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Showing posts with label Vermillion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vermillion. Show all posts

Friday, November 19, 2010

"God Hates South Dakota"? Westboro Whackos Coming Sunday and Monday

Worse than wingnuts: A Facebook friend alerts me that the Westboro Baptist Church is coming to South Dakota Sunday and Monday scream and holler and make Christians look bad.

I'll direct you to their website, even though their URL demeans homosexuals and God, and even though their icon desecrates the American flag by flying it upside down. You can find there the following picketing schedule for these angry, deluded, inbred Christian fakers:
  1. First Congregational Church, Sioux Falls, November 21, 2010, 10:00 AM - 10:30 AM. "WBC to picket this dog kennel where the big lies are taught." What, is First Congregational doing the blessing of the animals this weekend?
  2. St. Joseph Cathedral, Sioux Falls, November 21, 2010, 10:30 AM - 11:00 AM.
    "
    WBC will faithfully remind their fellow man in Sioux Falls that priests rape children! Giving your children over to those pedophile rapists is equivilent—" wait. At the point where the Phelps family points at St. Joseph's and squeals "these rapists," that's slander, right? Bring your camcorders and your lawyers.
  3. Calvary Cathedral, Sioux Falls, November 21, 2010, 11:30 AM - 12:00 PM... because Bishop Gene Robinson is the greatest threat to humanity in the world.
  4. Washington High School, Sioux Falls, November 22, 2010, 7:40 AM - 8:10 AM. Great, even more congestion in the Warrior parking lot.
  5. University of South Dakota, Vermillion, November 22, 2010, 9:30 AM - 10:00 AM. "These institutions of so-called higher learning are pathetic substitutes for reading the Bible and BELIEVING GOD!" Right—try substituting "Read Bible" and "Believe in God" for "Graduated summa cum laude, USD Law" or "MBA" on your next job application. Really.
I am at a loss as to recommend the proper response. An angrier atheist than I—or heck, even a good Christian disgusted with such grandstanders puffing themselves up with sensational hate—might get some friends together to organize counter-protests. But some people, like Fred Phelps, are so mentally unbalanced, so incapable of rational discourse, so dedicated to making themselves feel important by drawing attention to their madness through any means available, that it's not worth good people's time to give them any attention. I'm probably helping them "win" here by even mentioning their little protests.

I have an easy out: the Phelps shouters aren't coming to my school or my town. They aren't laying picket lines anywhere that I must cross. But parishioners at three Sioux Falls churches and students at Washington and USD will face a brief test of character Sunday and Monday. How will they respond to crude, aggressive insults offered in a spirit of sheer, selfish hatred? How will parents explain to their children the deception and malevolence that drives these "Christians"? And how will they stop the Westboro infection of hatred from spreading?

-----------------------
Update 2010.11.20 06:06 CST: Looks like the coming South Dakota appearances of the Phelps fakers may end up going about as well as this Thursday demonstration in front of a mosque in Dearborn, Kansas, where counter-protesters outnumbered Westboro "Baptists" about 10 to 1. Two Sioux Falls copunter-protests have popped up on my Facebook invite list:
  1. Love Is Bigger Than Hate: Tove Bormes started this event. Attendees plan to bring signs and music to all three church events. Says Bormes, "[R]ather than addressing our protest at the idiots, address it to those watching, with positive messages about a) God's love, and/or (for you atheist and agnostic pals o' mine!) about your acceptance of ALL people." Thanks for including us secularists, Tove!) People who've clicked "Attending": 379.
  2. Protesting the Anti-American Westboro Baptist Church: Fellow DSU denizen Scott Richardson has put up this event. They're bringing American flags. Four attendees so far.

Friday, July 23, 2010

Potpourri: Local School Lunch, Gluttony, Tea Party Civil War

Too many browser tabs: time to clear the queue!
  1. Cool news from Flying Tomato: the Vermillion School District is looking to add locally grown food to its fall and spring lunch menus. Hooray! Vermillion's food service is run by Lunchtime Solutions, Inc., the same privateers that Madison contracts with for burgers and fries. The company has previously bought local foods in Mission Hill, Sioux City, and Springfield. Maybe they can look into feeding kids some garden surplus right here in Madison.
  2. But don't eat too much: Pastor Shel points to this Ryan Andrews article to remind us that gluttony—not just overeating, but all overconsumption—is a sin.
  3. Sounds like gluttony for power may be breaking up South Dakota's noisiest Tea Party. Gordon Howie handed presidency of the Citizens for Liberty over to septic-tank crusader Barb Lindberg so he could run for governor. Left with nothing better to do after his fourth-place primary finish, Howie noe wants his presidency back. Citizens for Liberty is thus embroiled in a power struggle hilarious for its contradictions and small potatoes. The group demands open government, but then club agitator Shad Olson criticizes Lindberg for speaking to the press. They demand adherence to the Constitution, then conduct board votes unsupported by any published by-laws. Conservative Michael Sanborn gives Citizens for Liberty the what-for they deserve.

Friday, June 4, 2010

Research, Marketing, and Economic Development in the I-29 Corridor

That Sioux Falls paper reports that the I-29 Regional Development Coalition (of which Madison is a taxpayer-supported member) is starting to get the return on its $118K investment. Regional Technology Strategies of North Carolina presented findings at DSU Wednesday. RTS's two big recommendations pretty much confirm what various local economic developers were already thinking:
  1. Boost university research.
  2. Market the region.
Boosting university research sounds great, but RTS CEO Trent Williams tells us that to achieve that goal (Brenda Wade Schmidt's words), "the state universities need to hire scientists." Oops: was that really the right thing to say when Republicans and Democrats alike are making political hay with promises to cut state government? Remember, a lot of the growth in state government under the Rounds/Daugaard administration has come from the Board of Regents hiring more researchers—including me—to do exactly what RTS is recommending. Candidates, are you sure you want to reverse that process?

Now don't let Dwaine Chapel get on the committee working on #2: he'll put up banners all along I-29. RTS proposes at least creating a website to advertise our South Dakota's urbane East Coast. But continuing the conversation about community branding, Mike Knutson reminds us that advertising is the price we pay for being unoriginal. Create a vibrant culture, strengthen your education system, and energize your local economies, and those advantages will market themselves.

Think of it this way: if you have $200,000, you could hire a scientist and buy a regional ad campaign, or you could hire two scientists. Which do you think will do more concrete good for the community, or in this case, the Corridor?

Down at the south end of the I-29 Corridor, Rebecca Terk is engaging her readers in a substantial discussion of local economic development in Vermillion. She notes with some chagrin that the community's current economic development campaign, Vermillion NOW!, is marked by the same sort of pay-to-play strategy that dictates the Forward Madison campaign: you buy your way into the decision-making process with donations. If economic development groups really want to succeed, they should involve more community members in ways that don't hinge on money. There are lots of community members, from Vermillion and Madison to Sioux Falls, Brookings, and Watertown, who don't have deep pockets but do have deep ideas, not to mention time and sweat they'd be willing to contribute.

The best community development involves everyone in the community, not just the folks with money.

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

D.C. on the Missouri: Notes on Pot and Other Vermillion Mayor Issues

Pot-smoking Vermillion mayoral candidate Nick Severson may want to check on D.C. politics. The city council of our nation's capital will vote today on legalizing medical marijuana. If it's good enough for Washington, it's good enough for Vermillion, right?

I followed up on yesterday's blog post by reading the USD Volante's coverage of Severson's arrest and other issues in his mayoral campaign. The guy actually sounds like a good candidate for the Teabaggers. Severson declines to identify with a political party, saying he wants to get "beyond the bickering of party politics." He wants to get everyone involved in city government. He wants to clean up the city—literally!—by tackling litter. And hey, when Severson advocates legalizing marijuana, he obviously advocates overthrowing the power of the federal government. Forget states' rights; Severson wants cities' rights. That's totally the Tea Party agenda... right?

Monday, May 3, 2010

Severson for Vermillion Mayor! Tax Pot! And Madison Gal Makes News!

KELO interviews Vermillion's "pot-smoking mayor" candidate Nick Severson... who apparently takes a break from composting in his suit by sitting down at his laptop in the middle of the yard. The woman in the street KELO finds to express something like support for Severson's candidacy is Madison native Kristen Ericsson:



Ericsson's sort-of, not-quite endorsement:

Community members say, they're also paying attention. Some even think his decision to stay in the race is a good one.

"Especially because he's willing to, continue his campaign and I think he's brave and I don't know, that's honorable in my opinion that he's not ashamed of what he did,” Vermillion resident Kristen Ericsson said.

Residents say the recent controversy might lure more voters to the polls.

"I dunno, I think with the university, and the young kids here, that might be a popular thing, so he has a good chance, if the students vote, I think so,” Ericsson said [Cherlene Richards, "Mayoral Candidate Arrested for Drugs," KELOLand.com, 2010.05.02].

So why do all the progressive thinkers move away from Madison?

Monday, December 14, 2009

USD Student Project: Hyperion Refinery Not Sustainable

...but USD Math Dept. Cringes at Bad Pollution Math

Old Cranky brings to our attention a Vermillion Plain Talk report about a new assessment of the proposed Hyperion oil refinery in Union County. The assessors: a team of undergrads from the University of South Dakota. The assessment: on four out of five criteria, a big oil refinery near Elk Point is not a sustainable project.

The students are part of IDEA 410, a capstone course in USD's Interdisciplinary Education and Action program. Various sections of the course tackle various issues. This section—titled "Wall Street & Ethics: Do Social Justice, Community, and Sustainability Cost Too Much?"— is apparently taught by USD School of Business Professor Gregory M. Huckabee. And if he can get his kids to do research like this, then I do indeed heart Huckabee!

The students analyzed the Hyperion refinery proposal through a framework of criteria presented in Jared Diamond's Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. Writes VPT's David Lias:

Diamond believes that societies can be determined to be sustainable, or not, by applying five criteria to specific circumstances. These criteria are: environmental damage, climate change, loss of friendly contacts, rise of hostile contacts, and political, economic, social and cultural setting.

The students told aldermen that only the final criteria – political, economic, social and cultural setting – could be deemed sustainable [David Lias, "USD Students: Hyperion Is Not Sustainable," Vermillion Plain Talk, 2009.12.11].

The students identify various problems like the 9 to 12 million gallons of water the refinery would slurp out of everyone's milkshake daily and the 19.6 million tons of pollutants the refinery would belch out in return each year.

The USD students noted in their presentation that some individuals, including Gov. Mike Rounds, argue the emissions from this plant will only be 32 percent of what is currently emitted from Sioux Falls [Lias, 2009.12.11].

The Governor said that? Really?! Hang on, kids: five points off for botching the numbers. According to the South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources (which, interestingly, actually uses exclamation points to explain itself in this Q&A sheet on Hyperion), the proposed refinery would emit a mass of air pollutants equal to 7% of the pollution emitted by everyone in Minnehaha County.

While the kids sign up for spreadsheet lessons, I still would like to ask: since when is it o.k. for one person (and remember, under our twisted laws, a corporation like Hyperion is a "person") to emit as much air pollution as nearly 13,000 people?

Now I think I hear the indigestion burbling up from my conservative friends: bad enough the kids can't run Excel, but they take classes at a public university to promote their liberal tree-hugging (well, cornfield-hugging) agenda? When my conservative friends read the theme of the interdisciplinary program—"Liberal Learning: Students in a Global Community"—they'll lob all sorts of New World Order critiques.

I do find it interesting that these students giving Hyperion a studious thumbs-down are the business school kids. (The hippies at USD are all in theater, right? ;-) ) They didn't just look at the immediate short-term profit; they took the long view, all the way to the boreal forest that has to be torn down and the ducks that get killed to get at the tar sands oil Hyperion would process, the dirtiest oil in the world. Even USD B-school students can recognize that oil like that isn't worth the trouble.

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Why I Love Interp: Students Ask for Encores

As I'm judging the big George McGovern Invitational Forensics Tournament (follow on Twitter! #mcgovdb8!) in Mitchell this weekend, I recall with pleasure a scene from a Region interp contest in Harrisburg Tuesday that reaffirms my love of high school speech activities.

Region Interp contests can get pretty tense. Kids compete plenty hard at the weekend invitationals, but at those contests, you get to perform several times, and there's always the consoling thought that if we don't win here, we can go back, practice, and take another swing at finals next weekend. At Regions, students get one shot at the stage. The top kids in that one-shot performance go to State; the rest go home, done for the season.

There were two boys from Vermillion who presented a duet parody of Twilight. It was sharply executed and funny, skewering one of the most popular elements of contemporary teen mythos. I got to judge that Duet round, and I ranked the Vermillion boys first, complimenting them on producing a performance that wasn't just a competent interp performance but a real crowd-pleaser, the kind of show that could build buzz at a contest.

Talk about buzz. A couple hours later, I handed in my final ballot for the humor round, grabbed my hat, and headed for the door. In the commons area, I saw a crowd of interp contestants—lots of eager young people in black suits and skirts, a seeming hybrid congregation of Broadway hopefuls and MBAs. They were gathered around the two boys from Vermillion, who were performing their duet again. It wasn't a round; there were none of us adults writing critiques or marking ranks. Kids who'd missed the Duet round (Prose and Oratory happened at the same time) had heard about the Vermillion boys' duet and asked them if they'd perform it again. The Vermillion boys, surely flattered and recognizing a great chance to practice in front of an audience, acceded to popular demand. As I walked by, I saw kids from other schools running over to join the crowd and watch this funny impromptu performance.

Now think about this: when's the last time you went to a football playoff game and saw kids from one team asking the kids who just beat them to demonstrate their flea-flicker again, just for their enjoyment?

I love interp and all the speech events that I judge in South Dakota. I get to see kids making good speeches. More importantly, I get to see kids making connections, sharing their skills, and developing true respect for each other and their talents in the heat of competition.

High school speech contests: still the best way to spend a weekend!

Monday, August 31, 2009

Chamber of Commerce Minute: Promote Your Town with Warm Showers!

Bicycling blogger Kevin Brady does the Lord's work and the Chamber of Commerce's by hosting some cross-country bicyclists over the weekend. He also points toward a tourism-promotion strategy that some Chambers of Commerce probably miss.

Mr. Brady's pedaling guests found his Vermillion home via an online service called Warm Showers. The website is mostly just a big list of hospitable folks across the world who are willing to give bicycle tourists a place to stay for the night. I know how happy a long-distance cyclist can be to trade the tent for a roof and a bed for just one night. A welcoming host and a safe place to sleep do wonders to recharge a cyclist for another long day of self-propelled voyaging. Such hospitality also gives tourists a chance to really connect with folks who live here and build fond memories, not to mention some good word-of-mouth that might bring future tourists this way.

Opening our doors to bicycle tourists isn't the big enchilada of tourism promotion. Hosting a cyclist here, and biking family there, won't bring in the sales tax dollars of a signature event like the Threshing Jamboree. But perhaps the Chamber could round up maybe a dozen members to volunteer to join the Warm Showers list. If each of those members manages to snag even one visitor, then heck, we've just brought another dozen tourists—nay, adventurers!—to our fair city... and we've done it without spending one thin dime on marketing or slogans or glossy brochures.

More free tourism consulting, courtesy of the Madville Times!

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Blogs Provide Authentic Content, Promote Rural Communities

Mike Knutson at Reimagine Rural shares this lesson from last week's Midwest Rural Assembly about how authentic local online content—like a humble blog—can bring improvements and residents to rural communities:

Second, social media can be an important marketing strategy for rural communities. I have to come clean in admitting that I entered the conference with strong convictions on the subject. But it was refreshing to hear from Kelly Fuller of Plains Justice who told a story of how she chose Vermillion, SD as the home for her non-profit work in part because she connected with people of similar interests and values in Vermillion who she found through a blog. Through these connections, she and other staff members felt they had received a more authentic view of the community than if they had relied solely on community-based websites for their decision making [Mike Knutson, "5 Things I Learned at the Midwest Rural Assembly," Reimagine Rural, 2009.08.17].

A blog. A real blog. Not the controlled, sanitized content of a Chamber of Commerce Facebook page or a cheesy marketing page. But real residents, telling real stories, and helping visitors get a feel for the real character of a community.

That's the Madville Times has been doing for Madison and South Dakota for four years now. Chamber of Commerce, LAIC, feel free to hit the tip jar (left sidebar!) or just send a check for all the good work the Madville Times does for you.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Vermillion Visionary Featured in Nationwide Young Farmers Profile

The South Dakota Blogosphere's Flying Tomato gets some good national press: Mother Nature Network features Rebecca Terk as one of its "40 Farmers Under 40" (Terk is #39!). The article spotlights young farmers who shatter the stereotype—actually the statistically accurate representation—of agriculture as an old man's field.

Even the USDA recognizes that fewer young people going into farming reinforces the pattern of concentration of ownership, which is bad from pretty much any perspective you choose:
  • free market—less competition;
  • public health—owners have less immediate contact with the land, less attention to the environment and sustainable land management, not to mention more crowded feedlots;
  • biodiversity—more huge monoculture fields and proprietary GM seed;
  • small-town economic sustainability—fewer farm families, fewer kids in school, fewer folks coming to town to buy groceries and hardware.
Rebecca Terk and the other young farmers MNN features are exactly the demographic South Dakota should be recruiting. These young people want to farm. They want to take care of the earth. Bring them to town, and they may not buy a hundred-thousand-dollar combine, but they'll buy a tiller and lumber, groceries and clothes. They'll have kids to fill our classrooms.

And young farmers will be invested in the land and the community in a way that a lot of other workers we might recruit can't be. A typical factory or office job can disappear with the snap of your fingers... or more likely, the snap of someone else's fingers, in a corporate office thousands of miles away. The farm economy can hit hard times, too, but a young farm family has much more autonomy to make its own decision whether to keep making a go of it on land they themselves have bought and tilled and worked themselves to exhaustion on.

Terk has previously gotten me thinking wild thoughts about rebuilding a community of small farmers here in Lake County. Imagine if we could recruit just those forty farmers to come to Lake County and homestead a section divided into small plots for small-scale, sustainable agriculture. What would Lake County get from an infusion of people like this:

...they sometimes work as educators, eco-entrepreneurs, yogis, journalists, filmmakers, activists and doting parents on the side. They're passionate and adventurous. And most notably, they're focused on sustainability and community building [Matt Hickman, "40 Farmers Under 40," Mother Nature Network, 2009.07.21].

I know passion and adventure scare some of my neighbors. I also know some of my neighbors think big is the only way to go in agriculture. Sure, big machines can do a lot more farming than a woman and a man picking peas by hand. But big machines don't put kids in your schools or life on Main Street. Big machines won't keep small-town South Dakota alive.

Congrats, Rebecca, on making the news... and making the future.

Learn more about Rebecca Terk and Flying Tomato Farms in Erin Heidelberger's wonderful three-part feature from 2008 on Prairie Roots.

Monday, July 20, 2009

Plains Justice Presents Health Info on CAFOs and Coal

My friends at Plains Justice let me know that Dr. Donna Wong-Gibbons, a research scientist trained in physiology and epidemiology, is giving two talks on health and industry this week:
  • Tonight in Milbank (Lantern Inn, 7:30 p.m.): how confined animal feeding operations can affect your family's health.
  • Tomorrow night in Vermillion (W.H. Over Museum, 7:00 p.m.): health risks of coal-fired power plants and their industrial waste.
Good chance to learn about cows, coal, and our clean air and water.

Friday, October 24, 2008

Hyperion's Big Slurp: Rural Water Customers Not Impressed

Flying Tomato swaps her garden bibbers for some local politics, offering fine coverage of the big Clay Rural Water System meeting last night in Vermillion. Forty citizens in attendance at a rural water meeting? Yeah, I'd call that big.

Those good citizens came to town to discuss with the Clay Rural Water board Hyperion's request for water service for its proposed refinery near Elk Point. I've heard Hyperion wants 9 to 12 million gallons a day; Flying Tomato reports Hyperion may need up to 15 million gallons a day. Fourteen Clay Water customers spoke last night, and their opposition to granting Hyperion this big slurp was unanimous.

And in response to this public input, the Clay Rural Water board voted 5–3 in favor of "investigating further" whether they should take on Hyperion's water demand. Funny: when I've conducted a public meeting and heard unanimous opposition from constituents, I've voted to drop the issue right then and there, not "investigate further." And in the case of Clay Rural Water, the constituents are paying customers. What ever happened to business listening to consumer demand?

Oh yeah—I guess when the out-of-state gorilla in the room is asking to buy six to ten times as much product as everyone else combined, the loyal local customers find their voices just don't matter as much.

Flying Tomato does give the board some credit: she indicates the board at least recognizes the consensus among its current members. Let's hope the board looks beyond Hyperion's "airy promises of jobs, development, and MONEY" and looks at its water as something to protect for future generations. Saving water for future population growth is a much healthier, safer, more stable basis for economic growth than a single massive investment in a dying energy industry.

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Update
15:45: Flying Tomato offers more on oil and water not mixing. She notes that Clay Rural Water was founded as a happy little non-profit, community-based project, there to provide a service for neighbors and members, not make money. And it's worked for 30 years. Say it softly (Flying Tomato does!): socialism....

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Hyperion Drinks Your Milkshake... and 9 Million Gallons of Water

Daniel Plainview would be proud....

An eager reader points to a note in today's edition of that Sioux Falls paper on an upcoming meeting of the Clay Rural Water System. This Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at Vermillion's 4-H Center (515 High Street), the water system's board of directors discuss a request from Hyperion Resources to supply water for the proposed refinery at Elk Point.

Clay Rural Water currently supplies 1.3 million gallons of water a day to a little over 2000 locations in southeastern South Dakota. Hyperion is requesting a daily supply of 9 to 12 million gallons of water.

Perspective: my wife, my daughter, and I consume about 3000 gallons of water a month from Kingbrook Rural Water. Call it a hundred gallons a day (dang—even that seems like a lot of water!). The water Hyperion is requesting would be enough to meet the needs of 90,000 to 120,000 households like mine. That's another Sioux Falls and then some.

Some communities in the Sioux Falls metroplex are already scrambling to find enough water to support their population growth. The Hyperion refinery would take at least another 90,000 households worth of water off the growth table.

So if you had to choose, which economic development route would you pursue: one refinery that will generate a couple thousand jobs, or 90,000 new households filled with moms, dads and kids to generate jobs and wealth in southeast South Dakota? (And remember: you can't drink oil, no matter how green it is.)