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So you read a story of people helping people and all you can think of is "how do I make this reflect poorly on my political enemies"?
Mendon, Missouri
41–50 of 206 posts
Re: Mendon, Missouri
#42One way to see rural MO is on the Katy bike trail: https://mostateparks.com/park/katy-trail-state-park It's a 240 mile protected bike path.
And if you like that you’ll also like the Mickelson Trail in South Dakota: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_S._Mickelson_Trail
Re: Mendon, Missouri
#43> 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…
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 death, in big cities is like people don't die because you don't know about it. Although it may sound macabre I think that knowing about death helps me better understand being alive.
Re: Mendon, Missouri
#44Quoted post unavailable.
So you read a story of people helping people and all you can think of is "how do I make this reflect poorly on my political enemies"?
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. And, yes, small town America is, for the most part, politically regressive.
Re: Mendon, Missouri
#45I 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-needed medicine down precarious mudpaths. Local construction companies were already clearing rubble and building emergency bridges out of it. One Excavator was just basically standing in the middle of the river and ferrying people and rescue partys across. The local racetrack basically just organized everything while politicians were still playing the blame game. When our local firebrigade was officially pulled back from active duty because we lost one of ours during rescue operations in the first day, basically everyone just went down again and just tried to do whatever was possible. Absolutely stunning what people will do when they are face to face with disaster. I freely admit that I was crying like a little girl when I first saw the endless columns of Bundeswehr, THW, Fire Brigades, Farmers, basically everyone who could just streaming to help people they never met but were neighbors and friends for me.
Sorry for the rambling, but I am still not emotionally disconnected enough from it to concisely talk about it.
Re: Mendon, Missouri
#46Quoted post unavailable.
What is striking to me about the discourse amongst American elites is that they easily otherize their own countrymen, and swallow hook, line, and sinker any story about the "others" that help confirm their smug beliefs. If you had 24/7 coverage in the news about how X group in another country is bad, you may pause and think this coverage is a little one-sided. But against your imaginary political enemies, you cackle and laugh in glee as you pat yourselves on the back for not being them.
Go outside, travel, and meet real people sharing the wonderful country you have. You may surprise yourself at just how normal everyone really is.
Re: Mendon, Missouri
#47>"This is a crisis for our democracy and our society," said Penelope Muse Abernathy, a visiting professor at Medill and primary author of the report, in a statement.
Why is everything a crisis now? The crying of wolf gets tiresome and it makes it easy to tune out, probably to the detriment of local newspapers.
Oops, replied to the wrong article.
Re: Mendon, Missouri
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The author indicated that the exceptional (and it was, indeed, "exceptional") generosity and sense of Duty The author took pains to assert that it wasn't exceptional: >> And the most unusual thing about all this is: None of this is unusual >> believe me, they happen. Every day. Every hour. Ordinary Americans will astound you with their goodwill > was ignored by the press Well, they're right in that I didn't hear an…
I mean, this is a crisis. There's a constitutional crisis in terms of two extremely divergent views of how to understand the constitution that both carry significant trajectory changes and neither of which sound very helpful. There's a political crisis going on with neo-nazi influence in and around the Republican party that's not being dealt with at all. There's a digital war on-going that's been heating up for the p…
> ... extremely divergent views of how to understand the constitution...
IMO, there's good in this situation, because inferring a nebulous right to privacy that didn't do very much was always a little questionable thing for the supreme court to do. It was a "good enough" measure that prevented us from doing any better.
Yes, it's terrible that poor women in red states will have to pay the price.
But ultimately, we're going to have to figure out how to define a right to privacy and make it into real law. And we can maybe fix other things, like security/privacy in our papers and effects and not rely upon 19th century judicial compromises on policing power and searches, too.
> There's a political crisis going on with neo-nazi influence in and around the Republican party that's not being dealt with at all
Honestly, the Republican party is > making itself less relevant. Which is kind of bad-- a relevant and not-crazy political opposition is a useful thing to a society.
Re: Mendon, Missouri
#49Quoted post unavailable.
You know the political views of everyone in Mendon, MO? You live there or something?
Re: Mendon, Missouri
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
So you read a story of people helping people and all you can think of is "how do I make this reflect poorly on my political enemies"?
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…
>The story is a commentary on how wonderful the people living in small towns are.
I don't think so, but I see how you got there.
I think it is a story about empathy for others in a crisis, and the author argues that this is universal in America--including New York, Chicago, Mobile, Detroit, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Boston, Houston, Seattle, Indianapolis, Honolulu, and Charlotte.