Letter: A look into the mysterious world of ND’s NCAA Land

Engineers build bridges. Dentists build bridges. Now the Spirit Lake Committee for Understanding and Respect is proposing a bridge to the University of North Dakota’s future.

If the June primary goes as intended, citizens will endorse an outcome worthy of “Alice in Wonderland.”

Preliminary sketches depict a beauteous structure rising from the Red River Valley and entering a resurrected nation of Sioux, fleet horses and massive herds of buffalo.

More realistic designers offer a less dazzling rendition. Midway there is a stoppage and devotees are shown dangling, clinging to girders strangely ending in air. The view from the top reveals NCAA Land, hardly a preferred destination for North Dakotans.

Ironically, divisions of that forbidding land are fields of dreams — Iowa basketball to the south, Minnesota football and hockey to the east, and farther beyond, the arenas of Wisconsin. With no suitable landfall, the Spirit Lake bridge insures access to none of these.

Even more depressing is the view to the west, where a big sky retreats ever and away.

As the June primary approaches, what will our choice be — fields of dreams or a nightmare to nowhere? A bridge of such import should be entrusted to apt architects, not a committee of capricious outsiders.

Donald Bruce Beard, Banning, Calif., is a Reynolds native, UND graduate and former teacher at Mott and Beach high schools

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