09/25/2017
I am a strong advocate for the rural community. As a country we began in rural communities. Those were the human connections that held us together, facilitated our mutual respect for each other, and caused us to learn to value the others who share our place and our space. Now we are a nation of separationists--everyone in his own little bubble, thumb wrestling with our cell phones, thinking in sound bytes, and forsaking our absolutely necessary need to cling to what community we have.
If, as Hillary wrote, It Takes a Village, how will our children grow up to be functioning members of a society, a community, or a shared place? If there is no village or community, who will meet the social needs? How will we continue to come together to seek cumulative answers, common good, advancement of our people as "a people"?
My major concern is that, as our communities dissolve, so do our successes in our schools. The school in rural areas has been the center of the community, the place, the area for coming together for any reason. We have no big social clubs, no youth organizations, no recreational centers or teams, and our youth, young adults, and aged drop away from the position of vital contributions to our common good. We must find a way to continue to value all of our people, all of their potential wisdom, and all of the talents and answers they have to offer. In a throw-away age, we are allowing our citizens to be considered unworthy, unvalued . . . and we allow the predictions of people like Aldous Huxley to become a frightening reality.
We so need to value our rural communities, their way of life, their encouragement for all to be involved, their emphasis on the individual within the larger circle of people, their valuing of the contributions of all--not just the best, not just the winners, not just the chosen ones . . .
But the elimination has begun without so much as an admission of the tragedy. Our schools grow bigger and lose interest in all students. They disconnect from the communities of which they are a part.
The rural newspaper which printed birthday wishes, social happenings, common everyday stories, and accolades for small-town heroes, are beginning to fade into the past, too. Who cares? Who takes note? Who mentions it in concern?
Even in our larger cities, the astute planners have sectioned the large sections into small community-sized areas with a school, a grocery, a library, a clothing store, a hardware store, a post office, a government building, on and on . . ..
We need some champions for the communities that have demonstrated those facets for decades--until BIG came along. Until people forgot that the farther away we live from the center of our place, the less we care about the community. And we are valued less by community leaders.
Our founders imagined this nation as a massive collection of small units that could meet the needs of all of us, on a small personal level, then, with our representatives, our small units met together in larger groups. The character of the small place, the individuality of our people, and the value of ALL people could be protected.
I believe, as my mother used to say, "We have become too big for our britches."
We need leadership in stopping this erosion of the individual value, the commonly understood and expressed consensus, the opportunity for everyone to become involved in government, in our schools, in our communities. We need people like James Comer to take notice, to care, to speak out, and to support the movement that returns us to the lesson of "smaller is better."
