Thoughts and Greetings From North Dakota

Welcome to North Dakota postage stamp.

The world is happening all around us. Thank God for the opportunity to look around, experience, engage and enjoy.

We are in Bismarck (population 61,272 as of the 2010 census) today, the state capital of North Dakota. People are happy, excited and friendly. You can sense the oil money all around. The roads are wide and smooth and heavily populated with late model full-size SUV's and extended cab pick-up trucks. Buildings are new and bright -- construction projects abound. Help wanted signs are everywhere. Traffic volume is up, stores are buzzing and restaurant parking lots are crowded. The daily newspaper is four sections thick. Awash in oil revenues, the state has created a massive legacy fund, and a revolving school construction bond fund that parcels out loans to local school boards charging one percent interest. If you want work, if you need work, this is the place to come.

It being January, the deal -- of course -- comes with some conditions. In the eastern half of the state there are ground blizzard warnings, as 50 plus mile an hour wind gusts roil down the plains from Canada stirring up snow to cause limited -- as low as zero -- visibility. The forecast for this afternoon in Bismarck is for wind chills down to -30 degrees Fahrenheit. Tonight, the raw temperature is expected to drop to 24 below zero.

Four "March for Life" buses loading in Atchison, Kansas.
 Photo Kansas City Star.

Meanwhile today, back in DC, in the Nation's capital, the March for Life goes on on this anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision, despite the ice and snow that closed down your federal government yesterday and most schools throughout the region staying closed today. During the decades I worked in DC, this usually was the largest demonstration of the year, yet it receives scant media attention. I could not help but notice the hundreds of buses that ferried in passengers from throughout the country, parked along and surrounding the three mile loop that rings Hains Point. No other event brought in so many.

I admit, that most of my adult life I was indifferent to abortion. I would say, I can't get pregnant. It's not my issue. Then we had kids in what are referred to geriatric pregnancies, which means that every time mom twitches, someone is doing a sonogram. Early term in multiple pregnancies, I repeatedly saw the squirmy, active, engaging humanoid within and saw and heard the tiny beating heart. After that experience I don't see how I could have the heart to be party to a decision to terminate a baby. I wish that, somehow, others could have the same experiences to assist in bringing the scourge of abortions to an early end. God bless my wife for sticking with it and giving birth to our three little miracles.

Our three little miracles.