Dear Editor,
As a subscriber to the Devil’s Lake Journal, it is usually a joyous experience to read about each week’s news and opinions. Yet when I read Jack Zaleski’s July 28th column “Teddy would run ‘em out of town”, it sparked a question from my heart, “why did Jack use the new exciting opening of the Theordore Roosevelt Presidential Library for his anti-Trumpism attacks?” Jack, couldn’t you give your anger some rest and just celebrate our state’s new landmark about The Man in the Arena named Teddy?
Was Jack even there for the Theordore Roosevelt Opening or did he just sit in his chair back in my hometown of Fargo to find a reason to throw an anti-Trump/anti-Burgum dart at this once-in-a-lifetime July 4th event? Does Jack even know that over 45,000 people have visited the TR Library since it opened on July 4th?
If Jack would take a few minutes to read the July 9th front page of the Journal, he would discover an accurate report written by Jeff Beach from the North Dakota Monitor about the festive weekend when over 4000 people arrived from across the United States; packing themselves into the western town named Medora with less than 200 residents. Some tourists found a new place to stay called Hotel 1883, named for when Teddy first arrived to discover the Baddist of the Badlands.
If Jack had been in Medora, he would have had fun speaking with people I met from Wyoming, New York, Minnesota, California, and Virgina.
He could have been inspired by a woman from Springfield, Illinois who told me the Abraham Lincoln home while stopping in Medora on her way to the Harry Truman Library in Missouri. Sounds bipartisan to me.
If Jack had been in Medora, he could have listened to Doris Kerns Goodwin speak about the 10 years of her life she spent with Theodore Roosevelt as she studied over 40 of his books, his documents, and stages of his life from sickly child to robust Harvard graduate and becoming president after the assassination of President McKinley. There was even a replica of The Oval Office, built during TR’s term with an avatar of the president created by Microsoft. When I was in the room, international tourists asked President Roosevelt questions about the US Navy’s Great White Fleet and his foreign policy experience to end the war between Russia and Japan.
I wish Jack would just repair his own disconnection between what was a truly magical dedication to our 26th president in our own backyard and the visit by our current President. Anyone who saw those 30 Rough Riders on horseback escorting the presidential limousine up the hill with the vans full of reporters to cover this historic event in Medora had goosebumps in the excitement of the moment.
For the record, I have visited other presidential libraries: Herbert Hoover in Iowa, Reagan and Nixon in California, Truman in Missouri, George H. W. Bush in Texas, and Clinton in Arkansas. But none of them was like the Bully of a weekend in Medora at the majestic Theodore Roosevelt Library’s dedication on July 4th. Delightful!
Crystal Dueker, Fargo, N.D.
Verified by phone, LAO, Aug. 10, 2026.