Fargo

Fargo, North Dakota, a town most people only have heard of from the Coen brothers' movie of the same title, is today making national news. Unfortunately it's not good news. The largest city in the state, along with neighboring Moorhead, MN, and various small communities along the Red River, are all about to be severely water-logged. That's the bad news. The good news is the amazing effort being put into stopping that from happening.

I grew up in North Dakota and spent over five years living in the Fargo/Moorhead community. I know the people and the way they're pulling together and working to just get the job done is a shining example of what make the people so great. There is no waiting for someone else to come do the job, they all pull in and get down to business. It's that midwestern work ethic you hear so much about. Not to mention the optimism.

The Red is expected to now crest at three to four feet higher than it did during the disastrous flood of 1997. In '97 the river was at nearly the breaking point for Fargo, and it was far beyond the break point for Grand Forks. Just a few more feet could really do serious damage to Fargo (Grand Forks is now very well protected after the building of dikes to prevent another 1997). But did the folks of Fargo give up? Absolutely not, the new, higher crest predictions may be a setback but there's still hope, there's still optimism that the Red can be held back. That's the wonderful upper midwest spirit.

I do hope that the citizens of Fargo/Moorhead succeed, and in a day or two we will know if they did. I really wish I could be there helping out. I wouldn't mind throwing a few sandbags around. That's part of my North Dakotan coming out, volunteering for manual labor even though I have no stake in it. And that's what's great about the people. It's not about them, it's about their neighbor. 

I wish the Fargo/Moorhead residents the best of luck. I know they can succeed.