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Horse is out of the barn,

Guy Speckman by Guy Speckman
September 17, 2020
in Ponder the Thought
horse out of the barn
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The proverbial horse in the barn for 2020 is common sense. We have let it out of the barn and getting it back in will probably prove impossible. Cancel this, close that is the new solution to everything. Postpone, cancel, close, avoid is the new mantra for our world. These types of decisions used to be ruled by common sense, yet now common sense is a much-depreciated characteristic of the world.

You know all the silly, non-sensical rules that are being put in place by governments and schools. It has long been the tradition of both of these institutions to apply new rules to old ways, but that has accelerated to new heights during this pandemic; not for the better.

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The University of Missouri announced that you can attend football games, including in the indoor parts of their beloved “South End Zone” area, but they are not allowing tailgating in the parking lot. Say what? The South End Zone area is essentially a bar at a football stadium and we can pack in that place at some arbitrary percentage but we can’t stand outside our cars and drink a beer or cook a brat because of the university’s “concern” for our health. I think they said “overwhelming concern,” but you get the point, they really care!

Sit down at your desk and slowly bang your head on your desk. That is the only solution I can come up with for this common sense being implemented at our institutions of higher education.


Want more? The Blue Springs school district is suing Jackson County over the limits on the number of fans that can attend Blue Springs sporting events. Think this through for a minute with me. Two organizations, in the same county, both supported by taxpayers (some of them the same taxpayers) are arguing in a socially distanced taxpayer paid-for courtroom, with masks on, about how many fans can go to an outdoor sporting event in a stadium paid for by those same taxpayers and also in masks.

We have gone insane. Pack your bags and let’s find a new planet because this is insanity. It’s like going downstairs and arguing with your kids about how many of them can be upstairs at one time and paying your kids to argue with you.

Like I said, I think we have worn out our welcome on this planet.


Just so you can keep yourself straight, you can tailgate at Arrowhead Stadium but not at Mizzou, because COVID is more dangerous as you travel east on Interstate 70.

I’m pretty sure you can do whatever you want in Lawrence as you long as you hide your face behind a large mask. My only question to those of you going to Lawrence for a football game is, why? If that is the case you don’t need a COVID test, you need a mental acuity exam; but only after we are sure we have enough test kits for the current presidential candidates.

Anyway, stay home and cook your hot dog. Cut a hole in your mask before you eat it.


Speaking of mental fitness, I need to check my Landmark benefit package and see if I’m covered for mental deficiencies. I’ve waited over seven months to attend an athletic event and I chose to attend the upcoming football game between the Mizzou Tigers and the Alabama Crimson Tide. My lack of mental fitness should be questioned for that type of decision making. It’s probably not covered. Falls under “common sense,” which a lack of is now considered an uncovered life event.

(Guy Speckman can be reached at gspeckman@me.com or suing the people living in his basement)

Guy Speckman

Guy Speckman

Guy Speckman is a Landmark contributing columnist with his Ponder the Thought column. Speckman is the former owner of the Savannah Reporter, where the column appeared for nearly two decades. Speckman is a former city government manager, serving as city administrator in Maysville, Plattsburg and Savannah before entering business. He is a graduate of Northwest Missouri State University (1989). He is originally from Plattsburg, Missouri. He and his wife own and operate a real estate valuation firm and a daily legal newspaper and are the parents of two grown children.

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