Wednesday, December 16, 2020

Disgraceful display at City Council meeting shows COVID not only disease spreading in Neosho


What a frustrating time it has to be for medical professionals in this area.

At a time when COVID-19 vaccinations are beginning and we can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel, all we have to do to prevent needless deaths until enough people have been vaccinated, is to be reasonable.

Wear masks, wash your hands, maintain proper social distancing.

When medical professionals took that message to the Neosho Civic Center Tuesday night, they were swept away by a tidal wave of self-righteousness, a display of behavior that would not be permitted at a professional wrestling match and a bizarre orgy of self-satisfied selfishness as they intimidated the Neosho City Council into social distancing itself from a proposal that was guaranteed to save lives.

They ranted about socialism, they quoted Bible verses, they cited "facts" that came from any unreliable source that agreed with their opinions.








"Masks do not work. That's a fact. Look it up. Do the research," one man said, also using the despicable argument about the low percentages who are dying from COVID.

(Recently, the U. S. death toll passed the number of Americans who died in World War II. Thankfully, few of this sort were here then to bray at elected officials about why we should have to sacrifice by rationing when only a small percentage of soldiers had given the ultimate sacrifice.)

They argued that most of those who are dying are in nursing homes.

Of course, people do work in those nursing homes and go home to their families and mix with people in the community, but the idea is that it's a bunch of old people who are dying, so why should the rest of us have to inconvenience ourselves.

One speaker compared the ordinance to the way slaveholders controlled their slaves.

It was offensive. Naturally, he received a generous round of applause.

They proudly paraded their maskless faces to the microphone and explained why masks don't work.

And they gleefully mocked and shouted down the professionals, who have watched as the COVID wards at local hospitals have filled with patients, many of them from Neosho. After all, that was the hospitals' problems and, according to the shouted crowd commentary, they were raking in the money from the coronavirus.

Dr. Robert McNab, head of Freeman's COVID-19 unit, was met with jeers and disrespect. Audience members picked up their chairs at one point and turned their backs to a man who has fought valiantly for several months to save lives.

Yet McNab received better treatment from the audience than Steven Douglas, the public relations director at Access Family Care, as the audience shouted and prevented him from speaking.

They bullied Lori Marble of Mercy as she spoke.

Among those orchestrating the circus were members of the Ozark Mountain Proud Boys, shouting at will, berating the speakers from the medical facilities and the council members.

The measure had supporters.








One person spoke in favor of the ordinance, letters were read from three others who supported it, but knew the kind of circus that was being orchestrated by the mask opponents and wisely opted not to risk their health by attending a meeting full of barefaced bullies shouting and possibly spreading the very disease they claim is not as bad as the medical professionals and the media say.

When Mayor Carmin Allen said other e-mails had been received from people who supported the ordinance, an audience member shouted, "So you say."

State Rep. Ben Baker, who preceded Allen as mayor, objected to those who used the Bible to support the argument and in a Facebook post today indicated the disrespectful attitude was not just coming from the mask opponents.

In other words, there were bad people on both sides.

During his speech Tuesday night, Baker was stopped at the end of three minutes, though he had plenty more to say. He was so impressed with his words that he posted them on Facebook today and they included this passage:

In my opinion these draconian mandates are a violation of our civil rights at best and possibly creating a health crisis rather than solving one.

- I implore you to look at this with perspective. We MUST have a balanced approach!

- The Odds of death from an actual covid infection if you are under 50 is somewhere between odds of death by sunstroke and electrocution. You won't hear this from the mainstream media, but the numbers are based on the CDC and National Safety Council, and easy to calculate.

- For instance, somebody under 50 is 3x more likely to die in their life by choking on their own food than by covid-19 and that's if you're infected. So do we ban eating because its too dangerous? No of course not. We take the risk because we have to eat.








- Well I think many are willing to take the risk because we have to get on with our lives!

- Nobody has skipped a single meal due to the risk of choking, yet millions have been forced to in essence stop living altogether because of a lesser risk!

- Just like with driving a car, or operating a power tool, or even walking down the sidewalk, Life has risks.

- In America, we still have the Freedom to make the choice to take a risk, and we are here fighting for that freedom by making our voice heard and asking you to listen to the people.

- This idea that the burden of your health depends on me is a dangerous idea to be introducing into the minds of our youth.

- “Love your Neighbor” is the mantra…Though clever, twisting a Biblical Principle into a tool for pushing the ideology of collectivism is alarming at best and frankly deeply disturbing.

- Using the brute force of government to force you to give up your liberty to do what someone claims will protect me is a dangerous road to travel and definitely NOT loving your neighbor, and historically never ends well.

Though Baker's novel approach- you can't twist the Bible because that is what he does- is original, he also came out on the winning side.

When council member Angela Thomas made the motion to approve the mask ordinance, it died for lack of a second.

A second proposed ordinance would have put occupancy restrictions into effect. There was no need to even bring that up.

On the social media platform, Parler, that provides access to everyone, the Ozark Mountain Proud Boys, boasted of its success at defending its Constitutional rights to bully, berate and be proud of it.

Neosho Council found out, yet again, we value freedom and liberty. Peddle your bullshit mask mandates and occupancy restrictions somewhere else. That dog don't hunt here.

With Ben Baker, the Ozark Mountain Proud Boys and the ones who took such gleeful pride in their disgraceful show of disrespect for medical professionals (and their fellow man), COVID-19 is not the only sickness that is spreading in Neosho.


22 comments:

  1. Anonymous9:21 PM

    Neosho and McDonald County have the most willfully ignorant, uneducated,religious zealots than anywhere in the world.

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  2. Anonymous10:05 PM

    The bad news is that the stupids aren't big believers in birth control. Or very adept at using it successfully either.

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous4:42 AM

      Too bad someone didn't use it in the existence of you!

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    2. Anonymous5:45 PM

      Your response is the best example of the people in our community. Hateful and clearly unintelligent. :)

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  3. I guess neosho doesnt want my business the nursing homes are not the only ones getting covid i work in an essential company and my co workers got covid so how is it confined to nursing homes

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  4. Anonymous10:09 PM

    Belligerent ignorant slobs will always show up when their freedumb is threatened.

    Then there's Buybul Baker.

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  5. Anonymous10:27 PM

    Going very strongly for the herd mentality as the mango moron has suggested!

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  6. Anonymous11:21 PM

    2/3rd of the listed speakers at the meeting are members or indirect associates of The Bible Holiness Assembly of God Church on N High in Neosho. Those who spoke out of order and with intimidation as a motive are members of the Ozark Mountain Proud Boys. The Boys and the Church share several things in common. One, they occupy some of the same turf in Neosho-The North End, and the Boys and State Rep. Ben Baker has a symbiotic relationship of sort. It is very unclear why a church board member would be associated with the Proud Boys but it seems to work really well for them. As noted by Mr. Baker in his statement he knows little about the law in our County in confusing civil rights granted by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and our Constitutional liberties. Not a big deal when truth and fact do not matter...cause God will sort it out!

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  7. Anonymous12:42 AM

    Weird how the home to the MO confederate government in exile is a trash community

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  8. Anonymous5:23 AM

    I have 2.5 years before my child graduates high school and I can move away from here. Can't wait.

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  9. Anonymous7:41 AM

    Anonymous 5:23, why wait? Pack up and leave now. You will not be missed...

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  10. Anonymous7:47 AM

    I watched this from Zoom wasn't able to see anything but was able to hear the speakers. When the ones started yelling and being so rude they should of been escorted out. I sent email to council asking them to please pass the mask mandate giving them my reasons why. When I made the comment on the Zoom feed that I didn't feel comfortable in being there in person because of the # of non mask weaars attending. I received so many rude comments. I would love it if the council would say why they sat thru this for approximately 3 hours and then wouldn't even take a vote. Did the ones at this meeting get away with their intimidation and threats? It made me sick knowing our city council doesn't give a damm for the residents.

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  11. Anonymous8:57 AM

    You have a right to risk your life as idiotically as you'd like. You don't have a right to risk other people's lives. Your convenience and comfort are not more important than other people's lives. Your rights end at the end of your nose, but your droplets spew a lot farther than that. I cannot wait for you illiterate anti-maskers to come before the throne of God and hear him tell you how many people he gave you to care for that you killed instead. "But Lord, when did we see you and refuse to save your life?" "Inasmuch as you did it to the least of my people, you did it to me."

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  12. Anonymous9:08 AM

    To those who wanted a mandate and are upset with council for not passing. I believe you would have a different opinion had you been at the meeting. It was a powder keg. They made the right decision and did their best to defuse the situation. They needed more support from those wanting a mandate. That being said, I do not fault anyone from not wanting to attend a super spreader event.

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  13. Anonymous9:30 AM

    The Neosho community should demand from its mayor that he ask state and or federal law enforcement to investigate the militia issue! The Bible Holiness Madrasas should be shut down!

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  14. Anonymous10:02 AM

    The community needs to make sure that Mr. Ben Baker is not re-elected. He gives the voice and the nod to the Bible Holiness and militia issue.

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  15. Anonymous10:31 AM

    Religious zealotry is more contagious than covid and the virus weaponizes stupidity as it's main vector.

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  16. Anonymous3:29 PM

    Our child graduated at top of the class and told us she was going to leave Neosho and never look back and so it has been for large number of years. We agreed that Neosho is not the best place for employment, positive thinking, advancement possibilities and fairness. It is governed like it was during the depression days, mining days, chicken days as is Joplin. One only has to look at progressive Springfield and Joplin which were same size after WWII and now Joplin is only a tax haven for corporations and labor source for outside communities. Springfield has great companies and welcome residents with large number of community activities to attract and hold all types of citizens. We are the cesspool with cheap housing and tax rate which is the only thing you can say about it, oh, bad roads.

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  17. Anonymous4:43 PM

    It is very unfortunate that a town that once was full of decent and good people has come to the point that we have gang members disrespecting other citizens. Wearing a mask is no violation of your rights. It is also very sad that one "church" can stand behind the bible and insult others. Frankly they should be called a cult. I for one think we should apologize to the medical professionals and city leaders that had to endure the hate filled speech. Several of the pro mask speakers are pillars of our community and deserve much more respect than was afforded to them. I also found Rep. Baker to be very disappointing, he sided with the vile crowd that attended the meeting. He ran for government on a pro-life platform, yet he exhibited nothing of the sort spouting false info and basically telling us that we should not be concerned about our elderly citizens or compromised citizens.

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  18. Anonymous5:46 AM

    Generally embarrassed to live in Neosho. stupid religious fanatics I have dealt with most of my life, I thought it was bad in the south

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  19. Anonymous6:32 PM

    It is interesting that so few came to defend the emails and FB harrassment at the actual forum. The opportunity was given for the community to be heard. It was available to everyone that cared to come.If a person didnt have enough courage to show up and stand for your veiws than I believe these should keep their hateful, mouths shut about the whole thing. By the way "Neosho" currently has the lowest Covid rate in the entire area!!! This is a disgrace.
    This entire blog is a hateful disgrace

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  20. Anonymous7:46 AM

    I will tell you what is interesting are people like you that don't care for other people. Yes anyone could of come down and spoke anti mask or pro mask, but because of people like you that refuse to do the right thing people do not want to be subjected to a super spreader event. Not to mention that you support Proud Boys showing up and trying to intimidate residents of this town. I am a life long resident of Neosho and I am ashamed of the attitude of a portion of our residents. The church group on the north side of town is full of hateful low life people that still think Trump won the election. This entire subject has become political when it never should of been. Its just about protecting our community. I believe if you look at one of the posts on this blog today you will see that a 20 something passed from the virus yesterday. I will continue to pray for this town and the people who don't care about anyone else, because we are all children of God.

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