Rural Values,
An editorial from the Scottsbluff StarHerald,
by Editor, Steve Frederick

A New York Times writer laments Nebraska’s small-town depopulation A friend sent along a recent column about Nebraska that appeared in the New York Times, which for some reason occasionally takes a wistful look at what’s happening out here and “gets it” better than some of the people who purport to look out for our interests.

The writer, Richard Dooling, was discussing the apparent demise of Nebraska’s Initiative 300, which was intended to restrict the corporate takeover of farmland. He points out that although Nebraska’s economy looks fine on the surface, 74 of the state’s 93 counties have smaller populations now than they did in 1920. A third of the state’s 1.7 million people live in the greater Omaha area, while Nebraska farms get bigger and the number of people who make a living off them shrinks.

“The costs for schools, roads and police and fire departments remain relatively constant, but the bodies paying taxes, buying goods and developing land keep disappearing,” he notes. “County officials call it rural flight, brain drain or even mass migration, but despite the alarums, nobody has found a way to stop the excursions.”

He isn’t very optimistic about small-business development or technology bailing the rest of us out.
“Instead of micro industries, a cynical futurist might see mega-farms, owned by global corporations, and farmed by armies of robot combines, controlled by global positioning satellite technology from offices in Omaha.”

The idea isn’t all that far-fetched. Land ownership has slipped out of the realm of possibility for most young farmers, and if big corporations can’t farm with robotic tractors, they can hire minimum-wage tractor drivers. The only way to keep small towns alive will be to attract new industries, and the best thing Nebraska has going for it in that market is the quality of its workforce. But if that workforce leaves before industry arrives, even that hope is gone.

Rural America may be fading away because of farm consolidation, but it’s also dying because creative, talented young people are leaving in droves. They leave for the coasts and the big cities, in many cases, but also for places like Lincoln and Omaha, which look at economic development mostly as a scheme to accommodate them. The rest of us Nebraskans are left to hope that they’ll someday have a change of heart and return.

Some do. What often brings them back are the bedrock values that once drove them crazy: The high-school sports rivalries and neighborhood romances and coffee-shop gossip that weave together the lives of families and neighbors. The concern about neighbors’ children, soldiers serving overseas and old-timers in the church pews that ensures no one is ever forgotten. The calls and face-to-face back-fence conferencing from concerned police officers and teachers and neighbors that help parents keep wayward kids from falling through the cracks.

Many people today are looking for that, but they usually have to find it on their own. When they do, they’re often amazed that it still exists.
The big-city America they know is all about gated neighborhoods, traffic jams, drive-up windows and schools with metal detectors in the doorways.

But a sense of caring and connection is the bedrock of most small towns. As Dooling suggests, it’s worth protecting. It’s worth defending. It’s worth promoting as a magnet for businesses seeking the good life. Let’s hope comments like Dooling’s find sympathetic ears. You won’t hear a better sales pitch for rural Nebraska coming from Lincoln or Omaha.

Left by Richard Dooling on February 8th, 2006