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Mendon, Missouri

seandietrich.com

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Re: Mendon, Missouri

#161

Post by redtexture »

cortesoft wrote: post #143
melenaboija wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Although I agree with it I think that small towns have something that is lost in big cities which is the sense of community, and that is simply because in towns you know every single person that has some impact in your daily live. My family is from a small town who moved to the city right before I was born and there is something my mom said to me when I was a kid that got stuck in my mind which is the awareness of de…

The downside of the small town community is if you are not accepted in it. There is no alternative. In cities, you have many communities, and if you aren’t accepted in one you can find another.

A fishing community / island in Maine I know of, forced a thief and their family off the island by completely withdrawing all assistance.

You cannot live on an island in Maine without community

Re: Mendon, Missouri

#162

Post by bediger4000 »

halffaday wrote: post #148
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…

Having lived in both areas, cities make people crazy. Everyone spends so much time trying to stand out. Look at my fashionable clothing. Look at my exotic sexual identity. Nobody is comfortable in their own skin. There are no consequences to bad behavior because people are disposable and reputation is unimportant when there are 10million other suckers that don’t know you’re a dirtbag. I don’t think we’ve evolved to l…

Hey,me too! I grew up near Mendon, spent the last 35 years in city of Denver! I'm qualified too!

I say the opposite: most urban dwellers just take it easy. You don't have to conform to whatever ideals your small town holds. There are freaks, but they don't demand your participation in their freakery. Live and let live! Living in a small town is suffocating if you're at all different.

Re: Mendon, Missouri

#163

Post by mcphage »

tptacek wrote: post #72
mcphage wrote: post #4

Is the author's claim that modern journalism doesn't contain enough feel-good human interest stories?

Yes. It's a bit of a thing with him.

Well then—I guess that's better than I was expecting, given how often "ordinary Americans" is a dogwhistle. I don't agree that journalism needs more feels good stories... but they could do worse.

Re: Mendon, Missouri

#164

Post by louky »

InefficientRed wrote: post #84
skeeter2020 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

smaller communities exist in big cities too. They might be neighbourhoods like a small town, or interest, cause or activity-based. The trick is not to defer to government to provide them for you, which I think is harder in big centers.

Harkening back to the GP post: Mr. Rogers Neighborhood was based on a city neighborhood, not a small town.

Seasame Street, as well.

Re: Mendon, Missouri

#165

Post by BurningFrog »

mlyle wrote: post #76
BurningFrog wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's a basic feature of human nature that every ingroup has an outgroup.

Sure. But in a big city, you'll find that groups you're "out" of don't affect you as much. In a small town, if the town is the ingroup, and you're the outgroup... you're going to have a bad time.

Yeah, I think that's the pro & con of living in a "real community".

Re: Mendon, Missouri

#166

Post by townied »

mlyle wrote: post #73
exar0815 wrote: post #45

I have witnessed something quite similar. During the flash-floods in 2021 in Germany, locals in the Ahr region absolutely rose to the occasion. Farmers were evacuating people in head-high water with their tractors during the night, local restaurants were already providing hot food and water the next morning wherever they could reach, pharmacies were loading whatever they had available on ATVs to somehow get much-need…

Yes. I think people are good overall. I think the biggest reason people in small towns may be a bit quicker to help is that people in cities are a little conditioned by the bystander effect to assume that people around them, or the authorities, are better equipped to help. But any random individual asked for help in a city is likely to go well beyond their duty and be quite helpful.

Having gone small town to “the city,” my interactions with other humans are by and large a net negative to the point that it’s almost better for one’s sanity to not involve outside of whatever communities you have therein.

Having spent a decade now here, it feels a bit like when you’re getting a cavity ground out at the dentist and they finally hit the nerve. Spending time away, “back home” or in some other tight-knit society only seems to fill it in for it to be ground back down.

For the folks that can and do thrive in “the city,” I find it fascinating on how we must differ in mind and spirit.

Re: Mendon, Missouri

#168

Post by bsuvc »

krapp wrote: post #98
jessaustin wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...the cultural tapestry of the South. This is sort of a "stolen valor" situation, because Mendon MO is certainly not the South. One could make that argument for parts of Missouri, but this ain't the Ozarks. Mendon is on the same latitude as Dayton OH, so only JD Vance types would pretend to be confused about this.

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

Over twice as many Missourians fought for the Union than the confederacy.

> By the end of the war in 1865, nearly 110,000 Missourians had served in the Union Army and at least 40,000 in the Confederate Army https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missouri_in_the_American_Civ...

It is likely that many of today's Missouri residents had ancestors who fought, and possibly even died, in the fight to end slavery.

Re: Mendon, Missouri

#169

Post by cagey »

mindslight wrote: post #156
cagey wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The RR line on which the collision near Mendon, MO occurred is the furthest thing from "infrequently-used tracks"; these tracks are part of the "BNSF Southern Transcon[tinental]" line[0] between Los Angeles, CA and Chicago, IL, which carries (per previously linked Trains Forum thread: "Posted by tree68 on Thursday, June 30, 2022 7:59 PM") "The FRA/DOT crossing data shows over 50 trains a day..." (wikipedia[0] provide…

I was talking in generalities. As I said in another comment, I'm in a more dense region where level non-gated crossings tend to be branches for factories and the like. So I've seen plenty of roads that are decorated with some train tracks (with a toss up as to whether they're even active), but still carry the nonsensical presumption that every passing vehicle should somehow have to yield to nonexistent trains going a…

Your solution proposal appears to be:

If BNSF is not already today 100% responsible for installing & maintaining maximal protection equipment at all RR/road crossings that were installed by government over its preexisting tracks,

then BNSF should have all of its property (tracks and right of way (RR track bearing real estate)) converted into "the commons" (i.e. BNSF should be nationalized)

and the owner of "the commons" (government) will then resolve all RR/road crossing safety issues (by RR closure, road closure, or deployment of crossing improvements sufficient to match safety levels attained in the country having the safest RR/road crossings in the world, at its prerogative) all while operating the new national RR (carrying freight and passengers) safely and efficiently to ensure supply line problems attributable to RR causes do not worsen.

Is this accurate?

Re: Mendon, Missouri

#170

Post by WorldPeas »

skeeter2020 wrote: post #57
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'm old enough to have experienced the slow, quiet, patient love of Mr Rogers first hand; I'm not sure it's able to rise above today's noisy fears? I hope I'm wrong.

I'd sadly say that the trust and love for community(especially in cities) has waned quite a bit, even in gentrified areas I see parents afraid to let their kids walk to the store. l'd say it's another casualty of the typo of journalism this article mentions, all fear no friends.
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