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Saturday, July 04, 2009

Amber Waves of Weeds

Written by Sam Hurst

Yelllow Clover and the river

he plains are ablaze with yellow sweet clover (Melilotus officinalis). Pastures of green cool season grasses are now marbled with expanses of yellow that give tourists from Wisconsin a vague but pleasant feeling that they have stumbled into a Green Bay Packer victory parade. The Forest Service Ranger station in Wall reports that tourists are gushing with enthusiasm about the golden beauty of western South Dakota. Beekeepers have doubled the number of bee hives in remote pastures, and look to make a once-in-a-decade killing on honey. So what's the problem?

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By Sam Hurst 01 July 2009 Full Article

It Is Time for all South Dakotans to Celebrate Sun Dance

Sun dance

Written by Sam Hurst

he first Sun Dances of the summer begin this week on Pine Ridge. It is a testament to the vitality of Lakota culture that after almost a century of government and church effort to repress and destroy this cornerstone of traditional Lakota spirituality, there will be over fifty Sun Dances this summer. The dances are closed to the public, and closed to gawking tourists. Photography is forbidden.

In modern American culture, where politicized religion is sold on television like Tupperware, where fear of the devil haunts the sermons of evangelical ministers, the Sun Dance shines as a spiritual expression quietly rooted in family and community. Sun Dance circles have no interest in proselytizing a faith, and no interest in publicly flaunting their beliefs.

For Sun Dancers, the eagle bone whistle, the rhythmic stamping of the feet, the fast, the sacrifice, the love of family provide the spiritual power that drives the celebration.

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By Sam Hurst 27 June 2009 Full Article

"But It Doesn't Get Sorted Anyway"

Written by Aaron Sanders and Loy Maierhauser
Si Issler and Loy Maierhauser look over the separation facility

e've heard the excuse time and again when confronting people about why they're not separating their recyclables. "It all gets sorted when it goes to the dump anyway. Why should I take the time to take out the recyclables?" The truth is, you are wasting your money by not recycling. Rapid City’s waste separation facility is state of the art, but it’s not being used at its capacity. Who’s to blame?

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By Aaron Sanders and Loy Maierhauser 03 June 2009 Full Article

Is There A Future for Downtown Rapid City? Anchor Growth to the School of Mines

Written by Sam Hurst

A desolate backyard in Rapid City

ate in life, having conquered the literary world, Gertrude Stein returned to her childhood neighborhood in Oakland, California and went looking for her home. She could not find it. "The problem with Oakland..." she later wrote, "...is that once you are there, there is no there, there." The remark captured Oakland's historic insecurity, a rough and tumble naval port trapped between the academic pretensions of Berkeley and the cultural pretensions of San Francisco.

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By Sam Hurst 01 May 2009 Full Article

Economic Policy Perspective

Will Health Care Reform Be Hijacked Once Again?

Written by Thomas L. Dobbs, Professor Emeritus of Economics, South Dakota State University

Professor Thomas L. Dobbs

ith political friends like former Senator Tom Daschle, does President Obama need any enemies? The health care reform plan released June 17 by Daschle and other former Senate Majority Leaders Bob Dole and Howard Baker, both Republicans, represents the kind of 'bipartisan' compromise that could effectively emasculate health care reform under the Obama Administration. Unless a strong public plan that is available to everyone is part of the final reform package, I see little chance for either comprehensive cost control or universal and fairly priced health insurance coverage for American citizens.

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The Edge

Green Cities Forum: A Failure of Democracy

Written by Sam Hurst

Portrait of Sam Hurst

hat we have here is a failure of democracy.

I went to the Green Cities Forum a few weeks ago, sponsored by Democracy in Action. Over the last few years DIA has emerged as a powerful grassroots voice for good government and green initiatives. I expected an affirmation of community-scale environmental policies, but as so often happens in Rapid City, I found myself smack in the middle of a political hijacking.

Let me set the stage.

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Profile

Theresa Two Bulls: At Pine Ridge, A Calm Hand on the Reins of Tribal Government

Theresa Two Bulls

EDITOR'S NOTE: Last December Theresa Two Bulls was inaugurated as the new President of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. With 40,000 citizens, half of whom are under eighteen, a runaway obesity and diabetes epidemic, 80% unemployment, chronic debt, and myriad daily crises, being President on Pine Ridge hardly seems like a political prize. In fact, Theresa Two Bulls claims she didn't really want the job. But she has brought an amazing gift for consensus building to Council meetings, and a calm hand on the reins. Close your eyes, listen to her quiet confidence, and she sounds a lot like Barack Obama. President Two Bulls was interviewed recently by Sam Hurst.

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The Sideline

Year-round schools: worth a limited trial

Written by John Tsitrian

John Tsitrian

hope that the impending departure of Dr. Peter Wharton as Superintendent of Rapid City Area Schools will prove to be a catalyst for some re-evaluation of some basic assumptions in the way our schools are run, not only in Rapid City, but throughout the state. Among them is the notion that schools need to adhere to an annual September to May/June calendar year, an idea that made some sense in the days of family farming when kids needed to be at home to work in the fields during the summer months. Nowadays the idea is an anachronism that should be abandoned for the sake of efficiency and maximizing school resources.

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