STRIKE THE PHRASE “YA CAN’T FIGHT CITY HALL”

The MATT bus filled with citizens, business people, politicos, staff members working on behalf of the City of Moorhead and media are all proof that yes, indeed, government CAN be reasoned with and eventually brought around to clear thinking and making amends when it has made ill-advised moves affecting hundreds of businesses, the growth of a city and the transportation needs of thousands. The Moorhead business community, led by members of the Moorhead Business Association, fought the long arm of the Federal Highway Administration and with direct help from two Senators, Senator Amy Klobuchar and Senator Al Franken, as well as Congressman Collin Peterson, Moorhead was able to rebuild a vital exit ramp the Federal government dismantled only twenty-three months ago.

Anyone with any experience and knowledge as to how slowly all government agencies will drag their feet when forced to do something they do not necessarily want to do will also understand that getting Moorhead’s I-94 ramp access to Main Avenue rebuilt and re-opened in only 23 months is nothing short of a minor miracle.

Among the citizens who live in Moorhead’s Village Green and Horizon neighborhoods are the businesses located in Moorhead’s Industrial Area off 12th Avenue, as well as Moorhead’s new Menards –which is now only a mere ‘skip and hop’ off of I-94 who will be directly and positively affected by the opening of Moorhead’s new south side ramp. Without the determination of three key members of the Moorhead Business Association and one Moorhead City Councilman in particular, who kept the steam stoked for the fight to rebuild Moorhead’s ramp off the interstate leading to Main Avenue and south highway 52, the ramp opened today would have undoubtedly taken a much longer time to conclude.

The city of Moorhead, its citizens and the south side businesses all owe Bruce Bekkerus of A-1 Automotive, Les Stenerson of Stenerson’s Lumber, Chuck Chadwick, Director of the Moorhead Business Association, and Moorhead’s Fourth Ward City Councilman, Mark Hintermeyer, one whopping “Thank you!” for their vision of building a better and more progressive city, their courage to stand up and be heard for what was honest and right, and for refusing to give in when told by others within the city “nothing can be done.”

They proved that successful outcomes can be achieved when the goal is worth fighting for —even when the odds are not in your favor.

IS IT THE WORD OR THE IDEA?

When I think of “marriage” I think of two people who are not only legally bound to one another, but two people who have vowed to commit their love, their loyalty and fidelity and their complete and absolute trust to one another. The operative word is “commit.” People live together, both in marriages and outside of marriages. Some people remain married – even when the commitment is no longer there for a variety of reasons, often resulting in unhappy children and unhappy lives. Others head for the door after a span of unhappiness and call their lawyers.

My question to anyone opposing marriage for those of the same gender is this: is it the word connecting them and the commitment they want to make to one another as “marriage” that bothers you, or is it because they are in fact gay?

There are many people who really do not oppose gay and lesbian couples having “civil” commitments to each other. Others oppose it simply because they apparently don’t believe gay and lesbian couples have a right to committed happiness. It offends them for a variety of reasons.

Regardless the reason, gay and lesbian people are and always have been first and foremost people. If we first see people as just individuals —sexuality aside, and really, when you think about it—what business is it of yours or anyone’s if the two people committed to one another have sex? Maybe they don’t. Shoot, I know married couples who don’t have sex – at least not with one another. And others who simply don’t have sex together, at all. Yet, they are still together and as committed as the day they were blessed by their priest. What would you call their commitment to each other after twenty years?

We live in a hard world where support and love and total commitment is not easy to find. As a society can we really afford to split hairs on who should have the right to commit to another when we’re basing it only on if they have sex with one another? Sure seems like a waste of time to me.

All questions and emails for Soo Asheim can be sent to: sooasheim@aol.com or to: tfinney@ncppub.com