Governor Noem: “continue to show each other respect and understand for everybody who makes choices that we may or may not agree with”

@SoDakCampaigns

In her press conference yesterday updating South Dakotans regarding the COVID-19 virus, Governor Kristi Noem reiterated that she does not believe she has the authority to order people to wear masks or cast edicts down about restrictions from the state level, and also asks that people at least attempt to be decent with one another. As related by the Pierre Capital Journal:

“I don’t believe I have the authority to mandate [masks], and people can make their own personal decisions when it comes to masks,” Noem said during a Wednesday news conference at the State Capitol in Pierre. “I don’t want to approach a policy or a mandate just looking to do something to make people feel good. I want to do good, and actually put forward provisions that make a difference for families.”

Every community in South Dakota has flexibility to make different decisions regarding masks and COVID restrictions, and “that’s what some of these local leaders are doing and reacting to what some people in the community want,” she said.

and…

Noem made multiple calls for mutual respect, citing her increasing concern about how neighbors aren’t treating one another compassionately in their communities.

“You may choose to wear a mask and be concerned about the virus, and if people are scared I’m going to remind them they should stay home. But if people choose not to, we still should treat them with respect and understand they’re making a personal decision, and if we don’t want to be around them, we have the opportunity not to do that as well,” Noem said.

Read the entire story here.

Really, she makes a good point. Ultimately we’re responsible for our own conduct, and how we treat our friends and neighbors.

Part of what we need to keep in mind with this pandemic, which won’t be brought to a stop absent a vaccine, is the question of how much freedom do we actually wish to give up in the name of the perception of safety?  I think people being offended by mask wearing is ridiculous at a minimum, and some are plain being horse’s asses.

But equally offensive are the calls to shut down businesses.  Employees & business owners alike need to feed their families.  Segments of the economy have been damaged enough, and shuttering people in for weeks on end is not reasonable, nor sustainable.

As the Governor says, we need to respect one another and find a way to navigate around our differences.

Should that be such a challenge?

23 thoughts on “Governor Noem: “continue to show each other respect and understand for everybody who makes choices that we may or may not agree with””

  1. My email to Governor Noem’s office, sent moments ago (I also followed-up with a phone call):

    Dear Governor Noem;

    Why is Spearfish’s mayor having coordinating conference calls with other mayors in South Dakota, wherein scientifically unsupported conclusions are being shared, which is then driving policy in city council meetings across the state?

    I saw no pronouncements about these calls, was not notified or invited to attend to provide balanced information and dissent for falsehoods.

    Are these private meetings between mayors even legal?

    If false information about mask wearing is being spread in these conference calls, which is then used to instrument tyrannical policies at the municipal level, this kind of de facto governorship of our state could create widespread distrust, demoralization, fragmentation and unrest. In addition, this unholy alliance of rogue mayors and city councils across the state undermines the authority of state elected executives.

    Please reach out to Mayor Boke to inquire as to the nature, content, and outcomes of these cabal-istic conference calls.

    Sincerely,

    John Dale, MS MIS
    Spearfish, SD

    1. I don’t think someone who believes InfoWars is a good source of information should be lecturing people about scientifically supported conclusions.

        1. Let’s start with a little prayer (one I made up that helps me in times of trouble):

          “Dear god, please fill my belly with the delicious food of a beautiful loving woman, my heart with love, my mind with discernment, and my hands with the right tools at the right times. Amen.”

          I think people who post anonymously on The Internet should sign their names to be taken seriously.

          As if we need to take this further, an understanding of basic logic is also a redeemable quality.

          For instance, it is a violation of common sense and formal logic to argue that, because some information came from a particular source, it is de facto false. This is known as the fallacy of arguing against the person (or by extension the fallacy of arguing against the entity).

          For example:

          “The sky is blue.” — InfoWars, OAN, and Newsmax.

          “The sky is not blue because InfoWars, OAN, and Newsmax said it is blue.” — Anonymous

          Make sense?

          Lastly, it’s intellectually titillating to think that a virus with a 99.7% survivability rate will be mitigated by a vaccine with a 95% effectiveness.

          We don’t have a virus problem, we have a tyranny problem.

          Signed sincerely in love and reverence,

          John Dale, MS MIS, Conservative Constitutional Republican
          Spearfish, SD 57783

          2. Mr. Dale, I submit with the 95% effectiveness vaccine will actually decrease deaths by a uber amount. Let us assume the vaccine is 95% effective. That means up to 5% of the population could but not necessarily will catch the virus. Of those people, of the ones who actually catch the virus, 99.7% will survive the virus, making deaths extremely minuscule. As it is, the death rate is quite tiny, but we have a media and politicians hyping a number.

  3. The only thing she’s worried about is appearing to disagree with trump. She will happily watch us all die to further her political ambitions.

    1. Stupid comment. I would say Kristi has more compassion than people like Andy Cuomo and Gavvie Newsome; they support wholesale abortion so life is cheap to them, and Andy put infected folks into nursing homes on his order.

  5. Don’t we have some billion dollars sitting around that needs to be spent? Give that to struggling business owners to close for a few weeks. All this “giving up freedom” stuff is bunk. Do you really think you’ll be asked to wear a mask for eternity? No, it’s temporary.

    I don’t have a perception of safety while riding in Ubers so I drive home drunk from the bar. Stay out of my way and you’ll be just fine. Scared? Stay home.

  6. I wonder how Noem, Fury, and Seidel are going to play their old talking point that SD has few covid deaths per capita compared to the national average since we just blew past that threshold today. Is the goalpost going to move to “better than NY” or is the focus going to shift to some comorbidity-focused pseudoscientific nonsense? Both?

    2. There’s nothing “pseudoscientific” about a focus on comorbidities. The available evidence suggests literally no one is dying solely from Covid-19. Without the counterproductive stress, panic, and general overreaction, this might not have been any worse than the 2018 flu season.

      1. No one solely dies from AIDS or having cancer cells either, but they are still root causes of death.

        1. So Covid is the root cause of death if someone is dying of cancer or dies in a motorcycle crash but tests positive for Covid?

          1. In the first case, it could be depending on severity of cancer. If you were in remission, got covid and died that’s pretty clear.

            The motorcycle analogy is just dumb.

            When you can explain how having asthma, being overweight, or being diabetic are deadlier conditions than covid I’ll might consider what you have to contribute has any value.

            1. It may be stupid, but it did happen in Florida. The family objected and the victim was taken off the list. We have found the deaths have been overly inflated. We have also found if you are 65 – 74 years old, your are more likely to die if you have covid. If you are 75 -84, you are even more likely. If you are 85 or older, it is even more likely. BTW, if you are under 50, you have very little chance of dying from the disease. Rather than hiding in a hole, I believe we just have to live are lives as best we can. If you are concerned, stay in your hole. If you are elderly, stay home if you are concerned. But don’t force everyone to live in poverty so we can put in place dubious measures that have not shown a positive effect anyway.

  7. The well spring of courage in the face of medical tyranny derives from this example:

    https://www.nfl.com/news/all-77-false-positive-covid-19-tests-come-back-negative-upon-reruns

    The “plandemic” has been saddled with a global reset aimed at culling massive swaths of the global population starting with the 3rd world.

    Hundreds of millions will starve in the 3rd world .. my heart aches for these human beings.

    Our present leadership are very poor stewards of humanity.

    That’s why we are changing leadership in the Republican (and hopefully the Democrat) party.

Comments are closed.