When I lived in North Dakota, I used to make a joke about the state that went something like this: “When God created the earth, North Dakota was the last place to be created. There wasn’t much left in terms of supplies for creation. All of the mountains had already been placed elsewhere. All that was left were a few rolling hills. All of the rivers were in place, leaving behind just a few small creeks and one strange river that flowed the wrong direction. Most of the trees had already been planted, leaving behind just a few scrub junipers and cottonwood trees. There we’re no proper lakes, just a few ponds that weren’t very deep. God looked at North Dakota and God saw that it was good, but worried that it might be a lonely place. So God made people who were inherently happy and placed them in North Dakota. They didn’t have any mountains, so they called the hills mountains: The Killdeer Mountains, The Turtle Mountains, the Pembina Mountains. They called hills Devils Lake Mountain, Blue Mountain, and Lookout Mountain and they were happy. God bent the one big river in the area so that the Missouri cut across the state and the people saw it as a dividing line. They made it the line to give their state two time zones. It didn’t go across from north to south, so there were places in Central Time that are west of places in Mountain Time. It didn’t bother the people. They were happy. The people wrote songs about the river that flowed the wrong direction. Despite that it flooded when it froze, the Red River of the North became famous. And the people were happy. They gave the smallest creeks names like Grand River and Heart River. The James River had so little slope that it hardly flowed at all, but that didn’t worry North Dakotans. They were happy. When they didn’t have lakes, they built dams and created reservoirs. And they surrounded shallow ponds with state parks and recreated in water that was barely 20 feet deep. And they were happy.”

Nestled in the Turtle Mountains, which aren’t mountains at all, is Lake Metigoshe, a 1,544-acre lake that straddles the border with Canada. The deepest spot in the lake is 24 feet. You can travel from Bottineau County, North Dakota to Rural Winchester, Manitoba. When we lived in North Dakota, officials didn’t bother with having an official border crossing there. Folks would cross the border to buy snacks at the store in Winchester and officials assumed they’d go back to where they came from.

Although it has now been sold, the United Church of Christ used to have a church camp on the lake called Pilgrim Place. My father went to camp there when he was a teen. I took youth to the camp for weeks of living in Christian community. Each time I took youth to the camp, we would visit the International Peace Gardens near the camp. I was proud to have the logo “Peace Garden State” on my license plates, commemorating the International garden park. Visitors were invited to tour the attraction without needing passports and/or approved travel documents. We took guests from South Africa who did not have visas to visit Canada into the park without incident.

The border between our two countries has been celebrated as one of the world’s longest peaceful borders. It is dotted with peace parks celebrating the friendship between the two countries. Here in our community the Peace Arch Park straddles the border with an archway marking the location of the border. Families routinely meet for picnics in the park with a few border guards making sure that celebrants return to their own countries. As is true of all international boundaries, there are many families with members on both sides of the border. People from the US fall in love with and marry Canadians all the time. Cross border dating is a way of life for folks in border towns.

Across the country in Derby Line, Vermont and Stanstead, Quebec, the Haskell Library and Opera House is a community building that straddles the border. A line crossing the floor of the library marks the border between Canada and the United States. The library has long been a symbol of harmony between the two countries. A few years ago an addition was added to the library to make more rooms for the collections and both countries contributed to the cost of building. The library belongs to both countries.

That peace was desecrated a couple of months ago when US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noel visited the library. She stood on the USA side and said “U.S.A. No. 1” and the, after crossing onto the Canadian side, said “the 51st state.” She did this multiple times to the horror of the local residents. Now, U.S. customs and border officials have announced that Canadian citizens will not be able to use the front door of the library, which is on the U.S.A. side of the border as of October 1. The Library is working to raise $100,000 to add a new entrance on the Canadian side, but if it is not completed in time, Canadian library patrons will have to go through the official border crossing in order to go to the library. People on both sides of the border are losing sleep over the targeting of their peaceful shared library.

Fears about the border with Canada are based on false information. Yes, there is a problem with illegal drugs crossing the border. Fentanyl, cited by the U.S. President and Secretary of Homeland Security is a problem. Most of the fentanyl in the U.S. has been illegally imported from other countries. However, Canada makes up just 0.2% of US border fentanyl seizures. Canadians seize far more fentanyl coming from the US than the US seizes going the other direction. US officials cite the flow of drugs across the northern border without acknowledging the direction of the flow.

We live eight miles from the third busiest border crossing between the US and Canada. We are proud of our heritage of peace with our neighbors and we are working hard to maintain that peace. Our friends and guests are welcome to visit, but don’t expect us to issue an invitation to Kristi Norm anytime soon. She seems to bring trouble with her wherever she goes.