Rural vs Urban

I don’t know how it works in other states in our nation but in Illinois I have 73 years of perspective. I was born in California and lived there for 11 years. Then our family moved to Massachusetts in the East for 6 years. I moved with my folks to upstate New York and lived there until I went off to college in Illinois at 18 years of age. So I was not a New Yorker for very long, but retained that mailing address until I graduated from college in 1965 at age 21.

I remained in Illinois for my entire career – which is to say the rest of my life. I expect to end my days in Illinois, a safe bet I’d say.

So for my entire adult life I’ve lived in Illinois and gone from freshman in college to senior citizen. In that span of time I’ve started careers (at least 4), married, had two kids, now have four grandchildren on my side of the family. I’ve endured one divorce, came out gay late in life and found my life partner, married him and have 7 grandchildren on his side of the family. All of this in Illinois.

I worked entirely in the Chicago metropolitan region. I attended graduate school and seminary in Chicago. I worked directly in Chicago at three jobs. I worked in the suburbs at one job that involved a consulting/field career throughout the state and multiple Midwestern states (Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Iowa, Missouri and of course Illinois). My undergraduate college years were spent in central Illinois. I had many friends who lived all throughout Illinois and neighboring states. Nearly all of them were anchored in rural or small town communities.

On the other hand I lived and worked mainly in urban surroundings. Frequent interactions with client organizations over more than 20 years exposed me to the complex social organization of rural-urban living. Mindsets differ among them all depending on the makeup of commerce, career and arts in each community. Some are agribusiness centers while others are complex manufacturing hubs. Other communities built their histories around colleges or vast universities. Such towns and small cities valued intellectual pursuits, research, reading and study. They also engaged in major scientific research and pushed out the boundaries of mankind’s understanding of the universe. In such environs communities are aware of an expanded life and are sophisticated on many levels.

There remains a divide, however, that is quite apparent to anyone interested. And it is this: what control over my life in this community and region of the state is in my hands and what is not? How do I/we safeguard our place in the state?

Illinois political history developed in this manner:

1. Large city of Chicago had complex social needs requiring assistance from the state and national governments
2. Suburban counties surrounding Chicago became financially comfortable with communities of relative wealth and significant institutional life in schools, colleges, universities, churches, libraries and all the rest of sophisticated life. These communities found local resources to build their institutions and maintain them.
3. Downstate communities consisted of the remainder of the 102 counties in the state and embraced a vast agricultural landscape and enormous agribusiness focus. Many research universities were also located in those regions of the state and modest urban/suburban areas developed in commercial hubs throughout the state. The capitol is located downstate, as well.
4. Financial resources needed to be shared so all three areas (Chicago, Chicago suburban, and downstate) could thrive in collaboration. Such sharing required political agreement and it developed restlessly over many decades.
5. The result was this odd balance of power:
1. Chicago received state subsidies for major infrastructure required for economic development and sustained economic growth for the larger Midwest region
2. Chicago received state subsidies for the management of complex social problems concerning public education, housing, transportation and poverty
3. Downstate communities received subsidies from wealthier counties because those counties had the resources and the downstate communities did not
4. Collar suburban counties of Chicago were comparatively wealthy to downstate regions and thus these counties ended up subsidizing Chicago/Cook county, and all the rest of the state’s counties. The collar counties supported their own needs as well
5. The result: property taxes in the collar counties are enormous compared to the other counties of the state. Public education taxes downstate amount to $800 to 1200 per household annually; in the collar counties this figure is $4500 to 6000 per household annually. Cook County and Chicago property taxes lie between these two levels of household taxation.
6. Political leadership amounts to two power centers ganging up on the third one and bullying them into paying a disproportionate share for everything in the public realm.
7. This condition continues into 2017
8. Downstate is subsidized heavily by the urban areas while the urban areas are left alone to solve complex problems on their own. 

I raise these points for this reason. Research currently concludes that political support for Trump came from rural areas of America across the continent. These people feel left out yet are unaware that most of their existence is subsidized by others. These others, by the way, are hard pressed to maintain their own life style let alone continue to subsidize the rest of the state and similar situations throughout the nation.

Take Illinois as a template and duplicate it in all the other states. My hunch is the template will work pretty much the same regardless of the state.

My point is different, however. My point is this: we are all in our national life together. If we are to succeed and thrive we will do so only together, working together, thinking together, and inventing the future together. This is a collaborative construct. It is not a selfish yours-mine construct. The latter will destroy us; the former will give us all fresh birth.

I have been aware of the divide for many years. Many of my clients saw me coming from wealthy areas to serve their organizations, and then to return to my ‘wealthy’ home. How little they understood. Hell, how little they knew.

But that comes down to the same thing – not knowing facts is ignorance; making decisions with that ignorance present, leads to disastrous outcomes. It makes sense to them only because they don’t know the full story. They don’t see it and therefore make decisions in a partial vacuum.

But the ‘rest of the story’ is important. Like science, it matters that we get all the pieces defined, laid out and understood before making decisions and commitments.  Or conclusions.

Rural or urban, we have much to gain by working together for everyone’s benefit and sharing the same dream of the future. It is not a world of ‘us against them’ unless that is the fight you wish to engage. I don’t; but neither am I going to remain silent any longer.

The time for all of us to understand the issues before us is now. Or forever hold your peace. It would help if you would refrain from voting, too, when you really don’t understand the facts of the matter before you. Perhaps we would have avoided whatever is ahead of us in a Trump era of political history.

January 13, 2017