Are You Aware? Bridging the Divide
This is part III in our “Rural America” Awareness Wednesday series. Read the other posts in the series here.
I grew up in a rural part of Pennsylvania. One of our homes was on a “rural route” for mail, and our property consisted of about an acre of land in the middle of some woods. There was an old covered bridge and a small creek just down the hill from us. It was a child’s paradise.
Later we moved to a small town, where our address was simply the name of the town and the state. We picked up the mail by walking a couple of blocks to the small post office, which was actually the front room of the postmaster’s house, and her horse was kept in the backyard. All you had to do was walk in the door, and from behind the counter she’d grab your mail and hand it to you. She knew everyone in the town. I remember being proud that our town was large enough to have a stoplight.
When I was 15, we moved to the Washington, D.C., area, where urban opportunities opened up for us. I loved both my rural and urban homes; each had its advantages.
As a military wife for 29 years, we lived in rural areas, such as the outskirts of Cheyenne, Wyoming, and the plains of Kansas, and in urban areas like Boston, Washington, D.C., and the greater Seattle area.
In Cheyenne, I never worried when our teenagers were in town with their friends, because there were not many places to go, and the soda shop near the only theater was owned and run by the bishop of our neighboring ward. He kept an eye out for all our teens. In Washington, D.C., we lived right by two metro lines, and there my teens could hop on the metro and take advantage of all the wonderful tourist areas and museums the city had to offer.
It is easy for me to see that urban and rural areas are dependent on one another. It pains me to hear people refer to rural and urban areas as “two Americas.”
This urban versus rural narrative is inaccurate and harmful. We are one, and we very much need each other.
We found the people in both rural and urban areas to be more similar than different. We knew doctors, hairdressers, lawyers, construction workers, accountants, shopkeepers, etc., in both types of areas. Some were farmers in the rural areas, but most were not. In both urban and rural communities, it was not uncommon for many people to work for a dominant employer or industry in the area.
Growing up, I had friends of a variety of ethnicities. My sister’s best friend was born in Korea. According to the Brookings Institute, “The portrayal of rural America as a white monolith erases the 21% of rural residents who are people of color, and who are critical to the economic future of rural and small towns and [ultimately] to the health of the nation overall.”
While urban areas produce about 70% of the country’s GDP, we must not forget, as author Arthur Morgan says: “The roots of civilization are elemental traits — good will, neighborliness, fair play, courage, tolerance, open-minded inquiry, patience.” Citing Morgan, Atlantic author Brian Alexander goes on to say, “These traits are best transmitted from one generation to the next in small communities . . . from where they are then spread throughout entire societies. To erode small-town culture [is] to erode the culture of the nation.”
Similarly, Brookings Institution researchers have said, “In reality, the rural economy is structured much like the urban economy, with the service sector comprising the largest share of employment in metro and non-metro areas.” They have valuable ecosystems that serve our nation. These include food production, carbon sequestration, and stewardship of biodiversity and habitat resources. “Rural areas power, feed, and enlist to protect America, while providing natural resources, industrial innovation, and the workforce that our nation as a whole relies upon.” COVID-19 has highlighted how much we rely on fresh food and production capacity. We need to value our rural assets better.
According to the Smithsonian Institution:
“In 1900, about 40% of Americans lived in rural areas. By 2010, less than 18% of the U.S. population lived in rural areas. In just over a century, massive economic and social changes led to massive growth of America’s urban areas. Yet less than 10% of the U.S. landmass is considered urban.”
Retaining young people in the rural areas they were raised in has been difficult due to a lack of job opportunities and educational opportunities. In one small town in Oregon, the average age of its residents is 64. Their small town is literally dying off. Opportunities for higher education and jobs are the greatest barriers small towns must overcome, as they are the two things that most draw their people away from rural life.
It is possible that COVID-19 has brought a turning point. The evidence is still anecdotal, but the ability to work remotely and the availability of online education, including advanced degrees from prestigious schools, have the potential to change the look of rural America. Many companies are considering permanent remote-work options. Rents in our largest cities are already dropping. In Manhattan, rent is down 6.6% compared to June of 2020.
If more people are starting to move to rural locations, which appears to be the case, it will be a reversal of a decades-long trend of moving from rural areas to cities.
A key factor in this change will be the availability of a reliable internet connection. In urban areas, 97% of the people have access to the internet, while many rural communities still have limited internet access. Only 65% of Americans in rural areas have access to broadband internet. But this may change soon. Elon Musk’s Starlink effort aims to bring fast internet signals to Earth via thousands of small satellites, all of which will be in low Earth orbit.
Rural America’s economic outlook and population may look quite different in a few years. These changes make it even more important to stop our talk of “two Americas” and realize we are one.
Debra Oaks Coe is the anti-discrimination committee co-lead for Mormon Women for Ethical Government.
