I’m not sure if it’s news in the rest of the world, but up here in Podunkville, we are having an awful lot of rain, and spring melt. A little bit more than predicted, in fact. The river here in Grand Forks is supposed to crest at 50 feet. That’s not such a big deal, though, because our dike is 60 feet high. Yet, quite a few people are worrying about this, because the flood of 1997 (which I know made national news) is still fresh in nearly everyone’s mind.
A little more worrisome is Fargo, ND where the river is supposed to crest at 40 feet. This wouldn’t be so terrible bad, except for the little fact that they do not have a 60 foot dike. In fact, they barely have an river embankment at all.
This flood brings up three related, but distinct thoughts in my head.
First and foremost, North Dakota is run by a bunch of tight-fisted loons. Feminist blogs should of course remember the “an embryo is a baby” bill, and it was not too long ago that cohabitation was illegal. But, North Dakota tends to get a pass on a lot of things for two very important reasons: one, we’re in the middle of no where, with not a lot of people. Two, we are one of 5 states that our budget is clearly in the black (and without any funny accounting either). Of course, the only reason we are in the black is because, like I have said many times before North Dakota does not fund anything. This is thrown into sharp relief when projects like building a permanent, high dike at Fargo is decided to be not necessary, because hey, we just live in a huge, flat valley with a river that runs north and picks up all of the spring run-off from states south of us. Nothing to see here. I’m sure that it’ll never flood again. < /snark >
The second thought is the total lie that people of my generation do not care about our communities. The bulk of the volunteers who have decided to don rain gear and fill sandbags have been college students. Multiple bus trips from colleges all over the state have been shipping students to Fargo to sandbag. Classes at the Fargo NDSU campus have been canceled, and a good percentage of the students have decided to stay and help. My friends all went today; I’m signed up for tomorrow to go do my part. We care very much about our community, and we are willing to work to keep it in good shape. And no one can come in and say it’s because we are “good stock” here in the heartland. ND colleges boast students from all over the country and world. In fact, the buses are joint ventures from many student organizations, including Students for a Democratic Society, and the International center.
Finally, the last lie that I find really incongruous is the idea that women do not help out as much in an emergency. There are just as many women as men helping out; bagging sand, stacking sand, coordinating, cooking, and just basically making sure everything goes well.
I hope that Fargo doesn’t flood. I hope that the sandbagging is enough and that this can be a cautionary tale that does nothing more than remind the state legislature that we have certain geography and climate responsibilities that they have to take seriously. But, in the end, I will know that if Fargo doesn’t flood, it will because we came together as a community and worked to make it so. No one needed to force us to, no one needed to pay us to. And that fills me with more pride than any thing that has happened in the last eight years.
What kind of people is it that you find having the misconceptions you just mentioned about your generation, and women?
Older men, generally. Sometimes older women. (Older, being my parents age (40′s) and higher).
Occasionally, you’ll get someone in their 20s that is oh-so cynically cool, and believes this generation doesn’t care about anyone. I have just not ever found this to be true.
North Dakota Flooding Reminds People Of North Dakota’s Existence
By the way, how was it? Fun? Depressing? Both?
*hangs head* Embarrassing. I truly tried to keep up with the sandbagging, but I could only last about an hour and my arms refused to lift any more. I had to be a bag- tie person.
But if there had been nobody around to tie bags, the whole effort would have been lost! You’re still my hero.