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Mendon, Missouri

seandietrich.com

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Re: Mendon, Missouri

#131

Post by bediger4000 »

soared wrote: post #130
bediger4000 wrote: post #128

Just as a counterpoint to this, here's a murder in small town Missouri, not too far from Mendon: https://www.google.com/amp/s/fox2now.com/news/true-crime/mis... Nobody said anything about it in 40 years. There's a lot more nuance to small town people pulling together than the train wreck shows. I grew up outside of Kirksville MO. I've even taken the Southwest Chief from La Plata one or two stops NE of Mendon, to Newt…

I do not enjoy that every good hearted story needs to have a top comment with a clickbait counterpoint.

Given that I grew up near there, and remembered the Skidmore murder story, what would you have me do? Not add material to the discussion? Arm I supposed to just stay silent about some things? If so, how should I know whether or not to stay silent. Give me a method, and I'll use it next time.

Re: Mendon, Missouri

#132

Post by VictorPath »

mindslight wrote: post #87
rustymonday wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You must not drive out in the country often. Railroad crossing with lights are not common outside busy roads. The most you'll have is a railroad crossing sign. Certainly a flashing light system is safer, but you (and that news article) make it sound like it's absence is unusual.

The absence of traffic control devices isn't unusual, but it's most certainly condemnable. Being in a denser area where crossings generally have a light and a gate, it really irks me when I see a no-visibility at-grade crossing with just an intended-to-be-ignored "yield" sign for the road. It's nothing more than a pathetic fiction to legally cover the railroads ass after the fact, and the setup should be outright ill…

This is the real story behind the story - a giant corporation creating a dangerous situation for the sake of profit, a government which does not protect people but corporate profits, and a small town that sits by and allows this to happen, but will pitch in and carry off the bodies when tragedy inevitably strikes. One person in the town did try to prevent this, but one person is not enough in the face of everyone else. "The national tapestry that is The Great American Small Town" indeed.

Re: Mendon, Missouri

#133

Post by kodah »

cagey wrote: post #104
kodah wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interestingly, it's the line operator that usually has to establish and maintain those according to federal and (whatever) state guidelines might exist.

I believe that this is incorrectly simplistic, if only because these sorts of situations by definition exist at the interface between a railroad and either a private or government road. Having the line operator (which I'm taking to mean railroad owner, in this case BNSF) bear 100% of the burden of providing full crossing protection creates an unbalanced situation (in terms of the cost to be borne). I'm not an expert,…

I used to work for BNSF, I'm well aware of how those programs materialize on the private end. Sometimes states will chip in, but it's mostly on the line owner. You can't just install a crossing anymore. They're wired into national and global networks that are part of track-side overhauls. Additionally, when AMTRAK goes over BNSF lines (at least when I worked there) you don't have automated train control (which is really braking). A signal is a good first step, but if your goal is to really put a dent in these kinds of incidents then it's a lot of on-going cost - mostly born by the tail operator because they're the ones that lease access to the lines.

Re: Mendon, Missouri

#134

Post by eitland »

bediger4000 wrote: post #128

Just as a counterpoint to this, here's a murder in small town Missouri, not too far from Mendon: https://www.google.com/amp/s/fox2now.com/news/true-crime/mis... Nobody said anything about it in 40 years. There's a lot more nuance to small town people pulling together than the train wreck shows. I grew up outside of Kirksville MO. I've even taken the Southwest Chief from La Plata one or two stops NE of Mendon, to Newt…

> This content is not available in your country/region.

Seriously.

What kind of century are those people from?

Re: Mendon, Missouri

#135

Post by TazeTSchnitzel »

eitland wrote: post #134
bediger4000 wrote: post #128

Just as a counterpoint to this, here's a murder in small town Missouri, not too far from Mendon: https://www.google.com/amp/s/fox2now.com/news/true-crime/mis... Nobody said anything about it in 40 years. There's a lot more nuance to small town people pulling together than the train wreck shows. I grew up outside of Kirksville MO. I've even taken the Southwest Chief from La Plata one or two stops NE of Mendon, to Newt…

> This content is not available in your country/region. Seriously. What kind of century are those people from?

The century of adtech, which the US doesn't bother to regulate.

Re: Mendon, Missouri

#136

Post by jessaustin »

bediger4000 wrote: post #131
soared wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do not enjoy that every good hearted story needs to have a top comment with a clickbait counterpoint.

Given that I grew up near there, and remembered the Skidmore murder story, what would you have me do? Not add material to the discussion? Arm I supposed to just stay silent about some things? If so, how should I know whether or not to stay silent. Give me a method, and I'll use it next time.

How would "sometimes bad things happen" be relevant in the least? Missouri is a large state and the two communities aren't close. Besides, you should read the link you posted rather than relying on memory. That story is of a small community defending itself from the predations of a sociopath whom law enforcement could not control. Maybe it's a critique of law enforcement, but it isn't a "counterpoint" to "small town people help out in emergency".

Re: Mendon, Missouri

#137

Post by stonogo »

jessaustin wrote: post #107
krapp wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any state that was a slave state and member of the Confederacy is part of the South.

Any state that was a slave state and member of the Confederacy is part of the South. Missouri was never a member of the Confederacy. Slavery was in force before the Civil War, but do you really propose a rule that would also see Delaware considered part of the South? It's dumb to use state lines anyway. For example, Branson MO has a lot stronger claim to be part of the South than Sedalia MO, a town of which some peop…

Missouri never joined it, but it was admitted to the Confederacy in 1861. It and Kentucky share this "admitted but never joined" status -- had the war gone the other way, the Missourian government-in-exile would have been legitimized (and in fact, the elected Governor of Missouri was pro-Confederate; the only reason there was a Union-sympathizing Governor was because a Union general chased all the rebels out of the capital).

"Missouri was never a member of the Confederacy" is a technicality rather than an honest assessment of sympathies and prevailing politics in the state.

Re: Mendon, Missouri

#138

Post by nickysielicki »

ryan_j_naughton wrote: post #35

> And the most unusual thing about all this is: None of this is unusual. At least not within the national tapestry that is The Great American Small Town. It also isn't unusual in the cities. Humans are wonderful and terrible everywhere. It reminds me of the 30 Rock episode where Jack and Liz go to Georgia to find a new comedian in touch with the "real America" and Liz keeps insisting that all Americans are real Ameri…

I agree. One of the things that was visible to me as a transplant to Houston was how much city pride there was in how people came together after Harvey, even years after.

Re: Mendon, Missouri

#139

Post by buchoo »

Reminds me of the American TV show "What Would You Do?", of which there are many videos on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/WhatWouldYouDo

It tends heavily to revisit certain themes, but overall it drives home the point that regardless of the social acrimony and political polarization that dominate social media and seem to divide Americans into inexorably inimical tribes, when it comes to everyday interactions, most Americans seem to be pretty decent and kind people.

Re: Mendon, Missouri

#140

Post by boeingUH60 »

bsuvc wrote: post #55
mlyle wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The story is a commentary on how wonderful the people living in small towns are. And, well, I disagree with the premise--- because it seems to deny that most people are wonderful everywhere, not just in small towns. Most people are also capable of terrible things in groups, too. A whole lot of people have had to flee small towns to avoid the kind of disgrace and judgment that only a really small community can give. A…

There are people who read every story they encounter through a political lens and judge every person based on how likely they are to be a political ally or enemy (without even knowing for sure... just stereotyping them). It's a form of intellectual dishonesty, where the only thing that matters is someone's political beliefs and simply switching the paticipants would yield a different opinion.

It's similar to religious fundamentalism if you ask me.
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