Humiliated in the national news, Idaho? It’s what we do. Cringe at all this coverage.
We should be used to this $#@%, right?
I mean, the longer you live here, the less embarrassing it should feel when Idaho makes the news for appalling reasons.
Sadly, it doesn’t work that way. I’ve spent the majority of my years in the Gem State. And I feel ashamed after the Central District Health protest debacle Tuesday. And fed up as the media coverage piles up.
Join me in the latest national cringe-fest.
There’s the Washington Post headline: “An Idaho official left a meeting in tears as anti-maskers swarmed her home.” It’s a lengthy story linking to reporting from the Idaho Statesman.
That Post article has generated a whopping 2,000 comments and counting. Feel free to peruse them. I’d love to say that they’re entertaining. But for any Idahoan with a shred of state pride, it’s an endless face-palm. Comment example: “Bunch of low-brow hee-haws ... Pathetic.”
I’d argue if I hadn’t tweeted a similar sentiment last night.
There’s also an Associated Press story posted at USA Today: “Boise health board abruptly adjourns coronavirus meeting as protesters gather outside and at board members’ homes.”
Need more? CNN wrote its own piece, too. And Fox News is all over it: “Idaho health board’s virtual coronavirus meeting derailed by protests outside members’ homes.”
Then there’s the national TV humiliation. I’m talking about this morning’s report on NBC’s “Today” show. (Yes, Idaho, we made the freaking flagship “Today” show.) As it neared the 2-minute mark of a coronavirus segment, it shifted to — yep, “Boise, Idaho,” and “the country’s division over lockdowns on full display.” (Watch below.)
If you haven’t seen the Zoom footage of Ada County Commissioner Diana Lachiondo exiting Tuesday’s doomed CDH meeting in a near-panic, it’s there — along with brief video of selfish, ruckus-causing tools who stalked her home and frightened her children. (Watch an extended YouTube video of that “protest” below.)
Now all of America gets to witness this ugly part of Idaho in action.
Lachiondo has posted on Facebook that she and her kids are OK: “During last night’s Board of Health meeting, armed protesters once again assembled outside my home: yelling, banging, firing air horns, amplifying sound clips from ‘Scarface,’ accusing me of tyranny and (of) cowering inside.”
(Blasting “Scarface” movie samples? Are you kidding me?)
“I wasn’t actually inside the house,” Lachiondo continued. “I was taking the call from my office at the Ada County Courthouse. But my two sons, ages 12 and 8, and my mother (who was out taking our dog on a short walk) were. And as many of you saw last night, my son called me in tears at the beginning of last night’s meeting.”
How can you not tremble with rage when you read that?
Don’t be surprised if Idaho attracts more national coverage for its often unchecked nuttiness.
Idaho Statesman reporter Hayley Harding is scheduled to appear on MSNBC’s “All in with Chris Hayes” Wednesday night to talk about the protests.
And why wouldn’t national media continue to be interested? Our type of insanity doesn’t happen so routinely in other places. Thoughtless anti-maskers noisily clamoring for freedumb outside elected officials’ private residences? It’s, like, fascinating to the other 49 states.
(And if that isn’t enough, there’s the Anne Frank Human Rights Memorial in Boise being vandalized this week with swastikas. Political website The Hill wrote about that loathsome act today.)
But there is a bright side, Idaho. If the national media attention keeps up, maybe we won’t have to worry about population growth anymore. And not just because everyone here has been infected with COVID-19.
This story was originally published December 9, 2020 at 4:06 PM.