National Geographic to North Dakota: Get Over It!

Since I speak to a small portion of North Dakota every Tuesday morning, stories about that state interest me and this is a follow-up to a previous post in which the good people of North Dakota took exception to a National Geographic article that they found less than flattering. The writer of that story didn't apologize, and in fact, piled on the insults:

The writer of the National Geographic article that branded North Dakota as "The Emptied Prairie" visited the state's capital this week and scoffed at the perceived insult felt by the governor and others in the state.

"Get over it," writer Charles Bowden told KFYR-TV in Bismarck, in an interview following a speech at Bismarck State College on Tuesday.

Bowden added that North Dakotans would have to be "perfect fools [to be offended] since I said the state is lovely, and one of the nicest places in the country to visit.

"I mean, I can't deal with the willfully dishonest and illiterate."

The magazine's January piece, "The Emptied Prairie: North Dakota ghost towns speak of an irreversible decline," painted a bleak picture of much of the state, at one point declaring that its vast rural stretches are plagued by "abandoned churches, schools shutting down, towns becoming ruins."

Bowden went on to say Tuesday, "I guarantee you I can hand [the article] to a 10-year-old in Arkansas, and they`d read it, and they'd perfectly understand it. If people in North Dakota can't reach the level of a 10-year-old in Arkansas, I don't know what to say."

At one point the article, Bowden wrote of an almost "willful amnesia in North Dakota ... people cash in on their property and move someplace warmer and easier. The rest grow old and die. There are constant funerals."

Soon after the article came out, Gov. John Hoeven wrote to the magazine's editor and said the writer was "way off the mark." He urged its editors back to the state to report on North Dakota's growing economy, well-educated citizens, solid infrastructure and clean environment.

Bowden said Tuesday that North Dakota is a beautiful state. "How could you live here and think this is a failing state?" KFYR quoted Bowden as saying. "Get over it."

Someday I hope to visit up there and see for myself, but based on my conversations with the guys at KHND, North Dakotans seem to be a pretty hardy bunch and I'd think twice about insulting them.