The Argus Leader, Sioux Falls, April 2, 2016
The dust has settled back into the dark corners of the legislative chambers of the South Dakota Capitol for another year.
Looking back from this still-near-sighted distance, we can see that the 2016 session provided an above-average level of public discourse. Major legislation on teacher pay and transgender bathrooms elevated the energy of the South Dakota Legislature.
It was often dramatic and occasionally vitriolic.
It was punctuated by sweeping rhetoric and shaky assertions.
It was, at times, highly entertaining.
It was self-government.
That’s why it was disappointing to hear recently that several conservative lawmakers say they were frustrated that they weren’t able to win the day on some of the major topics. A few cited the resistance as a reason not to return to Pierre.
“I don’t like the dictatorial style of our governor or the dictatorial style of the leadership in the Senate,” Sen. David Omdahl of Sioux Falls told Argus Leader Media. “I don’t like the cronyism. I don’t like the legislators meeting at the governor’s mansion every week to discuss policy. It’s political incest.”
Omdahl was the same lawmaker who infamously said transgender people were “twisted” and needed psychological help.
The pushback following those comments probably contributed to Omdahl’s frustration. That’s understandable. Most South Dakotans, even our elected leaders, are not accustomed to being thrust into the national spotlight in such a way.
That’s the gig however.
Omdahl’s dalliance with fame is just a small slice of public life. The bigger picture - conservatives walking away from the public debate - is more concerning.
It’s true, they didn’t win this time. But it’s a stretch to suggest that South Dakota has somehow morphed into a tax-and-spend bastion for a new wave of liberalism.
It’s absurd to throw around the notions of dictatorship and cronyism.
Freedom is always in flux. It’s a core belief of our democracy that many voices produce the best - or at least most workable - solutions. It’s not always pretty, as the recent session would suggest.
But we made a decision and now we move ahead.
If you truly believe that South Dakota is threatened by tyrannical rule, the best solution is more transparency, which can be brought about by reforming the state’s highly restrictive open records laws and vigorously pursuing modernization of the state’s computer systems.
The only remedy for the plague of tyranny is truth.
Truth comes from light.
Not quitting.
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Aberdeen American News, Aberdeen, April 6, 2016
The inner beauty of many small communities is trust.
Trust that you can turn to your neighbor in a time of need - even without asking for help. Trust that they will have your back when you are out of town. And trust they will do the right thing at all times for you and the others around them.
To create that sense of community, you need people. And most people need at least a town of basics - church, post office, store and maybe a school.
Right now, the Community Store in the northern Brown County town of Frederick is struggling. The community-owned store is looking for more investors to keep it in business.
Shares that cost $1 each are being sold, with a minimum buy-in of 25 shares.
This is more than a grocery store. It is a hangout for all ages. Adults have their morning and afternoon coffee breaks at the store, and sometimes kids swing by for a snack at lunch or after school.
One thing that is true about towns and cities whether big or small, they need support to survive.
Frederick has a Community Store (for now), but it needs consistent shoppers to keep its shelves stocked.
Some people not only support the store financially, they volunteer to work there as well. Those people get the importance of the store.
If you are a resident of the Frederick community and find yourself asking why you should support the store, you should be talking to one of those store volunteers.
We like that the store is asking residents what it should be stocking. Store personnel need to continue asking that of all residents - shoppers and nonshoppers alike - to find the answers of supply and demand.
Maybe there are two, three or more people out there who are ordering products they need online or finding them elsewhere. Maybe those people would be willing to switch to the Community Store if it carried their products.
Maybe a few more such customers might turn a cloudy future into a bright one.
Or maybe there is a partnership to be had with another store? You don’t know the answers unless you ask the questions. Assuming can be costly.
Community member Edgar Head is a regular at the store, as a customer and a member of the coffee crowd.
“I know it’s hard going,” he said. “In small towns, it’s hard. They don’t have the amount of business, people, that they do in larger stores.”
We agree.
But we have seen many examples in the past of residents in our neighboring small towns linking arms for the greater good.
We hope those in Frederick can turn this store into another one of their success stories.
It seems like a small price to pay to help a community cornerstone from crumbling.
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Rapid City Journal, Rapid City, April 3, 2016
The Idlewild Inn apartments could be considered the tip of our iceberg, or more accurately, a tip of yet another iceberg emerging in Rapid City.
When Mayor Steve Allender recently ordered the city to resume water service to the aging complex and the people who call it home after the landlord didn’t pay his utility bill, he cited “humanitarian” reasons. Later, he said the former hotel at 220 E. Saint Joseph St. would likely be condemned if it were inspected by the city.
But that is not going to happen there or at any number of residential hotels located throughout the city. If they were closed or torn down like the Imperial Inn recently was, it would almost certainly add to the city’s homeless population, a problem of paramount concern to Allender, who as a police officer and then police chief has seen firsthand the consequences of living on the streets.
“It’s a raunchy dilemma to be in,” he said last week.
The implications of homelessness in our community, however, extend far beyond the hundreds if not thousands of people here who are living on the fringes of society, as Allender points out.
“There are far-reaching impacts such as the costs for indigent health care, fire and police responses, alcohol treatment, panhandling and public nuisances,” he said, adding that some homeless are “living like animals in the streets” and “it is time to stop that from being part of our landscape in Rapid City.”
Allender fears that closing low-cost apartments like the Idlewild Inn would push their residents into the streets where they would have an extremely difficult time finding another place to call home.
He says there is a two-and-half year long waiting list for public housing assistance in Rapid City; that the Cornerstone Rescue Mission, the city’s only homeless shelter, is overflowing with men, women and children who in some cases are sleeping on the floor; and that far too many people are sleeping under bridges and in parks.
The problem of homelessness also ripples into the Rapid City school district. In 2015, the district reported it had 630 homeless students, which includes those living in residential hotels or bouncing from one place to the next.
Allender, who was elected to office in June, has been on record since he announced he was running for mayor that he wants to tackle the city’s homeless problem, which he says has moral and economic implications for all of us.
In February, he met with 45 church leaders and discussed what he later called his “pipe dream” for addressing the problem. Ideally, he wants a homeless campus that offers a shelter, transitional housing, job training and rehabilitative services. Looking further ahead, he would like to add tiny houses, a spiritual and community center, and a community garden to the site.
It’s an ambitious plan and we urge the city’s churches, nonprofits and business community to support it and help reduce homelessness in Rapid City, which along with higher-paying jobs and more affordable housing could help transform our community and make it safer.
“This will require a city investment,” Allender said. “The city needs to be a better partner and take more responsibility to solve this problem.”
Until then, the Idlewild Inn and other residential hotels will continue to be the home of last resort for far too many people.
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