Update: January 2023
5 years ago, January 21, 2018, a dreaded phone call told us that we would never see Annie’s bright eyes, hear her sardonic wit, or gasp at her latest adventure. She was really worried about the state of the politics, the world and country in general; increasing corruption and international instability threatened the world she had grown up in and she was ready to escape to a teaching career in Dubai.

I have been to too many funerals over the last few months and common to them has been the recitation of the Lord’s Prayer. I remembered her comment originally published in the 10/16/15 post of Say Anything Blog:

“Generally (and I know this bothers my grandmother who makes better caramel rolls than yours), the only time I hear the Lord’s Prayer is when I am in North Dakota, where it is said a lot. The Archbishop of Canterbury (Most Rev. Dr. Rowan Williams) has some insightful analysis of the Lord’s Prayer: “Every single bit of the Lord’S Prayer is radical because every single bit of it challenges our assumptions about who we are and who God is and what the world is like.”

“And what it Is praying for, and again this is something we forget because we use it so often, what it IS praying for is the most revolutionary change you can imagine in the world we live in.”

“A change to a situation where what God wants can happen, to a situation where all the hungry are fed, to a situation where forgiveness is the first imperative in all our relationships.”

“And, as people will notice, that IT’S not exactly like the world we inhabit at the moment. So if radical means looking for change from the roots up, yes, then it IS radical.”

"Amen."

Annie was a self-avowed agnostic with anarchistic tendencies but understood the power of faith and words to move us to act for a better world, to not be afraid of standing up. A better world starts with telling the truth.

The Anne Krapu-High Plains Reader Journalism Scholarship Fund is pleased to announce a $1000 award to Laura Simmons, sophomore at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. She successfully completed her summer internship at the Reader in 2022, writing on various controversial issues affecting ND communities and will do so again in summer 2023.

The Board is grateful for the financial support which allows us to keep Annie’s memory alive.

--Madeline Luke (aka Annie’s MOM)

Reference: https://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/prayer/lordsprayer_1.shtml

Update: January 2022
Looks like NATO and we are into an accelerated game of "chicken"in Ukraine. Maybe we can avoid death and destruction, maybe not. Anne spent her birthday in January 2016 in Kyiv. Her mantra was "live a life driven by curiosity not fear". I should add- "and write about it."

--Madeline Luke, January 24, 2022

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" My friend Lynne was teaching at a school in the Ukraine and they had a temporary opening. I said goodbye to (my friend) and boarded my own flight out a few hours later. I probably should have been squeezing my teddy bear with anxiety. The Russians had just hacked and downed the main power grid in Kiev. The city was filled with displaced persons from the occupied area in the east. The possibility of a spring Russian offensive sank with dread over the city. Snow removal was spotty and pickpockets worked the streets in droves.

Most people avoid moving to countries that contain active war zones. Inflation is rampant, transportation unreliable, basic goods in short supply and moods are unstable. I hadn’t consulted anyone about my decision to move to the Ukraine... To my parents’ credit, they did not freak out when I called them during my connection in Latvia en route to Kiev. All of the fighting was far away from the capital and I would be working in the city center. I would get out if it became unsafe.

My accommodation was cozy and the neighborhood was partially surrounded by the city’s zoo. The snow covered bison reminded me of home. Red cheeked babushkas sold homemade pickles and “Fuck Putin” merchandise on the corner. Soviet era murals were painted with blue and yellow in spontaneous acts of patriotism. My metro stop was decorated with a sculpture honoring Sputnik. And entire aisles in grocery stores were dedicated to vodka. It was good to be back in the Eastern Bloc.

The city was full of half-finished building projects; when the money dried up, construction stopped. Enterprising local kids had staked a claim on the fifth floor of one of these concrete boxes and added insulation and wiring. The space, illegal but ignored, gained a reputation as a hot underground club. After eating my birthday cake off a plate with a hammer and sickle design at home, Lynne and her boyfriend took me there. Partying during wartime has a special dimension of defiance – engaging in pleasure is an act of liberation. Putin didn’t tell these kids what to do and the rebellious energy was contagious. When tomorrow could kill you, you go out hard tonight.

My classes were full of young professionals and adult hobbyists. The teachers were loyal, having accepted pay cuts when serious inflation set in. The school itself had been targeted by the mafia and the owners were tied up in court fighting an attempted hostile takeover. My supervisor told me the students loved me. I enjoyed their political commentary, sarcasm, honesty, and high heeled boots. I could handle wartime Kiev."

Update: May, 2021

Thank you, all who have contributed to the Scholarship Fund. We need to keep supporting young people like Annie who are persistent in their questioning, can be clear eyed in seeing the events of the world, and find joy in their mastery of the written word.

~ Madeline Luke

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The scholarship committee received impressive applications with students headed for Boston University, Northwestern Medill School of Journalism and Concordia. On the strength of her writing, Olivia Slyter was awarded $3,000 in scholarship grant and internship at the HPR. Olivia has written for the Valley City Times Record as a junior and senior student, produced content for the Valley City High School daily news broadcast, volunteered as social media consultant for a violence prevention program and successfully competed in speech tournaments. She will attend Concordia College in Moorhead, Mn.

We congratulate all the applicants on their hard work and their willingness to use their considerable talents in work which is so valuable to all of us. We only wish we could have awarded scholarships to all the applicants!

See Olivia's writing samples below:

• Easton Brothers.pdf
• Slyter_BLM.pdf

Tax-Deductible donations to the Anne Krapu-HPR Scholarship Journalism Fund can be made through the F-M Moorhead Foundation.

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So Annie, what is Baku like?
What kind of government does Azerbaijan have. I asked this in summer 2014 when she was sent to teach English to children of the rich who lived in the oil kingdom on the dying Caspian Sea.

The answer went something like this: “The center of the city is marvelous and the hotel I teach in is a 4 star Klimpton. I can use the swimming pool, gym, internet and air- conditioning which is good because my apartment without air conditioning is in the poor part of the city which is everywhere except the center. Daily, from my bus window, I check on the old grandmother who has tied up her skinny lamb to a post with a ‘for sale’ sign. I don’t think it was for a pet. One day, it was gone.”

As for the government, she said ”It is a hereditary kleptocracy”.
HUH? ”Look it up”, she said.

WIKI says:
Kleptocracy (from Greek κλέπτης kléptēs, "thief", κλέπτω kléptō, "I steal", and -κρατία -kratía from κράτος krátos, "power, rule") is a government whose corrupt leaders (kleptocrats) use political power to appropriate the wealth of their nation, typically by embezzling or misappropriating government funds at the expense of the wider population.

Kleptocracy is different from plutocracy (rule by the richest) and oligarchy (rule by a small elite). In a kleptocracy, corrupt politicians enrich themselves secretly outside the rule of law, through kickbacks, bribes, and special favors, or they simply direct state funds to themselves and their associates. Also, kleptocrats often export much of their profits to foreign nations in anticipation of losing power.

Could we become Azerbaijan?
The hereditary part is a bipartisan issue. The Bushes, the Kennedys and Clintons show the influence of kinship on Presidential politics. Trump brought it to the next level, bringing his kids to the highest level of policy making- qualified or not. How do we avoid becoming a kleptocracy? How do we avoid becoming Putin’s Russia, Assad’s Syria, Aliyev’s Azerbaijan?

The good news. The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists are the folks that brought you the Panama Papers. Now finally, they reported:

Update: Jan. 1, 2021
The Senate voted to override President Donald Trump’s veto of the defense spending bill, days after the House did the same. It’s the first veto override by Congress in the Trump presidency.

Landmark laws to thwart the use of U.S. shell companies by terrorists, human traffickers, arms dealers and kleptocrats are set to be enacted after more than a decade of lobbying and politicking with rare bipartisan support.

A free and open press with smart, honest, persistent journalists in search of the truth is a necessary defense against corruption in government.

The Anne Krapu-HPR Journalism Scholarship is pleased to support in a small way those who hear the calling to be part of the fight for honest, efficient government.

~ Madeline Luke (Anne’s mother) Jan, 2021

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2020
"In a time of Deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act" - George Orwell.

Anne prided herself as the person with "boots on the ground". She witnessed the various types of corruption in Mongolia, Azerbaijan and right here in ND, the joy of teenagers escaping the constant threat of war in Kosovo at a bootleg party "somewhere in the forest" and extreme homophobia in Russia. The noise, pollution and "Big Brother "government of China truly spooked her while being questioned about the DAPL protest in ND by her students in East Timor, half a world and a century away from 21st Century America took her back for a bit. Yet she always kept her eyes, ears and mind open. Anne's endless curiosity and ability to process objectively her surroundings coupled with her ability to communicate well made her a person of note. The HPR's dedication to act as a platform for under-reported issues important to our city, state, national and global community makes it a necessary counterweight to ND's mainstream media.

In a time of "fake news", AKA shameless lying, and journalists being insulted, threatened and murdered, the HPR and Anne's family salute the men and women who have the courage to go where we do not, report what they see and ask the tough questions.

Morgan Hovde, a political science and journalism student at NDSU received a $500 award in September 2020. She is from Grafton, ND and has written extensively for her local newspaper, the Walsh County Record. Morgan received the North Dakota Newspaper Association High School Reporter of the Year during the 133rd annual convention held in May, 2019.

Congratulations Morgan and we hope that she and the previous winners will guest write for the HPR when publication resumes!

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2019
Anne Krapu-HPR Scholarship update January 9, 2019
Annie would have been 33 today and likely trying to figure out what happened in the geo-political fracas over the last 5 days and then writing about it. She did the same thing when she was 15 when she wrote a pointed but well-reasoned letter to the Fargo Forum voicing her alarm about the imminent war in Iraq. The Forum did not tolerate dissent as much then as it does now and they surely did not know she was barely old enough to drive, but there it was in black and white.

Well, Annie is no longer with us while the US involvement in the Middle East remains. Same problem- no exit strategy, unclear policy goals but now more complicated with more, increasingly violent players. We also now face an active nuclear program in Iran, a fractured Iraq. This is in addition to the tribal and religious loyalties difficult for outsiders to understand, resentment against the US which is easy to understand and, Russia, as always, lurking in the background.

…and now, we have a President who thrives on chaos, division and fear of the “other”.

Annie, as you can imagine, spent a lot of time being labeled” different” when growing up. Her long black hair, later pink, green or yellow depending on mood and/or budget, intense dark eyes which missed nothing, Asian features and Nordic height made her stand out. Combine that with her being an excellent student of pretty much everything except calculus and athletics, wicked sense of humor and willingness to take on any challenge and one could see how she wouldn’t blend in. She wrote this about being” different” in her column on hate for her Say Anything column Oct 16,2015:

…“different” is North Dakota speak for something you can’t quite wrap your head around but it catches you off guard and you don’t want to offend anyone, so “different” is a very good choice of adjective in such a situation. Bison and Sioux fans are different. Gun-owners and non-gunowners are different. Migrant and refugees are different. Democrats and Republicans are different. Christians and Muslims are different. Sexual identities and orientations are a spectrum of different. Not one of these classifications prevents any individual from being a good North Dakotan if the latter term is still defined as working hard, obeying the law, being willing to help your neighbor shovel the drive, and bringing over a hot-dish in times of need.”

So, this is a special invitation for all you North Dakota students who may feel “different” but are curious about the world and want to write about it. Let us help you join the community of journalists who serve as witnesses in these troubled times and ask the questions that must be asked so we can remain an open society.

Update: April 14, 2019
The scholarship board awarded $2,000 in aid to Skyler Dockter of Dickinson, ND and Anna Dragseth of Williston. Awards were announced April 14,2019 at the 6th Annual Bartenders Battle, the main fundraising event sponsored by the High Plains Reader. Craft cocktails, spirited bidding, pirates swarming- Annie would have loved it! We are living through strange Bizarro-like times; yet hope and persistence remain. Annie wrote a few weeks before she died, "Be honest, grateful, and forgive yourself after learning tough lessons. Spend money on experiences, not things. Live a life driven by curiosity and not by fear." She never gave up and neither should we.

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For further information about donations and applications, please contact:

High Plains Reader

Email: lexi@areafoundation.org

© 2018 Anne Krapu-HPR Journalism Scholarship