In the Service of Rural America?

Here in southwestern South Dakota, life can be rather different than the cliches and euphemisms used to describe and to avoid describing “rural” America. Amidst the beauty of the Black Hills, one need not drive too far to witness the hollowing out of our country at the Homestake gold mine, the Powder River Basin coal mines, and the claims being made for future lithium and gold mining. Nor need one live here too long to experience a different hollowing out of our country at times: the poor education that fails to support families, the weakening institutional and social fabric that allows deleterious isolation and its supporting ideologies to thrive, and the ravages of suicide, among other difficult problems. Yet, because our issues have been papered over by a thriving tourism industry and retirees finding a few acres of land to live on, and because this relative prosperity stands in marked contrast to the adjacent Pine Ridge Reservation, even I would hesitate to describe mine as a “rural” experience. Imagine my surprise to see suburbs of major cities like Philadelphia here described as “rural”! Although I am glad to see some coverage of rural America in PAW, the sad reality is that Princeton has barely started to fulfill its commitment of working “in the nation’s service” in our rural places.