Tag Archives: people in dickinson north dakota

Street Survivor Mentality In Dickinson, North Dakota Now

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I first came to Dickinson, North Dakota in 2011 during the Oil Boom.  Though there was an extreme shortage of housing, and very high housing prices, there was an atmosphere of excitement and optimism in everyone, property owners, business owners, local workers, out of state workers, and even the vagrants from out of state.

I was absent from Dickinson in 2012, but when I came back to Dickinson in 2013, the excitement and optimism was noticeably gone.  At the Paragon Bowling Alley bar on a Friday or Saturday night back in 2011, there were about 200 people, in 2013 on a Friday or Saturday night there were about 40 people.  At Patterson Lake in the Summer of 2011, there might have been 200 people along the north shore, in 2013 in the Summer there might have been 30 people.

A couple of things that took the excitement out of people in Dickinson, was everyone getting DUIs, no longer being able to drive, losing their job, and becoming broke and unemployable.  For those people who did not get a DUI and lose their job, they realized that working seven days a week, 12 hours per day, was not making them rich, it was only making them pay a shit-ton of income taxes.

As it got to be 2015, and the price of oil fell from over $100 per barrel to $40 per barrel, the Oil Boom was over.  The number of operating oil drill rigs went from over 200, to down to 40.  Everything slowed down as a result, less surveying, less heavy equipment earth work, less trucking, less casing work, less wireline, less tank batteries, less fracking, less sand and water hauling, less need for mechanics, less need for roustabouts, less need for pump jack installation, etcetera.

Dickinson slowed down.  Traffic decreased.  Restaurants, grocery stores, and convenience stores became less busy.  Manufactured home parks, trailer parks, and apartments came to be less and less occupied.  Hotels and motels had more and more vacancies.

Though Dickinson experienced an economic downturn, some of the calming was a relief.  House prices and rents became more affordable.  Local people felt that there was going to be a return to normalcy.  In many ways, everyone was glad to see the “Oil Field Trash go away.”

I probably wrote two hundred blog posts during the time that the Oil Boom was going away.  I wrote about my observations, impressions, and feelings about what was happening.  Of course, what my feelings were, had a lot to do with where I was working, where I was living, and how things were going for me at the time.  Most of the time, things were not going very well for me, which was the case for most out of state workers.

Deep in my mind, despite all of the chaotic things that I was writing about, I thought that Dickinson was going to return to a kind of middle-class, mid-West values, settled, normalcy.  I was wrong about this, and this has kind of been upsetting to me.  To have the fundamental belief that Dickinson was essentially, deep down, good, and to be so wrong about this, makes me kind of sick to my stomach.

Instead of Dickinson returning to a middle-class, mid-West kind of values, Dickinson is returning to a kind of Street Survivor, Prison Life mentality, which I hadn’t known was its true nature.  How was I supposed to know that Dickinson was like this?

During the Oil Boom, I didn’t like going to restaurants in Dickinson because of the “Oil Field Trash”.  Many times in the King Buffet, Perkins, or Bonanza, I was sorry about where I was seated because I didn’t like hearing what the oil field workers were talking about, trying to talk about inappropriate things in order to be funny.

Now, I really, really can’t go anywhere, don’t want to go anywhere, because the local people in Dickinson are so nasty.  What I thought was obnoxious, offensive behavior from the oil field workers, I would gladly go back to that, rather than the scowling, sneering, deep dark hatred of the local people.

I will describe this another way.  I have lived in Dickinson for five years now, and in that time, I have never seen the gentle, mild-mannered, polite, considerate people that I have met in Dickinson, out at dinner.  From 2011 to 2015, I could understand that the few nice people in Dickinson that I met, did not go out at night, because the oil field workers were kind of overbearing.  But once Dickinson slowed down after the oil boom, these few pleasant mild-mannered people in Dickinson did not come out.

Professional people, business people, home owners, business owners, and property owners that I had met during the day, that I thought highly of, and would have enjoyed seeing out at night in Dickinson, I never, ever did see them out in Dickinson, even after the Oil Boom was over.  I wondered why this was.

One of the reasons why I wondered where these nice people that I had met were, was because every time that I went out in Dickinson, the people that were out were so rough, mean, and nasty.  I guess that I am slow to catch on, I could have caught on about a year earlier, the people in Dickinson Are rough, mean, and nasty.

I thought that Dickinson was middle-class, and lower middle-class people, but instead they are more like Street Survivor people or Prison People.

I had made the comment periodically during the past five years of living in Dickinson, that the people in Dickinson would rather hire someone that did four years in prison, instead of a person who did four years in college.  Now I know why this is.

During the Oil Boom that lasted from about 2007 through 2014, there was not a lot of crime or theft in Dickinson, compared to other states.  During 2015 through 2017, after the Oil Boom was over, the crime and theft in Dickinson really picked up, the theft in Dickinson now, is the worst of any place that I have ever lived.  I attributed this to people losing their jobs, and people needing money.  Now, I am beginning to think, and to see, that this is the local people.

I just don’t know how this happened, or why this would be the case, that the people in Dickinson are more like Street Survivor people or Prison Life people.  Knowing this, and looking around at local businesses, local government, and how things are done in Dickinson, this all starts to make more sense now.

Animals And Hunting In Dickinson, North Dakota

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Recently I began working on a project in a very remote and rural area about one hour from Dickinson.  The project that I am working on, occupies about 30 acres of land.

The project that I am working on, is not completely fenced in.  There are other types of operations occurring on adjacent land, that are loosely related to this project, which makes a continuous fence impractical.  There are “No Hunting” signs posted on fence posts, and at the entrances to the site, but there are not enough of these signs.

The project owners, and we workers, don’t want hunting on the project property because we don’t want the equipment to get shot, and we don’t want to get shot.  But this is an ongoing problem.

All kinds of animals have learned and figured out, that hunting is not supposed to take place on this 30 acre work site.  In my 48 years of living in Florida, Colorado, Arizona, Utah, Texas, Idaho, and North Dakota, I had seen a fox approximately two to three times.  However in the past three days, I have seen a red fox on this work site a couple of times each day, and I see him for a minute at a time.

Also during the past three days, about twelve deer have come to the work site to hide amongst the equipment so that they won’t be shot.  There are other animals trying to hide on the work site, which I haven’t been able to identify yet because I get such a brief glimpse of them.

I drive the work vehicle slowly in order to not frighten the foxes and the deer.  They somewhat recognize the work vehicle and me, they watch to see what I am doing, and they only move away a little bit.  They don’t want to leave the work site.

The reason why the animals are here, is because pheasant hunting season began on October 7.  All of the pheasant hunters walking through the fields and shooting, has caused the animals to flee.

Though there are hundreds and hundreds of miles of grassland in every direction in western North Dakota, hunters keep showing up on the roads adjacent to this work site.  The hunters begin by making an effort to hunt on the adjacent land, but in the both the distant and the recent past, the hunters “accidentally” end up on the work site property, which is posted “No Hunting”.

Thinking About A Normal Life In Dickinson, North Dakota

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In my previous blog post, I wrote about going to a job in Dickinson, where they wanted me to stand and work on a two foot wide elevated platform from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.  During this 15 hours of standing and working on this platform by myself, I had a lot of time to think.  One of the things that I was thinking about, was that this is bullshit, and this is not normal.

Something else that I was thinking about, was what I wrote in my recent previous blog post titled “Jobs, Employment, and Working In Dickinson, North Dakota”.  I wrote about local co-workers from Dickinson having hatred, hostility, bitterness, malevolence, maliciousness, and ill intentions towards their out of state co-workers in Dickinson.

These long work hours and remote locations, provide local co-workers from Dickinson abundant opportunity to conceive, plan, and carry out their ill intentions and meanness against their non-local co-workers.

I believe, that it is abnormal and deviant, to have extreme hatred towards others, to think up plans on how to harm others, and to carry out hostility, hatred, and maliciousness towards others.  I think that it is abnormal and wrong, to try to hatch hateful plans against others at work.

If you have ever read about convicted criminals who have committed crimes of violence against other people, sometimes against people that they have never met, or if you have watched documentaries on these convicted criminals, it is most often the case that they had unbalanced, abnormal, anti-social lives.  Often, they were reclusive, with no friends, no romantic relationships, no social activities or interaction, and they kept to themselves spending an inordinate amount of time on one thing.  This describes life for most local workers from Dickinson.

In Dickinson, there is a shortage of women, and a scarcity of attractive women.  There are not enough women to go around, and most of the women are not very attractive.  In the past several years living in Dickinson, the people that I know and have worked with, none of them were pursuing women, or any romantic relationship.  Because they were not pursuing women or any romantic relationship, there was often no reason for them to go out, go anywhere, or socialize.

There is not a lot to do in Dickinson.  People do not have many things to look forward to.  People in Dickinson spend way too much time working.  It is like the time that other people in other places use for having fun, doing things that they like, and socializing, in Dickinson this time just gets applied to work.  This is one reason why I think that the local people in Dickinson are so hateful, hostile, and resentful at work.

At this time in Dickinson, it may only be the workers from out of state, that know in other areas of the country, people “work to live”, they don’t “live to work”.  In Florida where I am from, there were many fun things for people to do all year:  Surf, sail, sailboard, water ski, jet ski, swim, scuba dive, boat, fish from boats, fish offshore, fish from bridges, fish from beaches, go crabbing, go clamming, go oystering, go shrimping, sun bathe, ride motorcycles, ride bikes, rollerblade, jog, walk, hike, play tennis, play golf, and more.  People of all ages searched for and pursued romantic relationships.

In Florida, people loved to have fun, recreate, go shopping, socialize, go out to eat, and enjoy life.  For most people in Florida, work was something that took time away from the things that they would rather be doing.

I will drop talking about Florida, and briefly use the example of another state, Arizona.  There were many fun activities in Arizona that people could do all year.  People in Arizona also liked to go shopping, socialize, and enjoy life.  People in Arizona would have liked to have spent less time working, and more time doing the things that they liked to do outside of work.

In the Dickinson area, generations of people did not have fun things or fun activities to do.  Life in the Dickinson area was very difficult.  It was difficult just to survive due to the very long and very cold winters, and the barrenness of the land.  There is still not a lot to do in Dickinson, and there is a scarcity of attractive women.

The local people from Dickinson, historically, culturally, and genetically, for generation after generation, they have gotten up way too early in the morning, sat in their dirty worn work clothes, smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee, talking and muttering about work for an hour, before there was even enough light outside to go do any work.  In Dickinson, the local people like to try to “sneak up on work” or try to “get a head start on work”, when really they are just wasting time being miserable, and they don’t even know it.

In Arizona or Florida, an educated business owner would see this behavior, and put an end to it.  He would probably say, “At the end of each day, that is the time to clean the garbage out of your work truck, to load the equipment and material that you will need for the following day onto your truck, and to inform the workers what they will be doing the following day.  There is no need to get here at 4:00 a.m. or 5:00 a.m., 6:00 a.m. would be the earliest you would need to get here, it is not even daylight at 6:00 a.m.  I want my employees to have a normal work-life balance.  I don’t want my employees to get burned out, be unhappy, and be unproductive.  Also, I am not going to pay overtime every week for people to get here at 5:00 a.m. half asleep, to sit around smoking, drinking coffee, and muttering.”

People in Dickinson spend way too much time at work.  This is partly because the local people from Dickinson don’t have anything or don’t know of anything that they would rather be doing.  The local people from Dickinson, the focus of their life is on work, even if they are just an oil field service worker.  And I don’t mean their focus is on excellence.  They just burrow in like a tick at their job.

They have got to get to their job early in the morning, smoke a certain amount of cigarettes, drink a certain amount of coffee, talk for a certain amount of time, and accomplish absolutely nothing for about one hour.  Then it is load equipment and material, and go get fuel, when all of this could have been done the day before.  In my observation, these activities are all attempts to make the work day longer than it needed to be.

There is not the pursuit of excellence, insight, innovation, growth, progression, or increased effectiveness of the local people at their job.  Instead the local workers from Dickinson spend their time, energy, and mental faculties on trying to find something wrong with what their co-workers are doing, and trying to find ways to hinder and undermine their co-workers.

This is what I mean when I say that the local workers from Dickinson try to burrow in to their job like a tick.  What they are doing is not particularly beneficial, helpful, or productive, it is sometimes counter productive.  They have got to get to their job early, and stay there late, like they can’t let go of their job and go do something else.  They don’t have anything else, their job is their life and their identity.

I think that this is another reason why the local people from Dickinson try to drive their co-workers away.  This job is their entire life, their identity, and their purpose.  Without this job they don’t have anywhere to go, anything to do, or any purpose in life.  I think that this is abnormal and not a very good way to live your life.

Terrible House Of Manna In Dickinson, North Dakota

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I have been going to Thrift Stores since I was 19 years old.  All different kinds of people go to Thrift Stores, for many different reasons.  In my 30 years of experience shopping at Thrift Stores, I would say that at least half of the shoppers are not poor.

My older sister, is a much more frequent Thrift Store shopper than me, and she always has been. She used to search for vintage jeans when she was younger.  She used to like to find mechanic’s shirts or service people’s shirts that had their name embroidered on them.  She liked to buy evening dresses from the 1960s and 1970s.  But most of all, she liked furniture from the 1970s.

Many Thrift Stores had my sister’s telephone number, and they would call her right away whenever they received furniture from the 1970s, because she would get so excited and come and buy it.  My sister is not poor, she lives in a three-story, 5,000 square foot house with an elevator, on a river in Florida.

Many women who are not poor, shop at Thrift Stores.  They are looking for vintage jeans, vintage dresses, retro clothing, off-beat T-Shirts, classic shoes and boots, old belts, interesting knick-knacks, and paintings.  I have met women who buy old paintings, not for the paintings, but for the frames.  Good quality painting frames are expensive.  For low, low prices, you can buy an ugly painting, but get a good quality picture frame.

I used to like to go to Thrift Stores, to buy funny, interesting T-shirts for $4 to $5.  But sometimes in very affluent areas, I found that for some reason, very expensive clothes would get donated, that had never or seldom been worn.  Very expensive, high quality, pants, shirts, shorts, jackets, and coats would get donated.  Some of the best and nicest clothes that I had, came from Thrifts Stores.

On Monday in Dickinson, I went shopping at Runnings, Tractor Supply, Menards, Wal-Mart, Arc Aid Thrift Store, ABLE Inc. Thrift Store, Family Dollar, and the House of Manna.  There were many different things that I was looking for, and I bought something from each of the stores that I went to, except the Arc Aid Thrift Store, and the House of Manna.

The Arc Aid Thrift Store, had moved to where it is now across the street from Anytime Fitness, behind the Prairie Hills Mall.  This store was fairly nice inside, and the store clerks were nice.  I was looking for an old heavy sleeping bag to keep in my truck to use in an emergency.  This store had a lot of camouflage and hunters clothing, but no sleeping bags.

Next, I went to the ABLE Inc. Thrift Store.  Right when I walked in the door, there was a three foot tall stuffed frog, for $1.98, so I took him to the counter and told them not to let anyone take him, I wanted him.  Next, I found a very heavy, good quality sleeping bag for $8.00, which I took to the counter and put on top of the frog.  Then I found a nice black leather attache case for $2.50, which I put on top of the sleeping bag, on top of the frog, at the counter.  Then I found a nice pair of Ranger water-proof winter snow boots for $8.99, and then I didn’t find anything else that I wanted.

The ABLE Inc. Thrift Store receives donations of goods from individuals and businesses.  Then they sort through the donations, put a price on each item, and place the item in their store in the appropriate area: clothing, housewares, furniture, electronics, tools, sporting goods, office supplies, jewelry, books, etc.  They sell this merchandise in order to pay for the operation of their store and to give the remainder of the proceeds to the charity that they support.  They are happy for customers to buy as much as possible, this pays for their store and it supports their charity.

Lastly, I went to the House of Manna, and I wish that I hadn’t.  Within approximately one second of walking in the door of the House of Manna, a man sitting at a desk with a registration book, said to me that I needed to register and show him my driver’s license.  I was in disbelief, and I didn’t like this.  I said, “Oh, I’m sorry, I thought that this was a Thrift Store.”

The man at the desk said that this was a Thrift Store, but that I would be required to register, sign in, and show my identification.  I asked him, why would I be required to register and and show my identification.  He replied, “We need to check to make sure that people are not coming in more often than they should.”

I didn’t like this at all.  I felt like saying, whoa, wait a minute, I’m not poor, I was just looking to buy things, I don’t want anything for free.  I didn’t like that just walking in the door, they immediately assumed five things about me that weren’t true:  that I was poor; that I was needing help; that I was looking for something for free; that I was dishonest and untrustworthy; and that I needed to be monitored and regulated by them.

I didn’t say, whoa, hold on, I’m not poor or looking for charity, because there were other people in there shopping, who may have been in financial need.  Yes, I got the idea that somehow the House of Manna felt that their merchandise was for people in financial need, but I didn’t know this before I went to their store.  I thought that is was a normal Thrift Store.

I felt like, a better way to address people who arrived at their store would be, “Hello, have you been a customer here before?  No?  We are not a typical Thrift Store, our intention is to provide our merchandise to people who are in financial need and unable to afford very much.  Are you in financial need?  No?  There are other Thrift Stores in Dickinson where everyone is welcome to buy as much as they want, but here, this merchandise is strictly for people who have a financial need.”

When I got home, I looked up the House of Manna on the internet, and I read their store website.  I read the origin, history, philosophy, and purpose of the store.  Then, I read reviews of the store on Google.  It turns out, that the majority of the reviewers felt the same way that I did.  That the store was hostile and overbearing.

It turns out, that the people who were in financial need, they didn’t like being treated the way that they were treated.  No one likes bad things being assumed about them, being talked down to, leveled, and demeaned, whether they need help, or not.  No one, not even the poor people who need help, like it being assumed that they are so dishonest and untrustworthy, that they need to register and present their identification in order to be monitored and tracked.

The House of Manna, is supposedly run by a group of non-denominational “Christians”.  How would this group of non-denominational Christians like it, if when they went to the bank, the grocery store, the gas station, Runnings, or Menards, someone met them at the door, every time they came to these businesses, and said, “You have to register, sign in, and show your identification.  We know you are up to no good, and you will probably try to take advantage of us some way.”  This is basically what they are doing at the House of Manna.

I ask readers to please not donate to the House of Manna, or offer assistance to the House of Manna, until the Board of Directors can recognize the importance of treating all people with respect and dignity, especially, especially people who are poor and in financial need.

I have seen this before, and probably every adult has seen this before, where a gift, help, or assistance, is not offered graciously, but there are strings attached or some kind of other accompanying nastiness.  People who receive a gift or help, expect that the giver has good intentions, but they are sometimes shocked to see that it is accompanied by condescension, belittlement, resentment, a put down, a jab, insult, or some other kind of hostility.  True Christians don’t offer help, assistance, or charity on the condition that the receiver acknowledge that they are no good and not trustworthy.

How Has This Blog Website Affected My Employment?

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I hope that the people who don’t like me or my blog website will read this post.

In the summer of 2014, I began working for a small, locally owned company in Dickinson, North Dakota.  I liked the work that I was doing, better than any work that I had done in the past.  When I started with this company, I was pleased with the money that I was making.  I made about $25,000 in the first six months.

Then, there came the winter work slow down.  The owner of the company had a talk with me in person.  He asked me if I would like to be the manager of the company, and I said that I would.  He explained to me that he planned on retiring in two years.  He said that if I could manage the company O.K. for two years, he would give the company to me.

I was contented with the money that I had been making at this company.  I was happy that I was asked to be the manager.  I didn’t know if I would be able to afford this company, even if it was given to me, because of the possibility of a customer not paying.  If a customer didn’t pay, and there was a history of a government customer not paying for several months, I would not have enough money in the bank to meet payroll for three months.  I didn’t know if I wanted to own this company or not.

January and February were lean months, but there was a good project in March where I made about $7,500 that month.  I liked the work, and I liked the amount of money that I was being paid.  The owner of the company was fairly nice, and he did not bother the employees unnecessarily.  The owner of the company left the employees alone to do their work.

This small locally owned company did various small projects each month.  These small projects were always in town.  The company did not make very much money on these small projects, and the employees did not make very much money on these small projects.  Nevertheless, the company owner liked doing them because he believed that they were good for business, these small projects could lead to bigger projects, it was good advertising, and it was good public relations.

The older, experienced, long-time employees, did not want to do these small projects.  They were a pain in the ass, they didn’t pay much, they interfered with working on bigger projects, and they were always “on front street” in town, where everybody could see what you were doing, and bother you while you were working.  Before long, I clearly recognized why the older, experienced long-time employees did not want to do these small projects in town.

What was actually happening, and I didn’t like it too much, was that the older, experienced, long-time employees who refused to do the small projects “on front street” in town, they were actually getting to work on bigger long-term projects outside of town, and they were making a lot more money than me.  Because I was the manager, I kind of felt that it was my duty to do these small projects in town, which were more for advertisement and public relations, than an opportunity to make money.

I tried to be professional and do a good job on these small projects in town, but the truth was, because I was doing these types of small projects regularly, it was keeping me from making very much money.  The big, long-term projects out in the middle of nowhere, that is where I wanted to be.

This blog post is mostly for the people that came to figure out or find out that it was me writing these blog posts about Dickinson.  Even before anyone knew or had any idea that it was me writing these blog posts about Dickinson, when I was working in town, people would sometimes bother me when I was working.  I don’t mean the casual, pleasant, polite conversations.  I mean when people come up to you, and you can tell that they are trying to instigate a fight or antagonize you, because of their disrespectful attitude, inappropriate familiarity with you, or leading and inappropriate questions.

I would try to avoid, discourage, and not be drawn into any kind of conflict while working in town.  The truth is, that I wanted to keep my job, and not lose my job by getting into some kind of conflict while working in town.  It was not that I liked working in town, I didn’t like working in town because these projects interfered with me making money.  I wanted to keep my job so that I could work on the bigger long-term projects outside of town.

Now, it looks like it is the case, that some people have figured out or found out that it is me who is writing these blog posts about Dickinson.  The people who don’t like me or my blog posts, have probably informed my employer, and have told him, “I don’t think that it is right for you to have him work here.”  Now my employer, considering the people who have voiced their concerns, has probably come to the conclusion that he can not have me working in town “on front street” because these small projects are all about good advertising, and good public relations.

It may be the case now, that the only place that my employer can have me work, is out in the middle of nowhere on some long-term project where there aren’t any people around.  This is what I wanted in the first place.

Summary Of Wickedness And Perversion In Dickinson, North Dakota

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I have lived in Dickinson, North Dakota for a little over four years now.  I have been writing blog posts on this website for two years.

I wrote about bits and pieces of things that I saw that I thought I understood.  Some things that were culturally different, some problems, and things that were wrong.  Each of these things that I thought that I saw and understood, and wrote about, as time has passed, I can say that I was not incorrect in my assessment and explanation.

The people here in Dickinson took advantage of the out of state workers tremendously during this past oil boom.  The people in Dickinson have a hatred and hostility for people who are from out of state, and an even stronger hatred for people with an education.  The people in Dickinson also have hatred and hostility for each other.

Psychologists, counselors, and ordinary people have seen that when people are abused, they in turn abuse others.  This happens in families with domestic violence and abuse, this happens in organizations like fraternities that haze inductees, this happens in the military, this happens in company culture.  People repeat what has been done to them.

People in Dickinson were mistreated, taken advantage of, and abused way before this most recent oil boom in 2007.  I am angry at the Catholic Church in Dickinson for not making Christian values, ethics, and morals wide spread and dominant in Dickinson.  I have gone so far as to say that I think that the Catholic Church in Dickinson must be teaching hostility and hatred in Dickinson because it is so prevalent.

I wrote in a recent blog post that Dickinson treats educated people very badly, that the manufacturing companies in Dickinson treat engineers with disrespect in every way, and that this is what the local people want.  I had written in a previous blog post, that the large manufacturing companies in Dickinson have had a practice of paying employees as little as possible in order to keep them from ever getting ahead, ever furthering themselves, ever advancing, or ever being able to leave their job or leave Dickinson.  The regular employees were treated very badly.

So as I started out saying in this blog post, when people are abused and treated badly, they in turn treat others badly.  Should it be any wonder that out of state workers were treated with hatred and hostility?  Should it be any wonder that educated people and engineers are treated with hatred and hostility?  The people here are only repeating what has been done to them.

I want to finish this blog post by citing a very disturbing newspaper article by the Bismarck Tribune from 2005, that illustrates perfectly several of the things that I have been writing about.  This article is about what one of the wealthiest individuals from the wealthiest manufacturing company in Dickinson did.  I want to use this example to show that people at the top in Dickinson abuse and take advantage of people.  I want to use this as an example of lack of Christian morals and ethics.  The people in Dickinson act in accordance with how they have been treated, when they have been treated with a lack of Christian morals and ethics, they do so to others.  Lastly, this hatred of educated people and engineers in Dickinson, which comes from the top, is probably due to the fact that the people at the top don’t want anyone around to know what they are doing.

From the September 2, 2005  Bismarck Tribune article by Blake Nicholson:

“A former Dickinson businessman has been sentenced to five years in prison for possessing child pornography, and ordered to pay restitution to the one known victim and to a hospital children’s center here…

David Fisher, 44, the former head of Fisher Industries and Fisher Martin Inc., admitted in April to possessing two video clips and about two dozen computer files of child pornography in March 2003. In return for his guilty plea, prosecutors dropped charges of sexual exploitation of minors and receipt of material involving the sexual exploitation of minors…

U.S. District Court Chief Judge Dan Hovland also ordered Fisher to pay restitution of $4,860 to the one known victim, a 10-year-old girl whom Fisher had hired to help with office chores. Authorities said six of the child porn images in Fisher’s possession were of the girl. Hochhalter said Fisher also will be responsible for paying future costs of counseling for the victim…”

David Fisher was sentenced to five years in prison.  Note that in exchange for his guilty plea, the charges of sexual exploitation of minors was dropped.  If an out of state worker would have taken six pornographic images of a ten year old girl, he probably would have been sentenced to twenty years in prison.

German Catholics In North Dakota Part II

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When I lived in Arizona, I worked in health care.  Wherever I went, to a critical care unit in a public hospital, to a private skilled nursing facility, to a Hospice House, to an assisted living facility, I always ran into the Catholic Nuns, Sister Elizabeth and Sister Augustine.  Both of them were Irish, both of them were in their 70s.

Sister Elizabeth and Sister Augustine were tireless in visiting the poor, the sick, and the elderly.  I had a great deal of admiration for them, once I realized that they weren’t going to try to hit me.  They were a source of inspiration in elderly patients, both because of their boundless energy, and because they were there to give Holy Communion.  Once, one of the Nuns left behind the bag of communion wafers, and I was going to eat them all, and the Catholic patient was gasping at me, ” Oh God no!”

These two Irish Nuns cheered me up too.  I still remember the joke they told me about the two parrots that had been taught to say, “We’ re two hookers, and we’re here to have a good time!”  The punch line was, they went to live with two male parrots who said, “See, I told you there was a God!”

When Sister Augustine slipped on some wet tile, and broke her hip, she was only in bed for about one month, before she was walking and back on duty.  Most women in their 70s would have been wheel chair bound for many months, if not forever.  Sister Augustine was determined to get back on her feet, to help people.  She and Sister Elizabeth helped many, many people.

Why can’t the Catholics in Dickinson be like this, reaching out to people, trying to help people?  In Dickinson, I have seen the Catholics turn their back on people in need, and try to withdraw from helping people.

There was a young Catholic priest in Dickinson, who began talking to me when I was on the internet in a public place, looking at profiles of women on the internet dating site Plenty Of Fish.  I believe that he thought that I was looking at pornography, because I was looking at pictures of women, but it was just a dating site.  He talked to me about the Assumption Abbey in Richardton, which was a Catholic Monastery built in the early 1900s.  He was inviting me to visit the monastery grounds which occupied about 100 acres, they made soap and other products, and meet the monks.

A couple of years later, I spoke to the Abbot of the Assumption Abbey, and he was anti-everybody, the last thing they wanted was to have to deal with people for any reason.  I thought, “Huh, that’s odd, the Catholics used to send monks off to far away places like  Africa, South America, the Pacific Islands, to reach out to, and engage the savages, yet here in North Dakota, the Catholics don’t even want people on their property!”  So much for Christian outreach. The Catholics in Dickinson have the attitude, “Go fuck yourself!”  (Actually, if you read a recent comment to one of my blog posts, it says, “Go fuck yourself!”)

In Dickinson, they have a charity benefit and auction at Trinity High School, the Catholic School.  It is a spaghetti dinner, and you can buy raffle tickets for a Camero.  I wanted to go to eat and buy a raffle ticket.  In the parking lot, the local people were glaring daggers at me.  Inside Trinity High School, the people were very hostile and unfriendly to me.  I decided to not eat, and just buy a raffle ticket.  It was $10 a ticket.  I handed the young priest a $20, he gave me a ticket, and not any change.  I had to be stern with him about handing him a $20, and him not giving me change, to get my $10 change.

After the date of the raffle, I looked and looked and looked to try to find out if I had won the Camero, or who had won the Camero.  I never could find out who won the car, which made me believe that these Catholics here in Dickinson are crooked, nasty people.

I had to do a construction project down the street from a Catholic School in Dickinson.  The wind picked up one Saturday morning, and balls started rolling off the roof of the school, and rolling down to my truck, I collected about four of them.  I thought to myself, those poor kids probably all got beat for these balls going missing.  I put them back inside the fence.  When some Catholic woman arrived later that morning, she got out of her car and just glared at me menacingly.  I thought, “What is wrong with these Catholics in Dickinson, they are the exact opposite of what Christians are supposed to be, what are they teaching in Church here, why are they like this?”  This was not nearly the last time I found Catholic women in Dickinson to be glaring and scowling at me with hatred for reasons unknown to me, other than me merely existing.

The Catholics in Dickinson outwardly show hostility and hatred towards others for merely existing.  This leads me to believe that the Catholic Church in Dickinson is actively teaching their members to treat others with scorn, hatred, and hostility.  Besides the glaring, scowling, and nasty treatment by the Catholics in Dickinson, they have a revulsion to helping anyone.  Why does the Catholic Church hold services in Dickinson?  It has nothing to do with Christianity.  Why does the Catholic Church in Dickinson collect tithes, offerings, donations, and bequests?  I think that the Catholic Church in Dickinson, its leadership and its followers, is not a Christian organization, but a hate group.

A tree will be known by its fruit.  Does a bad tree produce good fruit?  You only have to read your Bible to know that the Catholic Church in Dickinson, and the Catholics in Dickinson are not Christians.

German Catholics In North Dakota, Part I

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I went to Catholic School, first through fourth grade, Sacred Heart School.  My first grade teacher was Sister Louise.  Sister Louise used to beat us severely.  Mostly she would use her bare hands to slap our faces, but she also beat our palms with a paddle-ball paddle, and she also had a long wooden rod for other types of beatings.

I believe that most of the kids’ parents did not believe how bad she beat us.  Justin, Jonathan, and George all talked to me about it later in High School, “Can you believe that shit, that shit was fucked up.”  All I could say was, “Yea, I know.”

There were other stories of physical harm done to kids at Sacred Heart.  I do remember some students who did not return to Sacred Heart after the first day or the first week of school, these were the kids whose parents believed them.

Now days, the police would have been to that school, the first day, and taken teachers away in handcuffs for assault and child abuse.  We, all of us, could easily win a class action lawsuit today against the Catholic Church for the physical abuse that was done to us.  I could write pages and pages of instances of physical abuse at Sacred Heart School, both of me, and of my classmates.

Putting the above aside for a moment, I want to talk about something else in the Catholic Church that I became aware of as a young teenager.  A friend of my father had been a comptroller for a very large Catholic organization for many years, so many years, that he was trusted.  Many Catholic priests had come to this comptroller with the same “problem”.  These priests had accumulated over a million dollars in personal assets, and they did not want anyone to know or for anyone to find out.  One of the ways in which this was happening, was through relatives and parish members bequeathing things to them in their Wills.

My mother was disgusted, that throughout our state, our country, the World, the Catholic Church solicits offerings, alms, donations, from the poorest of the poor, the people that are barely surviving, and yet the Catholic Church is one of the wealthiest institutions on Earth.  The Catholic priests are millionaires, yet there are many poor people in their parish, who have a hard time paying for food, rent, and utilities.

I started off this blog post the way I did, so that I could state that I know there are some things wrong with the Catholic Church, and Catholic culture and values.  Here in Dickinson, North Dakota, the Catholic Church is, and has been the primary cultural and societal influence.  When there was no oil field, when the German and Ukrainian settlers first came to this area, the Catholic Church was very, very important, and it always has been.

The reason why I am writing about all of this now, is that I want to say that going to Mass, going to Confession, saying Hail Marys and Our Fathers, is not really getting it done as far as instilling human decency in these Catholic people here in Dickinson.  I want to point out again, that the people here in Dickinson really treated out of state workers very badly during this last oil boom.  The people who mistreated the out of state workers the most, were the real estate agents, the property managers, and the property investors here in Dickinson.  Not only did the real estate agents, property managers, and property investors make the rent and housing prices quadruple, they helped to make sure that there was a scarcity of housing and no inexpensive housing alternatives, by making sure there were no new trailer parks or man-camps constructed outside of Dickinson.

If you read the Bible, what you are supposed to do if you are a Christian, you will read sayings and teachings of Jesus and the Apostles.  Jesus once said, so as you do to the least of my people, so do you to me.  Therefore, if you are a Christian, you should watch what you do, to everybody!  Jesus didn’t say, so as you do to the people who are from this area ….

There is a big flaw in Catholicism, if you go to Mass every Sunday, and you do not know some simple teachings from the Bible.  “What profiteth a man that he gain the whole World, yet lose his soul?  Or, what shall he give in exchange for his soul?”

You can go and look at the Real Estate Multiple Listing Guide in Dickinson, and you can look at the smiling photographs of the realtors in Dickinson, good good Catholics all!  People who have connections, and can really get things done!  Yet there is no homeless shelter in Dickinson.  Did I mention, that the Catholic Church is one of the wealthiest institutions in the World?

There are probably some Catholics reading this right now, and they are probably screaming,  “We don’t have to help people!  We don’t have to help anybody!”  If you don’t like this post, you are sure to not like the next post, “German Catholics In North Dakota Part II”.

I Want To Beat The Chamber of Commerce In Dickinson, North Dakota

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I want to beat the Chamber of Commerce in Dickinson, North Dakota.  I want to get to you, before they do.  I want to tell you the truth, rather than have you listen to lies and bullshit.

The individuals in the Dickinson Chamber of Commerce may not be bad people, but they have a job to do, and that job is to lie to you about Dickinson.

When I first wrote this blog post in November of 2015, the housing prices in Dickinson were very, very high.  Extremely high.  This was the result of greed, lack of human decency, and stupidity.  There was this lie going around that everybody in the oil field was making $100,000 per year.  In the five years that I have lived in Dickinson, I have only ever met three people who made over $100,000 per year in the oil field.

The Oil Boom was over in western North Dakota by the end of 2015, due to the price of oil falling from over $100 per barrel down to $40 per barrel.  Many oil field jobs went away, and many out of state workers returned to the states where they came from.  Once the apartments, manufactured home parks, and trailer parks in Dickinson became less than half occupied, the rents throughout Dickinson dropped greatly.

During the Oil Boom, the people in Dickinson were not friendly, not helpful, and not cooperative.  Now that the Oil Boom is over, the people in Dickinson are even meaner, in part due to increased competition for fewer jobs, and also because they want people to leave Dickinson.

The people in Dickinson dislike people who are from someplace else, and they also dislike each other.  Anything you say to people in Dickinson, will probably make them dislike you more.  If you arrive in Dickinson now, you are better off staying away from people.  Remain in your hotel, or your home, there isn’t anything to do or anywhere to go anyway, and you will likely be followed and stopped by the Dickinson Police.

There is a shortage of women in Dickinson, and a lack of attractive women.  The ratio of men to women in Dickinson is probably 3:1.  The Dickinson Police Department try as hard as they can to not allow prostitution in Dickinson, though it is needed.  The Dickinson Police create fake advertisement for women wanting to have sex, and then arrest people when they show up.

You can not safely go out to bars or restaurants in Dickinson at night, because the Dickinson Police try as hard as they can to arrest people for DUI.  In Dickinson, the Police are so eager to arrest people for DUI or other charges, that they will follow you and stop you for any reason that they can think of.  The Police try to encourage people to leave Dickinson.

In Dickinson, all of the restaurants have employees and servers that don’t like their jobs.  All of the restaurant employees think that everyone else is making over $100,000 per year, and they aren’t, and they are mad about it.  The servers are disappointed and can’t understand why people don’t spend $50 per meal and leave them a $20 tip, like they all heard about.  How are they ever going to make $300 a night at Applebees like they planned?

There is not a lot to do in Dickinson.  It is cold and grey from about October through April, at least seven months of cold weather.

The oil field work has been reduced by about 80% over the past several years.  Most of the oil field workers who lost their jobs went back to the states where they came from because housing prices were so high here, the people are unfriendly, there is a shortage of women, you can’t go out to bars or restaurants at night, the restaurants have terrible service, there is not a lot to do, the Police encourage people to leave Dickinson, and it is cold for at least seven months of the year.

The people in Dickinson, and the employers in Dickinson, hate people with an education.  The employers in Dickinson would much rather hire someone with several felony convictions, than someone with a college degree.  In Dickinson, your supervisors and co-workers will be people convicted of robbery, theft, assault, and drug charges.  Perform a Google search and look up your company owners, managers, and personnel on www.ndcourts.gov/publicsearch/default.html before you accept a job with a company in Dickinson.

What do I want?  I want the truth to be known.  I had thought that Dickinson could change, but once the Oil Boom was over, the local people in Dickinson became ever meaner.  I had not realized that the local people in Dickinson were on their best behavior during the Oil Boom.  All I can do now is warn people what Dickinson is like.