There are many communities across rural America who are trying to make it better. But we are fighting an uphill battle. The Republicans have destroyed funding for public schools, and that harms rural places the most. Bring back the schools. Bring back daycare. Bring back jobs. Our kids will return.
that's a generation and a half in the future Miss Piper it must be done ❤️
also high-speed internet for work-at-homes
You also have the "anywhere but here" syndrome to deal with. Nearly every high school kid in a small town has said "I can't wait to get the hell out of here." I don't have the answer. But Jess, the next time you're in Iowa, I'll be in the audience. And I'll bring my friends and family.
“Bring back the schools. Bring back daycare. Bring back jobs. Our kids will return.” Eliminate racism, bigotry, xenophobia, ignorance and hate then perhaps some folks will return.
No we won’t. Not until the entire culture surrounding diversity and equality has shifted in rural communities. Every single day I am appreciative that my husband and I got out and our kids won’t have to grow up in a town where differences are laughed at and conformity is encouraged.
Agreed. I'm straight, white & was one of the weirdos in my small town (it was seriously racially homogenous) as the artsy gal who didn't wear the standard girl uniform nor did I conform to local customs of church, marriage, have lots of babies. I had almost no community when the gays fled after HS.
I grew up in a semi-rural southern town where there were morning prayers over the PA system given by various students every morning. Blatantly illegal. I'm never going back.
Hear hear! So tired of this nostalgic bullshit about some heavenly small town out of Norman Rockwell. My graduating class had 84 people in it. My small town was HELL. Bigoted, passive aggressive and back stabbing people. Harper Valley PTA was a song for a reason.
This is it right here. I have a tight community in the small town I’m from but there’s not a chance in hell I’d ever go back. No food, art, culture or opportunity, just lots of bored white people who gossip, fear the unknown, and blame their failed dreams on their kids. No thanks
Exactly! Same here. I left for college and didn't look back once I hit my 3rd year.
I only went back briefly during the recession when I had no other choice 😆
I lived in Columbia and worked in Fulton for years. I miss my little tight knit work family sometimes. But I got fiddle footed and moved to PNW.
I'm sorry, but no. This is not just an issue of education and economic opportunity; it is a cultural problem. People will not return unless or until the culture in rural areas changes. Gotta end the sundown towns and the vitriolic xenophobia and queerphobia that often thrives in rural communities.
But education is the only hope for changing that culture. It might not be sufficient, but it's necessary.
Relatedly, Idk why you have that number in your sn, but it's something I would encourage reconsidering if you don't want people to wonder if it's a dogwhistle.
Oh, I had to look that up. It's not a dogwhistle, it's a random instantiation of an available user name. But anyone who so much as glances at my comments can see that I'm not what your veiled accusation suggest I am. And now enough, not sure why I engaged.
*suggests
It's not an accusation. I didn't assume. I just wanted to let you know this random instantiation contains a number that many Internet users may find worrisome.
Here's the thing: I left because of education, in no small part because I learned that it is not possible to teach people who don't want to learn; the culture that needs to change is resistant to education and usually punishes those who offer it. Anti-intellectualism is a problematic part of this.
I grew up in Kentucky. I left. I know exactly what you're talking about, but arguing against efforts to improve education as somehow futile is unproductive, in my opinion. You just give up on all the smart kids in stupid states?
No, I don't. I help folks get out and get safe. I literally was working on expanding access to tech education for rural and underrepresented kids before the federal funding cuts axed my whole position. We are not the ones giving up on kids; conservatives are. We reach them online, at least for now.
I'm really sorry about your job. We need your work.
Exactly. I left rural Indiana because I didn't want my son to grow up with the children of people who were assholes to me. We started over in a new, bigger place.
Correctamundo. Grew up in rural NC. The moment I understood I was gay, I understood I had to get the fuck out as soon as possible. (Being reasonably smart helped.) Never going back. Fuck that place.
100% grew up in South Dakota. I realized I wasn’t like them. It has nothing to do with the little town needing more jobs…. It has everything to do with the town needing more decent people
This. And the abuse that is enabled in general. I went to high school in a small town where the band teacher left his wife for a student. They’re married with 2 kids, he’s still teaching and now so is she. They’re also church leaders. It’s disgusting. The bullying was relentless, too. I left at 18.
Exactly. The hatred and exclusion of anyone different, gay, etc etc and if you're not over the top religious then you're treated terrible. And in these times, forget it if you're from another country. No matter how much more educated, intelligent, better skills - you are less.
Yup
Those kids are gone. The smart ones eventually escape for a better life. They might buy a weekend place but it’s never the same. Sorry but no! 🤦♀️