A Revival of Horse Sense?

Tom Purcell on Sep 7, 2021

I strapped the thing into my sedan’s trunk and headed up the long hill to my neighbor's house for help.

As I neared his home, I saw him with his friends: the first friend was the guy who bulldozed my driveway, the second was the guy who painted my house and the third was the guy who gave me an estimate on my gutters.

I saw in their eyes a look of sickening distress — a distress that turned to disgust when they saw a gun rack in the rear window of my Nissan Maxima, which I’d installed with the hope of ingratiating myself with them.

My suburban neighbors on the other side are equally suspicious of me.

I told them I'm a writer who works out of his home, but they are certain I'm in the witness protection program.

Suburban people don’t understand rural folk.

Suburbans are sheltered from many of life's difficulties. A man is celebrated, not shunned, by other suburban men for hiring a landscaper to mow his lawn.

If our government’s reckless cycle of spending and debt eventually causes everything to come crashing down, my suburban neighbors will likely lose their jobs and their homes, but my rural neighbors will carry on without missing a beat.

Rurals are self-sufficient and fiercely independent. They grow and hunt their own food. They build their own homes.

They preserve the ingenious “can-do” American spirit, never backing down from a problem until they resolve it.

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