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Overcoming the urban-rural divide

Two observations having lived in huge cities and in villages. The first observation is about language. I now live in the country, now a rural area. We divide people by the language choices we make. Rural and urban instead of city and country draw real and hard lines in conversations from my experience. The second barrier is not considering the 'other' person's situation. We often treat 'other' places like a novelty, amusement or theme park - whether city or country. The country is not a personal picnic area to wander about and dig out wildflowers at whim. In the same way that the city is not the place to toss garbage on the subway or be rude to strangers. If want to work with people for our collective good we need to acknowledge that people live where they live. I have seen too many well-intentioned policies get passed that result in further impoverishing our farmers. Just think of the Northern Shrike protection on the Carden Alvar that resulted in ranchers cutting down Hawthorn trees to avoid further impact income and the perseption of devalued land, which is inessence many farmers retirement fund. We too often define being environmental with taking the people and their everyday life out of nature to protect it. The world doesn't work that way. We need to redefine how we live with(in) nature and its limits.

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