It’s a funny thing, news. 

Largely, it’s unpredictable what will elicit the biggest reactions from the public, especially on social media. Sometimes, what we feel like are our best stories get a mere flicker of attention. Other times, a story lands on my desk that I am certain will bring a waves of attention — and not always the good kind.

As great as we are as a community celebrating our accomplishments and successes, last week proved we are equally as poor as a community at basic human relatability, tolerance and acceptance.

On March 28, such a story occurred. Over the course of 4-6 hours that day, about 75 people came and went from the Barry County courthouse square — a “No Kings” protest that I predicted would elicit a reaction, but it was even more than I expected.

Since the story was posted last Wednesday on Facebook, it’s garnered more than 65,000 views, more than 700 comments and more than 35 shares. The views and shares I expected, but the comments exploded far beyond expectations — the majority are highly disappointing. 

There were many in support of First Amendment rights, the nature of the story and signs being displayed, and the message participants were trying to send.

But, predictably and sadly, most of the positivity was drowned out by what can only be described as hate.

Here are more than a handful of the comments I am referencing, copied and pasted with no editing:

– Does the nursing home realize they left the door open?

– THERE WILL BE AN EXTRA PILL IN YOUR MEDS TONIGHT AT THE NURSING HOME !

– I wonder how many of them got paid?

– Came in on the short bus

– Useful idiots are everywhere

– Should’ve called it the “look at us we have no lives” protest

– While the normal people are at work

– Meanwhile the other people in town were busy AT THEIR JOBS

– Look at that… even in small towns you can find at least 75 RETARDS to hold up signs their pets colored for them

– Trumps still y’all’s daddy

– We drove by and pointed and laughed.

– Looks like they bused in people from the retirement homes again! Cassville with a population of 3100 people, 75 people come to protest? Why would anybody on their right mind publish this pathetic turnout? 75 mostly elderly people,,,,,geesh!

– Someone keeps pulling these people from the nursing homes and making them stand and hold signs. They can’t even remember what their names are.

– Alot of mental illness

– 75 losers

– Collection of morons

– A retard festival

– Leave our Red state.

– Old liberal white women! This is a great agument for repealing the 19th amendment!

– ‘Tards be ‘tardin’

– I was wanting a speed bump for testing my new shocks

– That’s a lot of retards!

– You people are so stupid

– You’re a menace to society

– I kept driving past but no one would try to block my car. What good is a gaggle of libtards if you can’t run them over? Folks in the big cities get to have all the fun.

Regardless of your political beliefs, is this what we’ve become? Tacky insults with poor grammar? Attacking people’s ages, calling them stupid (or worse), implying they don’t have jobs (when the event was on a Saturday) — admitting to driving by multiple times in hopes someone would step into the street so they could be run over?

I don’t know about you, but for me, this nature of public discourse in response to folks peacefully exercising their First Amendment rights is growing quite old. 

We’ve never covered any right-wing protests like “No Kings.” And we would, they just don’t happen here. In a county that voted 75%-80% for Trump in every election he has been in, there has not once been an opportunity to cover any similar protest of Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, or even before Trump, Barack Obama.

Most people have opinions about national politics. Truthfully, I despise reporting either side here. People get too worked up, too hateful, too insulting, and occasionally violent.

It’s predictably sad — and if we are to be a serious newspaper and report what’s actually happening on the ground, we’re right in the middle of it whether we choose to be or not.

In the sea of predictably sad comments, there was this one that made sense to me. Maybe it doesn’t to you, but it’s a point well made:

– So many people on here making jokes about the ages of most of these protesters. Thing is, they lived through the Civil rights movement of the 60’s, Jim Crowe, Vietnam, assassinations, fuel and energy crisis, the cold war, and countless other crisis. So, unlike most of us tenderfoots, have proved themselves as bad [a****]. Most people opposed equal rights, basic human rights, of people of color 60 plus years ago. Some things never change.

We are a small town community. Many of us are not even just neighbors — but we are friends, co-workers and even family. If we can’t show relatability, tolerance and acceptance toward one another — in our own community — I hate to see where this entire country is headed.

Kyle Troutman has served as editor of the Cassville Democrat since 2014 and owner/publisher since 2023. He is a three-time ISWNE Golden Dozen award winner. He may be reached at 417-847-2610 or [email protected].