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Mendon, Missouri

seandietrich.com

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Re: Mendon, Missouri

#171

Post by SamPatt »

msrenee wrote: post #80
photochemsyn wrote: post #31

For some reason this reminded me of the Ray Bradbury story, "The Town Where Noone Got Off" which is a dark little story indeed about two men and a small town on a railroad line. This one is a bit more positive. However, it turns out this whole incident was apparently due to the lack of a railroad crossing guard system of any kind at the intersection. The most basic system has flashing lights warning of oncoming train…

I can find you a dozen such crossings within an hour of my house. If you care to head into the properly rural part of any state, you'll find they're everywhere. There ought to be flashing lights and arms at every one, but no one wants to foot that bill. Was the truck actively crossing the tracks when it got hit or was it disabled? I haven't found any explanation of why it was there.

I don't care about such crossings, it's trivially easy to check for a train. I live in a rural area with many of these crossings and (to my knowledge) there haven't been any problems.

I don't think this is an infrastructure failing as much as it is a "Why would we need that?"

Re: Mendon, Missouri

#172

Post by jessaustin »

krapp wrote: post #145
jessaustin wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I'd be willing to admit Delaware on a technicality. To me "the South" doesn't refer to geography so much as the common referent of slavery in American culture. Maybe states like Deleware can be called "South adjacent."

The idea of defining the South in this way is appealing, not least because it will annoy people who like the "Sean of the South" website. If we do this, however, we won't be able to stop at Delaware. [0] Maybe thread parent could have said, "The author blogs pretty much exclusively on the cultural tapestry of USA", and I wouldn't have complained.

Communication is seldom improved by more vagueness, however. Sean Dietrich has apparently honed an oeuvre that makes a certain sort of American feel better about things, which is explicitly related to a particular understanding of the South. He doesn't hesitate to invoke Maine or Colorado or wherever while layering on more saccharine banalities, but his audience doesn't love precision the way HN does. (An example of the fuzziness of his POV: the fact that the train illustration depicts tall pine trees amid steep slopes rather than the gently rolling farmland with deciduous forest and scattered cedars around Mendon.) Presumably this benefits his project of assuring us that everything is just fine and we shouldn't think too hard about possible improvements. I oppose that project, so I think we should continue excluding him from various locales until he is completely fenced into a tiny Alabamian postage stamp. So, I don't agree that Mendon is more Southern than it is Midwestern or even what Colin Woodard would call "Midlands".

[0] https://legacyofslavery.harvard.edu/report

Re: Mendon, Missouri

#175

Post by jessaustin »

kortilla wrote: post #124
mlyle wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't agree that the root is the income/wealth gap, but it certainly is playing a big role in the divide. > little meaningful difference income-wise between Democrats and Republicans? https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/religious-landscape-stu... is striking-- and when you look into the sub-demographics of the lowest and highest band it gets more interesting still-- e.g. that 27% in the lowest income band is shock…

>certainly is playing a big role in the divide. The only divide is in whether it’s something that is even a problem that needs to be addressed. Income inequality doesn’t divide people itself, just the focus on it does.

In other nations (e.g. Mexico, Peru, Ghana, Thailand, etc.) health care is provided to all. In USA lots of people can't afford any sort of health care. The family left behind by someone who dies at 48 because he couldn't afford e.g. blood pressure medication doesn't need any sort of "focus" to see the divide.

Health care is just the starkest illustration of this. One sees the same phenomenon with any other necessity: housing, food, transportation, etc.

Re: Mendon, Missouri

#176

Post by oorza »

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…

Having lived in both areas, small towns make people crazy. Everyone spends so much time trying to fit in. Look at how I go to Church with the community every weekend. Look at how I partake in gossip and publicly shaming freaks. There are severe consequences to even harmless behavior that's abnormal because people don't have enough going on in their lives when there aren't more than 10 other suckers that are smart enough to move out of a toxic area.

I don't think we've evolved to live in small groups.

Re: Mendon, Missouri

#177

Post by lotsofpulp »

la64710 wrote: post #159
lotsofpulp wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think people are good overall. Until a certain amount of sacrifices have to be made. Then things start getting tribal. The sacrifices do not even have to be material, simply sacrificing or losing socioeconomic status relative to others is sufficient.

Tribes are actually very benevolent and certainly helpful to many strangers that in their eyes seek help. There have been numerous incidents all around the world where poor tribals have come and nurture a sick stranger back to life. It is basic human nature.

I am using a more generalized definition of tribe, to mean any group you belong or you categorize others to belong to. For example, my first priority tribe is my kids. Second priority tribe is probably kids and spouse. Then kids, spouse and myself. Then my siblings, and parents, and then maybe friends/extended family/members of my parents’ immigrant diaspora/my college class/neighbors/political allies/business partners/countrymen/etc.

Re: Mendon, Missouri

#178

Post by mistermann »

kortilla wrote: post #110
lotsofpulp wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have no idea what your comment is trying to convey, but to help clarify my comment, this might help: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/lbj-convince-the-lowest-wh... I posit that at the root of all societal friction is the widening income/wealth gap within the US, along with shifting socioeconomic statuses with some losing ground and some gaining ground. Note that people are in many tribes of many sizes simultaneous…

> I posit that at the root of all societal friction is the widening income/wealth gap within the US, Why would you think this when there is little meaningful difference income-wise between Democrats and Republicans? A significant chunk of the US votes on single issue matters that have nothing to do with economic status (abortion, gun rights).

> A significant chunk of the US votes on single issue matters that have nothing to do with economic status (abortion, gun rights).

I wonder if the design of our so-called democracy has something to do with it. It's funny how this major foundation of our society escapes scrutiny, and it is mostly only the players within it who get any attention.

Re: Mendon, Missouri

#179

Post by rrix2 »

solardev wrote: post #150
VictorPath wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 els…

(Disclaimer: This is just personal knowledge from a casual observer and occasional passenger. I traveled cross-country by Amtrak a few times and loved it, and wanted to learn a bit about its history.) Amtrak isn't quite the giant evil corporation in the sense that Amazon is. If anything, it's more of a dying relic propped up by sheer nostalgia. Congress keeps it on life support with small, occasional injections of fu…

You're right about all of this of course but I assumed the parent was complaining about BNSF who is responsible for these lines and not Amtrak. I'd guess the majority of trains going through these at-grade unprotected crossings are freight, and it's sort of a freak accident that Amtrak happened to find a truck in the way rather than a freighter

Re: Mendon, Missouri

#180

Post by mindslight »

cagey wrote: post #169
mindslight wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 commo…

> 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)

No, I said nothing of the sort. Many times, homeowners own the land up until the middle of the road in front of their house. But they don't have the right of way when pulling into the road, and must interact with other users of the public way in an equitable manner orthogonal to ownership. I'm advocating something similar for owners of railroad tracks, whereby trains don't automatically get the right of way, but rather track owners are responsible for doing improvements to mediate contention if they want trains to travel through intersections at speed. The default state of an uncontrolled level crossing should result in lack of speed rather than lack of safety.

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