The "American Dream"

Speaking about Rural America in a part of America I have never seen before is… odd.  Everyone, including myself, seems to forget how diverse Rural America is, the people, but the land, the economy, the and the problems that we face.

 I’m here with the focus of how do you at least maintain the jobs we have while also protecting the land and the landowners in a coal mining community.  However, others are here with the main focus of local farming, health care, housing issues, education and equality. 

 While all of our differences may seem obvious there are also a lot of similarities, and the main thing that seems to link us together is that we all feel forgotten.  After several break out discussions I have been thinking about how my generation views the “American Dream” and I think we all seem to think that Urban America is where it is.  Urban America is where you go for wealth, higher quality of living and freedom.  Urban America has been so successfully marketed to all of us, that we sometimes ignore what’s happening in other places, or even overlook the problems that Urban America faces.

 Last night during a group talk, John-Michael Partesotti from Arizona said that Urban America forgets that it can’t sustain without Rural America; and there it was the whole complicated truth, simply stated.  Rural America supplies the entire nation with a majority in food, energy, and even military.  Rural America is the landscape that is America, we take up more of this nation and yet there are over 50 of us here talking about how we feel ignored. 

 I’m beginning to wonder if maybe something that should change first to help Rural America is to change the image that comes into the minds of my generation when we say the “American Dream”.