Just My Opinion - by Mary Kilen
What A Wild Weekend Of Weather
It was crazy to watch the weather over the weekend. On Friday I waited for the rain to come. I was praying we would make it through the football game before the rain came. Fortunately, it was just a few sprinkles during the game. The storms overnight were loud and brought a lot of rain to the area.
Saturday morning included more rain, but fortunately for the Stanley Commercial Club it let up and the Grapes and Grains walk did not require participants to carry an umbrella. That happened a couple of years ago.
Sunday, on the other hand, was one for the record books in North Dakota. While it was cloudy and humid in our part of the state in the afternoon and early evening, storms were firing in the southern part of the state that brought an unreal number of tornado warnings and tornado sightings. Those continued to move towards the north in what looked almost like a straight line.
Meteorologists are calling Sunday historic in that it was the largest single-day September tornado outbreak on record. There were 19 reported tornadoes and 25 tornado warnings. That compares to 24 tornadoes total in September from 1950 to 2024.
When the storms first started, the tornadoes were mostly in open areas. There was little in the way of damage to property, although the fields they passed over were definitely impacted. Some of the later tornadoes were being ranked for damage to structures and given EF ratings.
This comes after early September frosts, temperatures giving us nearly all of the seasons, and days of high winds. With the old timers predicting an early and wicked winter, I guess it’s just a warning of what is to come.
In A Week Of Why
No matter how you felt about Charlie Kirk, no matter your political affiliations, last week was hard on this country.
When Charlie Kirk was shot and killed on a Utah campus, the reaction was swift and visceral. The rhetoric got ugly really quickly on both sides of the aisle. It got so bad that I can’t be the only one that needed a social media mental health break.
In the midst of the noise, though, I found this post shared by so many of my friends over the weekend. The post, attributed to Barrett Dunn, had a photo of Melissa Hortman and a photo of Charlie Kirk and read as follows:
“The photo on the left is of Melissa Hortman, former Speaker of the Minnesota State House, a Democrat, a mother, a wife, a public servant, an American, a devout Catholic, beloved by many. Back in June, she was murdered at her home in an act of gross political violence along with her husband, Mark, and their dog, Gilbert. She was murdered because someone disagreed with her politically. There is no excuse that her family or those who knew and loved her will accept for why she is not alive today.
The photo on the right is of Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, a rising star of the Conservative movement, a husband, a father, a friend, an American, a devout Christian, beloved by many. Today, he was senselessly murdered at an event at Utah Valley University. He was murdered while exercising his First Amendment right to free speech. There is no excuse that his family or those who knew and loved him will accept for why he is no longer alive.
Their deaths are not the result of Republican evil or Democratic evil, they are the result of pure evil. Political violence is inherently anti-American and it has no place on the right, in the center, or on the left; political violence has no place anywhere. It’s despicable, it’s disgusting, it should never happen. Evil has the ability to fester on either side of the aisle, and it is the responsibility of all Americans to stop it.
As Americans, we are called to be just that: Americans; not Republicans, Democrats, or independents. As Americans, we should ALL join hand in hand to condemn atrocities like these. As Americans, we should focus on what unites us, not what divides us. What unites us is far greater, far more powerful than what divides us.
My prayers are with the Kirk family, Charlie’s friends and followers, the Hortman family and friends, and for healing throughout America that can rid our nation of this harrowing political violence.”
Maybe we all need to take a step back and think before we speak or post. I miss the days when you could have a mutually respectful political debate. It was okay to agree to disagree. Political differences did not mean that you could not still be friends.
While many are saying that change needs to start at the top, maybe we need to consider that change can start one person at a time. It might not be easy. There may be times when you cannot agree to disagree. But if we don’t try, horrible incidences like this will continue to happen. We really need to remember that we are all Americans. As such, we need to find a way to work across the aisles to find common ground for the better of our nation, ourselves, our children and our grandchildren.