However they have a reasonably balanced article about the Dakotas. I do wish the Dakota leaders would have a better more balanced look at who they really are. They don't.
Read the article which says in part:
The Great Plains, which makes up more than 15% of the USA's land area through 10 states but holds barely 3% of the nation's population, is going through another transformation.
Small towns are still dying, but economic enterprises are emerging from this environmental effort
There will be communities that are 500 people strong that will thrive … and others that won't."
"It's unfair to say, 'Well, my grandparents settled here and they farmed, therefore I should be able to farm and my grandchildren should be able to farm,'
Maybe we did have more people than the land could sustain,"
"It's got to be better than things like casinos, prisons and hazardous waste dumps. … What we've got is a Plan B for a region whose Plan A has been failing it for well over a century."
The Poppers who 20 years ago got so much heat for calling the Great Plains Buffalo Commons are being vindicated. Many of the things I wrote in my little book on the Great Plains have come to pass and are coming to pass. It's easier to see the forest if you aren't so deep in the trees.
I won't say I have great hope. I'm nostalgic. But I'm a realist. We don't need plan B, we need a new plan A. I'm not certain that leadership exists in North Dakota today.
Pity. A generation from now they'll get it right. Till then Dakota and much of the great plains will suffer.
No comments:
Post a Comment