"Is the I.Q. Lower here? No, but we are more independent in southern Oregon. That doesn't make us stupid. Your remark is offensive!"
Medford resident, in an on-line bulletin board.
Southern Oregons hospitals are being reported in the national news. They are overwhelmed with COVID cases from the un-vaccinated.
College classmates in New England send me clippings and links. What is going on out there? What is wrong with you folks? Our hospitals are showing the nation's highest increases in COVID cases.
There are two Oregons.
There is the Oregon of "Portlandia," that place caricatured as an ultra-liberal woke place where customers ask about the names and mental health of the chickens before ordering scrambled eggs at a restaurant. There is some truth to Portland's national reputation. Portland's Multnomah County District Attorney declined to prosecute arson if it is done by people hiding within a George Floyd protest, which facilitated the 2020 summer of violence. Photos of arson became exhibit A in the GOP story of Democratic misrule. Multnomah County is undeniably Democratic, and Biden won overwhelmingly over Trump in 2020, with dozens of precincts voting ten to one for Biden. One large precinct voted 7,915 to 319 for Biden, a 94%-4% margin.
Two cities, Bend in Central Oregon and Medford in Southern Oregon, are special cases. Both places are islands of urbanization within recreation areas noteworthy for their superb outdoor lifestyle--at least until these recent summers of smoke. Both have big medical centers to service the prosperous elderly who move to retire there. Both cities are targets for adding or subtracting 100,000 people to bring a bit of population of a certain political bent into or out of a Congressional District--as shown in yesterday's blog post on redistricting. Democratic Map A carved out moderate Bend, to include in a Democratic District. Republican Map B carved out Medford and its Republican northern suburbs--but not Ashland--to attempt to defeat the Democratic incumbent.
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| In the Coastal parking lot |
Then there is the other Oregon, the one that identifies with the rural America. Some of this Oregon is timber country, some of it is agricultural, some of it is open-space leave-me-alone Mountain West. The Medford-Ashland corridor along Interstate 5 is the urban exception within hundreds of miles of that other, rural Oregon. In parts of rural Oregon, Trump won 4-1, and more. In one geographically huge, but small in population, precinct in Eastern Oregon, the vote was 90-to-1 for Trump. Rural Oregon counties were in the news 80 years ago when some political leaders called for a a new state to be carved out of the southern counties of Oregon and northern counties of California, the State of Jefferson. Succession from Oregon is in the news again, this time for rural counties to leave urbanized Oregon to become part of an enlarged "Greater Idaho."
Ashland, Oregon, with its regional university, its Shakespeare Festival, and its draw of highly educated, prosperous retirees--and its resultant Democratic voting pattern--is thoroughly part of the urban Oregon. Medford straddles the divide. People in prosperous neighborhoods in Medford wear COVID masks. In the rural areas just out of town--in farm country--they don't.
I see it both. I live it both. I pass the Coastal store discussed in the comments below to get to my farm. It is a store with everything a small farmer needs: Irrigation pumps, fencing material, tools, fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides, boots. It has a big section selling guns. It is closer to my farm than my home, but it is a world apart defined by politics and overall mindset. The store is deep within Trump/Greater Idaho country. The precinct that includes the Coastal store voted for Trump 74% to 24%. The precinct for my farm, next precinct over, was Trump 73% to 25%.
I took photos of trucks in and leaving the parking lot of that Coastal store.
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| On the road outside Coastal's store. |
The crisis at the hospitals has gotten members of urban Oregon frustrated and angry. The Trump/Greater Idaho people are spreading disease! The bulletin board website Next Door posted a comment last night from a Medford resident. He got responses from the other Oregon.
18 comments:
There have been a number of pro-COVID demonstrations in the Rogue Valley protesting masks and vaccines, but the most grotesque had to be the one in front of Asante. While the science deniers flaunted their ignorance and ingratitude, healthcare workers in the hospital were putting their lives and families at risk trying to save unvaccinated idiots like them.
We’ve become a nation divided between those who care about the greater good and those who couldn’t care less – unwilling to do the little that’s necessary to stop the spread of this deadly disease. They should be ashamed, but they have no shame.
Shame, anger, logic are not going to overcome their loyalty to their tribe. Only death is going to make them change their belief system. Sometimes we have to accept that people will behave how they want to rather than how they should. Working in prisons for 30 years I certainly saw that some people refuse to alter their behavior even to their own detriment. As staff used to say to each other, “Oh well.”
Masks don't work, but that doesn't matter to the liberal sheep. Do you understand that? Masks don't prevent the tiny Covid particles from going into your mouth and nose. If you want to wear a mask because it makes you feel superior, then go for it, but don't comment on other people's actions, because you don't know what you're talking about.
As for the vaccines, it appears that they have a short life-span, and they don't do much to help against an ever-mutating virus. Lots of people who got the vaccine are still getting Covid, so what's the purpose of the vaccine? People are still getting sick.
As an aside, China intentionally infected America with Covid in order to damage our economy and country, so who's to say that China isn't creating these new mutations in order to permanently damage us? I don't trust China one bit.
You all may not like the conservative viewpoint, but my I.Q. is as high as any of yours.
I agree that saying they are low IQ is condescending (even if true!). It will not have any positive effect. It is true that underneath their claims that they are just being independent is really an attitude of not caring for others. That seems to be the real divide in this country.
I wish Anonymous would vote the Medical Journals he, or she, read to enforce his or her belief that masking is ineffective in helping stop the spread of this Virus. Or, as most anti Vax/anti mask protestors do, perhaps Anonymous will cite the FB page which gave out such definitive information.
A few midrange-IQ observations/questions: (To save time--I got my second Pfizer jab in April).
1. The fellow in the comments deploring dummies wrote "dummy's".
2. Is it or is it not true that only N-95 masks or better have meaningful efficacy against COVID-transmitting aerosols?
3. Is it or is it not true that Oregon has among the very fewest hospital beds per capita in the nation? That Governor Brown has used zero dollars from the federal COVID billions available to her since last year to ameliorate that?
4. Dave, would you also apply your experience in prisons and your observations here exactly as worded to those involved in the gun violence epidemics, primarily gang-related, in Portland, Chicago, etc.? If not, why not?
5. Michael, do you extend your "greater good" imperative to all facets of society, behavior and public policy, or just COVID? The obesity epidemic, for instance? Who determines--and enforces--the greater good?
6. I was at the Giants-Dodger game at Oracle Park on Sunday afternoon. If it wasn't a sellout, it was very close. To my surprise, upon entry no one was asked to provide either proof of vaccination or a recent negative test. Mask use was "recommended" in the seats; 95% did not. Required in the inner walkways, bathrooms, etc.; 50% compliance.
Mr. Anonymous sounds a lot like Curt Angerberg - he omitted the expletives, but the BS about masks is pure, wingnut wacko. The Mayo Clinic makes it clear they help prevent the spread of of COVID-19. You'd have to be an idiot to take his word over theirs.
Taking the vaccine could save his life, but oh well.
To Low Dudgeon:
I am referring to a pandemic that has killed over 640,000 of your fellow Americans in a relatively short time. People have no right to endanger others, but you can get as obese as you want.
Anonymous: Masks do work, or is your FB Source more reliable than the Mayo Clinic ?
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/coronavirus/in-depth/coronavirus-mask/art-20485449
Peter; I wasn't sure about adding the link to Mayo Clinic. If I was wrong, please delete it.
Please read the Mayo article, and understand that masks do not prevent spread of cover. If worn they help reduce but do not prevent the spread.
I'm traveling around Greece right now. I've been in airports, restaurants, and hotels.
Many who wear masks do not wear them properly.
When I am out in the open, and by ourselves, we don't wear them. When we must be in a crowd, or when indoors, we wear masks.
There are smart people who don't wear masks; there are smart people wearing them improperly.
There are idiots who act as mask police, too.
If we hadn't politicized vaccines or masks, perhaps things might be better.
In the meantime, we each need to do what's best for ourselves, first.
Related, have we condemned smokers, the obese, the dirty, the homeless, or many, more for taxing our medical systems? No, we have not.
Let's all do what we can, personally.
People only do what they want to do, always have, always will. Only 3 things will cause them to change; pain, a new perspective, or a box canyon where they have no other choice but to change. Meanwhile, why can't we all just get along?
Michael—
The list of traditional fallacies includes a few which adepts might well apply to your answer. You simply restate your “greater good” assertion in connection with COVID as if self-justifying and self-limiting. Is the use of the word “pandemic” dispositive? Or is there some discrete number of deaths which carries the day? Hiroshima and Nagasaki come to mind too. Who decides? MUST they decide?
IQ of people in southern Oregon can be directly related to income. Do the math, yes collectively our IQ is lower just like college degrees, new cars and home loans in our community.
Yep all 15 Asante ICU beds were full and 3 of those were on their way out. I wonder if they have triage people who decide whether the COVID patient gets priority over the gun shot victim? If so what makes them decide that a person over a standard deviation from the mean lifespan gets a bed but poor ol' John Q Fortysomething just might need to use the National Guard tent outside. Sorry, our resident trauma surgeon is busy signing off on a nurse-installed breathing tube. You vaxxed, John? If not we're calling the news about you.
OR the hospital is expanding, engaging in fund-seeking, and now is a ripe time to beg for federal resources. Asante had 15 months to improve their icu availability and for some stupid reason chose not to. Now is the time for a third hospital to take advantage of their failure to meet community demand.
That's a great idea, Brian. Instead of getting vaccinated, let's build another hospital.
Anonymous:
Do you also not wash your hands after using the toilet?
There is also scientific proof that handwashing prevents disease.
Your actions keep the virus circulating and mutating, which means people will keep dying and businesses will continue to have restrictions.
The hospital surge is also creating delays in all medical treatment.
That means many more people will die because their healthcare needs are not being met due to the pandemic of the unvaccinated.
The death toll will be much higher.
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