Link Film

It seems just about everyone has a story about Art Link He served as governor of North Dakota from 1973 until 1980 Tonight a new story of Governor Links legacy debuts at the Belle Mehus It s called When the landscape is Quiet Again The locally produced Film focuses on a speech Link made in the fall of 1973a speech known as North Dakota s Gettysburgh Address These are the sweeping hills and piercing blue sky of McKenzie Countythe land governor Art Link calls home Jenkinson It s hard to think there is anyone in North Dakota who matters more than Governor Arthur A Link He was the governor of this state between 1972 and 1980 at a time when there were extraordinary external pressures on North Dakota to participate in that gigantic coal development mania that was sweeping the world that was an energy crisis that is somewhat like the one we are in now A new film about Link debuts tonight in Bismarck Link was born into humble beginnings on a farm near Alexander North Dakota in 1914 His legacy grew quickly serving as a state legislator a US congressman and finally governor Stories about him live on Jenkinson He s stopped to help motorists who were stranded on our highways during blizzards and he once inivited a couple to the governors mansion and they didn t know he was the governor and they went over and then they realized oh my were in the governors mansion here Jenkinson says the the film centers on another storythe now famous speech Link gave in the fall of 1973 in Mandan for the Rural Electric Cooperatives It s a speech the governor changed in the last minutes before he delivering it Jenkinson So he wrote down in the margins what he really wanted to say and it turned out to sort of be his Gettysburg Address and it s called When the landscape is quiet again and what he is really saying in it is when the the draglines and gondolas cease to rip and roar and the landscape is quiet again and it turns to grass and grain we have a moral responsibility to our children and our earth to leave it as good as it was and make it better if we can Jenkinson says the Poetry and passion in the speechexpress Links deep love of North Dakota You can see the movie tonight at the Belle It s free and open to the public Showtime is 7pm It will also be shown on Prairie Public Television in October