Rural Banter

Author: Erica Goodman

As if the midterm overload were not enough - I have yet another test for you.

(Have no fear. This score will not affect your GPA.)

Question 1: How do you know if you are a true New Englander?

Answer: You spend $50 on a motion detector security light for outside your house and garage, and then leave both of them unlocked.

Short "Essay" Assignment 1: Sit with your back to a doorway - any one will do - and leave the door wide open. For some, this is an easy exercise. The occasional cool breeze sweeping through is their only discomfort. The refreshing sight of your neighbors as they walk by is a wonderful break from whatever they are doing. Yet for others, the unknown possibility that a dangerous shadow may be lurking around the corner is an unbearable terror. The door MUST REMAIN CLOSED AND LOCKED!!!

The world is essentially broken down into two types of people - those who lock their doors and those who do not. In Real Estate advertising, the no-lock policy is heralded as a virtue, a nostalgic reacquiescence of 1950's suburbia where little boys peddle their Schwinns around the always sunny avenues. Neither group is morally superior or substantially better than the other. It is merely a matter of circumstances.

But why is the crime rate in urban areas substantially greater than in the rural counterparts? Fear of crime is the number one concern in urban areas. It is a never-ending cycle, in which crime forces the affluent flee to the suburbs and leave the poor in the inner cities to try to restore their equity through crime. And so, the doors remain locked, alarm systems set on full alert; isolation at the center of a dense population.

Rural communities, on the other hand, are heralded as less dangerous and doors are generally unlocked. They are smaller and tend to be close-knit, embracing the traditions of mutual self-help and community self-reliance. (Translation - everyone knows everyone in a small community so it is a hundred times more difficult to get away with something). Houses are not on top of each other and so geographical distance is certainly a deterrent; a getaway car is much more obvious when it is the only vehicle busting down the road. Besides, a potential intruder does not know who spends the fall hunting deer. Would you want to meet the other end of a shotgun?

So consider this: what kind of person are you? A locker or a non-locker?