My Experience in SW Missouri [View all]

[rustysgurl]

While in high school in the 70s I lived in SW Missouri, about 30 miles from Springfield (Greene County). We moved there when I was 15. Moving there from our relatively progressive district in another state to what can only be described as a redneck, ultra-conservative, ultra-fundamentally-religious small town of less than 3,000 was quite a shock to the system. The level of don't-give-a-shit-about-your-fellow-man down there is beyond the pale. Unless, of course, he/she goes to your church or you grew up together. Anyone else moving in is considered a "foreigner," and it takes decades for that to wear off, if at all.

The mother of a girl I went to school with (who still lives in that area) recently came down with the Delta variant, despite receiving both doses of the Pfizer vaccine. Since she's 80 years old, I was obviously worried, but she pulled through and is feeling much better. You would think, then, that this would wise up her daughter, son-in-law and friends to the dangers. But no! Despite her mother pleading for her to get the vaccine, this woman says that she will continue to "plead the blood of Jesus" to keep her safe and says that her getting the vaccine would be tantamount to receiving "the mark of the devil." And sadly, most of her friends in that area agree.

This is what the health experts are dealing with down there. Ignorance on a level that defies logic. Bottom line -- they don't care if they get it and die. As my former schoolmate said: "I'm in a win/win situation. If I live then I'm still here. If I die, then I'll be with the Good Lord." She then asked me when I was going to visit. I told her it would take being held at gunpoint for me to enter their county anytime soon. She said I was being melodramatic and insulting. I told her that God helps those that help themselves and she was being an ignorant, thoughtless fool. I told her that, in all likelihood, she was the one who exposed her 80-year-old mother. She paused for a moment, then said if it was meant that her mother went to be with the Lord then she would think her mother was lucky.

Pretty sure the vaccination rates are not going to increase in that area. You just can't fix stupid.