — to step up soon if the party wants even a fighting chance at winning the state’s gubernatorial or congressional elections. Remember, Hoeven and Rep. Kevin Cramer are up for election too. So far, no challengers.

Republicans have been in charge of state government through good times and bad for nearly a quarter-century, and it seems obvious that Democrats have no real plans to challenge that.

It’s a lack of action that’s frustrating.

As a media member, it’s obviously not fun to cover unopposed political races. More importantly, it would represent an unfortunate step backward in our political process.

Where’s the North Dakota pride and spirit?

North Dakota Democrats need to get their act together, rally their base and find some candidates who can make this a legitimate election. And they need to do so quickly, otherwise the defeatist attitude will translate into exactly that.

An inspiring 103 years

One-hundred and three years is a long time to be alive. Almost too long, one could argue.

But for Mildred Monke, it was a 103-year journey filled with more adventure and challenges than I or many others will likely ever experience in a lifetime.

In June of 1912, Mildred became the first Monke of her generation to be born in North Dakota. She grew up on a farm just down the road from the one where I grew up, but in a wholly different world. She was college-aged by the Dust Bowl years and knew the rigors of living in the country long before cars, satellite TV and Internet connected farm kids to the world.

Millie, a deeply religious woman, wanted nothing more in life but to meet her maker and to be with her family once again. Last Sunday, her wish finally was fulfilled when she passed away following a short but difficult bout with an infection. On Friday morning, we held her funeral at St. John Lutheran Church, where she spent several years as secretary and faithful parishioner.

She outlived two brothers and three cousins, and dozens of relatives and friends, and traveled the world long before the world was easy to travel.

Millie never married and spent 23 of the best years of her life — during which time many of her peers formed families and had children — giving her time and energy to others in India where she served as a Lutheran missionary, mostly taking care of children and the disabled for very meager earnings. I often wonder if the time she spent in India helped prolong her life exponentially, both in a physical and mental sense.

Because so many of our older generation here in Dickinson knew Millie for her work with the church and with various government agencies, last week I was asked several times how we were related.

Mildred Monke is shown during her 100th birthday celebration in June 2012. Our “Great Aunt,” a missionary, author and public servant, died last Sunday at 103 years old.

Mildred and my grandpa Clarence were double cousins. Their fathers, both from Illinois originally, married sisters from their hometown and moved to North Dakota when their father purchased farmland for them. Though they were cousins, Mildred and Clarence acted more like siblings — especially later in life after so many other relatives had passed, including Millie’s mother Sophie at 101 years old.

So to us, she has always been “Great Aunt Mildred.”

It was obvious that the bond between my grandpa and Millie grew stronger as they came to terms with their mortality. When grandpa died two Christmases ago at 93, it left Millie as the last of her generation. When she was told of my grandpa’s passing, you could tell it hurt her. There were many times she told us and others that she was ready to meet her God.

Because I only knew her later in her life, most Mildred stories naturally were ones told to me by my family or her friends and acquaintances. But perhaps what impressed me the most about Mildred is that in her early 90s, she decided to sit down at a laptop computer and write a 110-page book, “North Dakota to India: Memoirs of a Missionary.”

She wrote of her time growing up on the farm. She talked about the conflict she faced as a 20-something who didn’t know what she wanted to do with her life — a problem just as real in the 1930s as it is today — which led to her decision to go to India. She wrote endlessly about the people who kept her there so long. She wrote of the cities and places she saw in the Middle East, including Mount Everest, and the trips she took across the United States, including to both Hawaii and Alaska in her retirement years.

Though her book contains many inspiring anecdotes and moments, Mildred perhaps summed up her life best in a sentence she wrote 20 years ago during her funeral planning. “Mildred leaves this world confident in the promises of her Lord and Savior, and in the great thanksgiving and praise for friends and relatives who made life meaningful and good.”

From the beginning to the end, Millie was a faithful woman. Faithful to her God, and to her family and friends. In many ways, she exemplified what she all hope to be.

We’ll miss you Millie. Thank you for everything!

Stockert a posterboy for US mental health reform

Mental health is an issue seldom talked about in our country in the wake of violence.

However, we had a mental health situation close to home make national headlines last week when Scott Stockert, a Dickinson man with a history of mental health issues, drove his pickup to Washington, D.C. with the alleged intention of kidnapping President Barack Obama’s dog, Bo.

He claimed to arresting officers that he was Jesus Christ and was planning to run for president.

The story went viral not only on The Press website, but on countless others throughout the world.

Millions got a good laugh out of it.

The comments section on our Facebook page were mostly humorous in nature. Yet only a handful of people brought up possible mental health concerns.

The situation wasn’t really something to laugh about.

Continue reading “Stockert a posterboy for US mental health reform”