The Two and a half Americas

I recently went to the other side of the mountains here in Washington state. For those of you not familiar, Western Washington, where I live, near Seattle, is greener, more populated and has the mountains. Going east over the mountains means you enter into what most people think of when they think of Western U.S., lots of tumble weeds, farms, ranches, rugged terrain, etc. Anyway, my wife and I had to pick up our hopefully pregnant golden-doodle in the upper north-eastern part of the state. The breeder lives on a small dog and horse ranch, that she bought at $2,000 an acre. She lives with 25 dogs, over 20 horses, some ferrets, and 6 internationally adopted kids, who are wonderfully helping her run the ranch. It was really a reminder to me that she lived in a very different world, with very different needs, than where I lived in the suburbs of Seattle. For one thing, she talked about having certain dogs to protect the humans and the horses from bears and cougars. The 5 hour drive through beautiful, winding, mountain roads, reminded me of my youth, growing up in the wilderness of NY, and how the needs of the rural population in the U.S. is very different from those in and near the city.

Ben Franklin grew up in the city of Boston, which was the largest city in America at the time, but was only about 7,000 people at his birth in 1706. When he decided to strike out on his own, by running away from his indenture ship under his brother, he chose to go to NY and then Philadelphia, rather than striking out into the wilderness to acquire the plentiful lands that were available in America. He was a city/town kid. I grew up in the country, less than 500 people in my little community over a 5 mile stretch of road, and as an adult have lived mostly in metropolitan areas, and there is a definite difference in the two areas. In the rural areas, you are,and want to be, more on your own. You don't want anyone bugging you, especially not government. However, the more populated areas need and want things like police and traffic lights. So, it makes sense that as Philadelphia grew, Franklin started creating things like fire depts., and police depts., and militias. Things need to be more organized and more institutionalized, with more people involved.

We've always had two Americas with 2 kinds of people, and 2 kinds of needs, that the 2 political parties have always tried to manipulate for their gain. In recent times, the Democrats have catered to the larger metropolitan areas by advocaqting government programs that support roads, dealing with the homeless, police, and taking care that people don't over-run their environment. In the rural areas, there isn't as much need for institutionalized structures because there aren't as many competing needs from different kinds of people. Their is a greater need for self-protection because their is no one else to protect one from animals and the occasional intruder. There is a greater church attendance per capita because they provide a chance for community, which is more needed in remote areas, and a belief in God gives them a greater sense of control over Nature. As I think about it, though, there is the third entity that was not relavent until about 60 years ago, and that is the suburb, which is kind of a mixture of the two in terms of its needs. They have the need for infrastructure, but they do not want to pay for it at the level that the city needs it. Hence, they do not want to pay high taxes, especially because they own more land, houses, and general stuff than city dwellers. Ultimately, the need for keeping their money often overrides their need for things like schools and roads, as I've experienced here in Washington. As a result, the Republicans cater to an almost contradictory 2 groups of suburbanites and country folk by emphasizing low taxes, small government, and available guns,(suburbanites have to protect their stuff), and protecting their religious freedoms, while democrats emphasize the need for more government, which appeals to the city dwellers' higher need for social programs, and police, etc. One could argue how much the Republicans really care about rural people, as they don't have much clout economically, but in the US they do have more influence than, say China, because they do get to vote. Jobs are being lost, and it is getting harder and harder to live in the country,but I'm not sure that the politicians are doing anything for the rural population, besides trying to make sure the government doesn't do anything. I guess that's why you open a puppy farm, if living in the semi-wild is important to you because there are so few jobs left in "real America", but I guess it's not the governments problem, right? Anyway, it just makes more sense to me, now, why there are 2 if not actually 2 and a half (the half being the suburbs), Americas out there, and that there are different needs, not better or worse ones. Unfortunately, in the desire to cater to the different needs, we've polititians and pundits have vilified the sides and exacerbated the natural differences to the point of creating division.

As far a my goals... well, I lost 1 lb. this week. Well, off my goal, but it wasn't from lack of effectiveness from the program, but more due to my not being able to be on the program this weekend. So, I'm going to stick to the "Mom diet" and see how it goes. Also, I'm going to dedicate myself this week to my Health Care blog, and get it up and running.