It can be offensive what they say about little towns.
We here in Carbon County know about that.
Not long ago I was reading an article on the web about our area concerning jobs and the economy. Of course there were a number of parts of it that were about energy production, particularly coal production. Then I turned to reading the comment boards at the end of the piece.
People have a myopic view of the world and that particular forum confirmed it. For any of you that have ever read one of these comment boards we know that in Utah the discussion, no matter the topic, always almost turns into Mormon vs. non-Mormon or into a conservative vs. progressive debate (or mud slinging contest) at some point. This particular one didn’t do that for the most part. It turned into rural vs. city debate.
I learned a long time ago that you shouldn’t really judge someone until you have walked in their shoes. Of course we can’t possibly do that with everything, but we should try as much as possible.
The vicious attacks on our area, and in fact on rural areas in the state, on that board surprised me. Whenever one of the upstate newspapers writes something about a rural community there are always those that get on the comment section and tell about some bad experience they had in that area or discuss some anecdotal tale they have heard about the place. But the attacks on Castle Country on this board were particularly mean.
The usual comments about any rural area were there. Things like “cliquishness” and “weird” were there. I remember a number of years ago I was at a conference and I met someone who had gone to the college in Price and he told me in no uncertain terms that he “hated Price and couldn’t understand why anyone would want to live there” when he found out I was a transplant and had lived here many years.
Casual insults
Isn’t it funny how people will insult you to your face without even realizing that they are doing it. It always makes you wonder if they are just mean or just plain stupid.
One of the comments that was also dragged into that comment board included a statement that “the people in that area should just face change, and if they have to move to take other jobs because theirs is gone that is just a part of life.” The posters were referring to coal mining in particular. Someone, obviously from here, wrote back that many of the people that were hurting had deep roots here and had invested everything in their homes and communities. The response was “that’s just too bad.”
When I hear this from people from other places I often want to ask them what industry they work in and what they would do if it went away. I want to ask if they would just give up everything they had worked for their whole lives and not struggle against the change or ask for some kind of help to make the transition? It sure is easy for some people to tell others to change their lives, but could they do it?
Not isolated comment
What was more hurtful was that this wasn’t an isolated comment; others joined in on the attack on Carbon County as well, calling people who live here “dumb” and “out of touch” with what is going on in the world.
The impression that people who live in rural areas are all intellectually below those that live in cities is such a false premise. Yet place seems to play such a big deal in how people develop their opinions about others and their abilities. However this kind of outlook is all relative, and I have told people from the Wasatch Front that seem to have poor attitudes about those who live in rural places that they need to look at themselves more closely rather than at others. I point out that numerous times I have seen interviews with people from such places as New York and Los Angeles who know little about the metropolitan areas in Utah and their attitude is the same about those dwelling at the base of the Wasatch Mountains as theirs is about those of us in the rural parts of the state.
Bigger isn’t better
Having lived in both worlds, with half my life in a large city-like environment and the other half in the country, I just have no use for attitudes like this. The sophistication that some feel they have because they live in a place where everything is paved over, there are strip malls on every corner and there are buildings taller than three stories, is a false outlook. While it is true they may have more obvious opportunities for cultural experiences and activities, this doesn’t mean that they are smarter than others who don’t live in a big city. More people in an area means more things going on, but when you get right down to it always means more hassles.
Nothing can be done about this attitude because people seem to feed feeling superior to others in the world. But it doesn’t help that we have governor and a Governor’s Office of Economic Development that pay a lot of lip service toward developing rural economies.
The lure of growth
The projection of almost seven million people living in the state within about 25 years means a booming economy in the same old places in Utah if their attitudes and actions continue the way they are. Most of the people I know that live along the Wasatch Front hate the fact the state is trying so hard to get more businesses and people to come there. They don’t want to see the type of growth that has happened over the last 20 years continue. So who are these politicians catering to if people dislike the growth so much? Well it ain’t the common Salt Lake/Utah county voter from what I can tell.
So let them continue to think we are a backwater of both activity, cultural growth and intellectual pursuit. We will persevere because we love this place, we love this community and we love our way of life despite the many flaws it may have.
Let them say what they want about little towns, because we know the real truth.