Small Town U.S.A.

It does not take much to know the differences between small towns and big cities are real. But the distinctions between these two different ways of life are less obvious. Big cities, after all, are where politicians and agenda-driven media executives labor to tell the rest of us what to do. Even when they have no clue how the rest of America lives.

In quiet hamlets and rural places in the USA, news of the day is more likely discussed among friends at the local coffee klatch instead of that ugly online morass known as social media. Small towns are where people still pack the bleachers at sporting events and fill the pews for church. It is where people stand during the National Anthem, sit down together when they eat, and shut up when there is nothing nice to say. It is also where neighbors are respected, police officers are honored, and soldiers are decorated.

Small towns are disappearing, though. And while more and more people who live in big cities complain about their quality of life, more of us are moving there. 83% of Americans live in urban areas now. That is double the number of those who did a century ago. And while mainstream media romanticizes about big coastal city life, we know it can never compete with the allure and charm of Small Town, America.