Rural-Urban Divide - What is it?

[WhiskeyGirl]

What is the rural-urban divide that is being bandied about in the new administration?  Does the administration see something that needs fixing in rural America?  Urban America? 

How does the new administration plan to bridge the gap?  Fix what they may see as the great "rural-urban divide"?  And, do either of these groups have something the other really wants?  Which group to emulate for future generations?

Commentary: Sarah Palin understands small-town America

The most significant divide in America isn't Red State vs. Blue State, it's rural vs. urban. The country mouse and the city mouse are still slugging it out.

In 1982, New York Mayor Ed Koch ran unsuccessfully for governor of New York. Some say the deciding factor was when Koch described life in upstate New York as "sterile" and said he dreaded living in the "small town" of Albany, if elected. That didn't play well in rural areas.

Maybe this is the difference between balancing the need for building and maintaining much needed roads and schools versus entertainment items on the fiscal menu?  The ability for a community to attract pork barrel spending?

"I think [Palin] had something of a polarizing effect when she talked about how small-town values are good," Powell said. "Well, most of us don't live in small towns. And I was raised in the South Bronx, and there's nothing wrong with my value system from the South Bronx."

You'd think the presidential campaign was about conservatives picking on urbanites. It wasn't. Sure, some Republicans probably made a mistake by using phrases such as "real America" or "real Americans" as a rallying cry for the base. Americans who live in cities might have thought they were being slighted.

What about those that cling to guns and religion in rural America?  I know many Americans that have had guns in their families for generations.  In my family, there were some that if they didn't grow it or shoot it, they didn't eat.  Period.  There was no food stamp program available to them.  No government to damand more money and services from.

The rural family guns didn't go on a drive-by shooting rampage, and the family felt safe in their humble rural dwellling.  No fancy night life, no fancy public buildings, no mega entertainment complexes.  Resposibility and rewards for how a tool was used, in many cases a gun,  fell on the one pulling the trigger.  There was no finger pointing at others, merchants, bullets, police, etc.  Responsibility resided with the individual, and it still does.  I can't imagine any of my family standing around hoping for a blending of rural/city values about guns. 

If anything, it appeared that big-city liberals were tapping into prejudices about small-town America to belittle the governor of Alaska

After Powell attacked Palin, one of the governor's most vocal defenders, conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh, returned the favor by attacking Powell.

"What is this hatred for conservatives and small-town people and Sarah Palin?" Limbaugh asked on his radio show. "I know a lot of people that are from the Bronx, Gen. Powell, and if you think the values there in the Bronx today reflect the ones you grew up with, take a trip back and see if the street corners and the activities there are the same as when you were growing up."

It used to be that more families ate dinner together and high school students worked summers and after school. It used to be that our schools didn't make excuses for why some kids don't learn because they were too busy trying to teach them.

It used to be that parents weren't interested in being their kids' best friends, only good parents. And it used to be that people pulled their own weight and would never dare ask for a handout.

Can government force parents to feed their children to breakfast before sending them off to school?  The government has food stamp programs to feed the hungry, school breakfast and lunch programs for the poor.  And people, children, are still reported as going hungry by the media?  What is happening to the money that is being spent on nutrition programs?  Does it someone ensure that every child is fed?  Does it ensure that parents get up and really feed their children? 

Is poverty fixed by throwing more money at people?  What if thoes people getting the money don't want to get up and feed their children?  Is there povery due to lack of money?  Or, does poverty sometimes come from a 'povery of the soul'?  People to poor in spirt to feed their children?  Cloth them?  Send them off to school?

Food stamps - doesn't ensure children get fed.  Breakfast in school - children going to school hungry for many reasons.  How can government throw more money at these programs and make them work?   

I'm not sure what government can do to fix poverty of the soul, but I don't think throwing more money at the problem helps - based on media reports, that doesn't seem to be working.

"I got my education from the University of Idaho because that's what I could afford," she said. "No, I don't come from the self-proclaimed 'movers and shakers' group and that's fine with me. It's caused me, or rather, allowed me, to work harder and pull myself up by my bootstraps without anyone else helping me. I think it allows me to be in touch with the vast majority of Americans who are in the same position that I am."

What ever happened to getting an education you could afford?  The money has to come from somewhere.  How many in corporate America taking advantage of TARP funds and those million dollar bonuses went to America's elite schools?  How many went to smaller more affordable institutions?   

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/12/24/navarrette.palin.smalltown/?iref=mpstoryview

Maybe there is some goal to bring good healthcare facilities to rural America?  Put them on the same level playing field as top-notch facilities in urban areas?  Provide real healthcare access?  Physicians?

Maybe there is some goal to provide top-notch educational facilities to rural America?  Magnet schools like in the big cities?  Cultural centers?

What ever happened to saving money in advance to maintain infrastructure?  What ever happened to saving for college?  A house?  A car?  A summer vacation?

In the end, the new administration continues the pork-fest being foisted on present and future generations of Americans.  Taxation without representation.  Money orgy for special interest groups.

jmho

[WhiskeyGirl]

“We looked at them as black people.”

ISTANBUL — Turkey’s religious businessmen spent years building empires on curtains, candy bars and couches. But as observant Muslims in one of the world’s most self-consciously secular states, they were never accepted by elite society.

And while other Muslim societies are wrestling with radicals, Turkey’s religious merchant class is struggling instead with riches.

“Muslims here used to be tested by poverty,” said Sehminur Aydin, an observant Muslim businesswoman and the daughter of a manufacturing magnate. “Now they’re being tested by wealth.”

Mr. Cak was referring to Turkey’s deep class divide. An urban upper class, often referred to as White Turks, wielded the political and economic power in the country for decades. They saw themselves as the transmitters of the secular ideals of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, Turkey’s founder. They have felt threatened by the rise of the rural, religious, merchant class, particularly of its political representative, Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Her father started by selling curtains. Now he owns one of the largest home-appliance businesses in Europe. Ms. Aydin grew up wealthy, with tastes no different from those of the older class. She lives in a sleek, modern house with a pool in a gated community. Her son attends a prestigious private school. A business school graduate, she manages about 100 people at a private hospital founded by her father. Her head scarf bars her from employment in a state hospital.

Perhaps in Turkey there is room for religious diversity?

The businessmen describe themselves as Muslims with a Protestant work ethic, and say hard work deepens faith.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/26/world/europe/26wealth.html?ref=europe

Who is going to pay for the rural-urban divide?  The money has to come from somewhere.

jmho