There is a maxim, sententious or pithy saying and answer to a question about North Dakota's fourth largest city.

"Why not Minot?"

"Freezin's the reason!"

The question was reportedly someone's idea for a tourist or recruitment campaign, one that ended with an answer that resulted in bumper stickers, T-shirts and pass-along humor.

Minot actually is a great city (as well as the Magic City). It is host to the recently completed Sate Fair, the location of Norsk Hostfest (North America's largest Scandinavian heritage festival), Scandinavian Heritage Center and Park and a station stop for Amtrak's Empire Builder.

But a new and somewhat regular occurrence is creating an image that really isn't fair to the fair people of Minot.

Why not Minot? Missiles and mistakes!

Once again, the unthinkable has happened at the Minot Air Force Base. Three ballistic missile crew members fell asleep while holding classified launch code devices. Yes, the codes were outdated and remained secure while the three were sawing Z's. Yes, it was just a procedure violation without compromise. And yes, a B-52 bomber armed with six nuclear warheads was perfectly safe when it flew from Minot to Louisiana.

At least, that has been how the embarrassing incidents have been explained and spun, as well as an Air Force flight to Taiwan with four fusing devices for warheads.

Gov. John Hoeven seemed to explain away the latest situation Monday by saying: "I think if people understand that it was a self-reported incident, that it was fully reviewed, fully reported, things were handled properly - it shouldn't be an issue going forward."

Sorry governor; we think it is an issue, but we understand your spin. Governors generally try to make the best of a bad situation and you did serve as executive vice president of First Western Bank in Minot from1986 to 1993.

It is an issue, however, because it shows a dangerous pattern or trend.

But like the governor, we also support Minot. While the city and base have served each other well for many years, the city deserves better than the goofs and gaffs it has had to face in the past year or so.

Americans, from North Dakota and throughout the world, can be proud of our military. Let's keep it that way. Let's not keep allowing slip-ups, no matter how minor, especially when it comes to nuclear weapons. Let's be more careful out there and stay awake.