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From YouTube: Sarah Smarsh — Authors Visiting in Des Moines (AViD)
Description
Journalist, educator and author Sarah Smarsh’s debut book, Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth, was an instant best-seller upon release in 2018, and was a finalist for the Kirkus Prize and National Book Award. Heartland was named one of the best books of 2018 by NPR, Amazon, Audible, Publisher’s Weekly, and more.
Sarah Jessica Parker, the honorary chairwoman for the American Library Association's Book Club Central, chose Heartland for her most recent "SJP Pick" for libraries. The book examines America’s historic economic inequality and tells the story of her upbringing among the working poor of rural Kansas.
https://dmpl.org/sarah-smarsh
Help us caption & translate this video!
https://amara.org/v/C0suX/
A
Good
evening,
everyone
and
welcome
to
our
4th
2019
avid
events:
I'm
Billund
Alexander,
a
Des
Moines
Public,
Library
Foundation
board
member.
Since
2001
there
have
been
142
avid
events
attended
by
almost
48,000
people.
Just
like
you,
there
you
go
is
that
better,
that's
getting
really
intimate
with
a
Mike
avid
is
possible,
with
the
leadership
of
Tim
and
the
Community
Engagement
Team,
an
input
from
the
volunteer
selection
committee,
thanks
to
the
library
board,
trustees,
an
input
and
sorry
and
the
outstanding
staff
of
all
locations
of
the
des
moines
public
library
led
by
library,
director
sue
woody.
A
Sorry,
we
appreciate
all
they
do
to
enhance
the
quality
of
our
lives.
Each
day,
the
des
moines
public
library
foundation,
an
executive
director,
Dorie
Briles,
raised
the
funds
for
avid
summer
reading
and
school
readiness,
programming
for
children,
teens
and
adults,
and
new
public
access
computers,
foundation
funding
supports
87%
of
the
library's
free
programming,
bringing
outstanding
authors
for
avid
free
programs.
The
latest
technology
and
improving
the
library's
collections
takes
more
money
than
our
tax
dollars
can
provide.
Please
help
us
to
continue
to
make
a
difference
with
your
gift
to
the
Library
Foundation.
A
Today,
when
you
came
in
tonight,
you
should
have
seen
an
envelope.
Please
use
it
a
few
details
for
everybody.
If
you
could
please
complete
the
blue
evaluation
form
this
form
right
here
and
turn
it
in
at
the
information
table
for
a
chance
to
win
a
signed
copy
of
sayers
Martius
book
heartland.
Your
evaluations
help
us
secure
future
average
funding
purchase
a
book
from
Beaverdale
books.
Their
booth
is
right.
There
save
you
the
drive
and
have
your
book
autographed
by
the
author,
10%
of
sales
are
donated
to
the
foundation.
A
Thank
you
to
the
following
volunteers
and
sponsors
who
make
avid
possible
our
premier
sponsor
the
Des
Moines
Register
nationwide
Foundation
Principal,
Financial,
Group,
Brad
and
Kelly.
Add
mr.
humanities
Iowa
a
state-based
affiliate
of
the
National
Endowment
for
the
Humanities,
cultivating
compassion,
the
dr.
Richard
Deming
Foundation
mark
K,
Daniel,
M,
Kelly,
Family,
Foundation
or
Brian
Fitzpatrick
foundation,
Karen
chef
and
Steve
Jane,
dr.
A
Katherine
and
Andrew
Houser,
Pam
bass,
boogie
and
Harry
boogie
Shelley
and
Martin
Brody
marry
rich
Douglas
and
Deborah
West
Don
Taylor
Judy
blank
Mary,
Ann
and
Robert
Sauvage,
and
now
to
introduce
Courtney
Crowder
tonight's
moderator.
Courtney
Crowder
is
the
first
female
Iowa
columnist
for
the
Des
Moines
Register.
She
focuses
on
telling
human
stories
with
an
investigative
eye
and
a
narrative
touch
her
first
journalism.
Job
was
with
the
Chicago
Tribune
books,
where
she
interviewed
authors,
kept
the
review
copy
room
under
control
and
spoke
at
the
printers
row
lit
fest
a
graduate
of
New
York
University.
A
B
The
American
dream
sometimes
seems
more
like
a
ghost
haunting,
our
way
of
thinking
than
like
a
sacred
contract
worth
signing
towards
some
future.
If
you're
poor
in
a
wealthy
place,
common
vocabulary
suggests
that
economic
failure
is
failure
of
the
soul.
For
many
poor
woman,
there
is
a
violence
to
merely
existing
the
pregnancies
without
health
care,
the
unchecked
harassment,
while
waiting
tables
the
repetitive
physical
jobs
that
cause
back
and
foot
pain.
B
You'll
recognize
these
ruminations
from
the
pages
of
the
instant
New
York
Times
bestseller
heartland,
a
memoir
of
working
hard
and
being
broke
in
the
richest
country
on
Earth
by
serifs
Marsh,
our
guest
this
evening,
a
fifth-generation
Kansas
farm
kid
from
the
Wichita
area
and
a
graduate
of
Kansas
University
Rock
Chalk,
smart
journalist,
writer
and
speaker
on
socioeconomic
class,
economic
inequality,
rural
issues,
politics
and
public
policy.
Marsh
is
a
fellow
for
the
Center
for
Kansas
studies,
a
2018
Joan
sorenstein
fellow
at
Harvard,
University's,
Kennedy,
School
of
Government
and
a
former
professor
of
nonfiction
writing.
B
She
has
led
or
contributed
to
creative
public
projects
funded
by
the
National
Endowment
for
the
Arts,
the
Kansas
Humanities
Council
and
the
Kansas
Arts
Council
Arts
Commission.
She
also
serves
on
the
board
for
Imfurst
a
national
organization
funded
by
the
Gates
Foundation,
that
provides
support
and
resources
for
first-generation
college
students,
a
former
grants,
writer
and
development
director
for
social
service
agency
he's
addressing
poverty.
She
aims
for
anything.
She
writes
to
have
a
backbone
of
civic
responsibility.
B
We'll
talk
more
about
that
in
a
minute,
but
one
more
rumination
from
the
author,
the
distance
between
my
world
and
my
country's
understanding
of
it
had
been
growing
because
so
few
people
from
my
place
ever
ended
up
on
a
college
campus
and
beyond
to
tell
stories
it's
a
distance.
I
wanted
to
make
smaller
and
it's
one
she
has
with
the
2018
National
Book
Award
finalist
Heartland.
Please
welcome
Sarah
smarsh.
C
C
But
the
specific
reasons
that
I'm
happy
to
be
here
with
you
this
evening
in
Des
Moines
are
twofold:
one.
This
book
came
out
seven
months
ago
and
I've
been
traveling,
pretty
much
non-stop
since
then
all
over
the
country
and
in
fact,
the
world
with
some
international
book
touring
talking
about
the
story
talking
with
groups
like
you
and
something
lovely
and
and
not
altogether
surprising,
to
me,
but
perhaps
to
some
that
I
found
in
that
experience,
is
that
there
are
aspects
of
this
story
that
are
entirely
Universal.
C
C
New
York
say
that
said
there
is
a
particular
experience
here
in
our
beloved
Midwest,
the
landscape,
the
cultural
touchstones
of
the
particular
character
of
its
people,
and
so
I'm
always
delighted
when
I
get
to
come
back
to
this
region.
That
feels
like
home
to
me
and
and
somehow
I'm
happy
to
be
in
Iowa
and
also
happy
to
be
speaking
to
you
from
a
public
library.
C
So
when
I
was
a
kid,
my
mom
was
the
only
real
real
reader
in
my
entire
family,
we're
talking
about
a
bunch
of
people
who
are
extremely
intelligent,
creative,
many
of
them
natural
storytellers.
My
dad
is
essentially
an
untrained
poet.
If
you
heard
him
sit
down
on
my
front
porch
on
a
Sunday
with
a
beer,
he
just
you
know,
he
didn't
have
to
study
writing
to
know
how
to
tell
a
story.
It's
a
real,
just,
a
natural
art
form
to
him.
C
That
said,
most
of
my
family
left,
the
farm
house
I
grew
up
in
the
grandparents
who
helped
raise
me
left
school
in
sixth
and
ninth
grade,
respectively,
to
work
in
fields
and
factories
and
have
babies
as
teenagers
and
such,
and
so
my
own
mother
got
pregnant
with
me
when
she
was
17
and
and
that
cut
her
academic
pursuits
sure
in
some
ways
she
got
her
GED.
So
so
that's
all
to
say
that
it
was
not.
It
was
not
a
culture
or
an
economic
class
in
which
books
were
often
readily
available.
C
That
was,
for
both
economic
reasons
and
reasons
that
have
to
do
with
formal
education
and
cultural
and
all
sorts
of
culture
and
all
sorts
of
things.
My
mom,
though,
was
this
sort
of
improbable
creature
among
us
who
loved
to
read
she,
she
loved
poetry,
she
loved
fiction.
She
read
nonfiction.
She
read
a
little
bit
of
everything
coming
from
where
she
did
usually
the
things
that
she
found
her
way
to
she
heard
about,
because
they
were
a
big
success.
C
You
know
she
had
a
lot
of
Stephen
King
novels
and,
while
he's
sort
of
like
the
the
ultimate
cliche
of
a
of
a
popular
writer,
I
also
happen
to
think
he's.
A
very
good
one
and
I
got
to
get
a
hold
of
those
novels.
When
I
was
a
kid,
she
liked
Margaret
Atwood
a
lot
so
so
she
had
books,
but
we
didn't
have
a
lot
of
them
and
there
certainly
wasn't
money
to
just
go
by
them
willy-nilly.
She
always
found
a
little.
C
You
know
she
would
write
a
cheque
for
me
to
get
like
pick
one
book
from
the
Scholastic
book
order
that
they
would
send
that
little
paper
thing
at
school.
It's
probably
digital,
now,
I
don't
know,
but
but
that's
a
long
way
of
saying
that
public
libraries
to
me
represent
an
absolute
treasure,
not
just
in
our
societies
and
our
communities,
but
I
would
even
argue
as
a
pillar
of
democracy
in
that
they
enable
access
for
all
people
to
books.
C
C
Immense
wind
I
understand
that,
because
of
climate
change,
Tornado
Alley
as
we
call
it
is
kind
of
migrating
toward
the
southeast.
But
but
when
I
was
a
kid,
our
area
was
smack
dab
in
the
middle
of
those
big
swirling
skies
still
is,
of
course,
but
the
the
sky
and
and
the
flat
land
the
flat
horizon
and
and
in
my
case,
a
very
stoic
people.
C
It
has
to
do
with
all
sorts
of
stuff,
but
I
think
that
it
most
squarely
perhaps
has
to
do
with
a
theme
in
our
political
discourse
that
I'm,
perhaps
most
known
for
discussing,
which
is
socio-economic
class,
so
to
come
from
a
place
like
that:
yeah,
that's
geography
and
and
and
it's
a
specific
place,
but
but
it
also
it
predicts
so
much
more
than
that
about
your
life.
The
opportunities
that
you're
going
to
have
a
chance
to
have.
C
You
know
me
slopping
the
Hogs
as
one
of
my
chores
in
the
evening
after
we
ate
dinner
or
getting
on
an
ATV
and
driving
buckets
of
feed
out
to
the
cattle
in
the
pasture
in
an
ice
storm.
That
I
was
a
kid
doing
that
in
rural
Kansas
meant
that
at
I
wasn't
perhaps
going
to
be
have
open
to
me
the
same
access
and
opportunities
of
say,
an
upper-middle-class
girl
in
Tony
suburb
of
Los,
Angeles
or
something
so
so.
C
I
didn't
know
that
as
a
kid
of
course,
but
I
did
I
mentioned
that
I
was
raised
by
in
budget
natural
storytellers
and
that
no
doubt
imprinted
itself
on
my
brain
and
I
and
I
hope
that
I
got
some
of
their
skills
with
language
and
then,
when
I
went
off
to
college
intending
to
be
a
journalist
really
out
of
a
sense
of
that
kind
of
civic
mission
statement.
I
wanted
to
hold
government
accountable
for
things
that
I
was
become
beginning
to
understand,
as
in
justices
or
at
the
very
least,
lack
of
transparency.
C
I
found
in
the
university
environment
at
kayuu
as
a
first-generation
college
student
that
where
I
came
from
was
this
sort
of
like
ill
articulated
issue
in
our
country.
So
so
I
felt
some.
You
know
we
sometimes
use
this
term
other
to
describe
how,
if
you
are
something
outside
of
what
is
the
more
privileged
norm,
privileged
norms
in
this
country
being
perhaps
whiteness
middle
or
upper
middle
class
wealth.
A
C
B
C
Got
my
first
research
grant
to
begin
this
book
when
I
was
a
senior
at
K
U
in
2002
and
I
had
been
spending
the
last
four
years
training
as
a
journalist
in
their
School
of
Journalism?
To
do
that
good
work
that
I
described
as
a
reporter,
but
but
I
was
brushing
up
against
for
the
first
time,
kids,
who
came
from
much
greater
privilege
than
myself
now
mind
you.
This
was
at
a
state
university
which
a
very
fine
one
where
I
got
an
excellent
education.
C
I
did
end
up
going
to
graduate
school
at
Columbia
University,
which
is
an
Ivy
League
institution
in
New,
York,
City
and
whoa.
If
you
want
to
talk
about
brushing
up
against
a
different
world
of
wealth
than
then
that
was
even
opened
my
eyes,
all
the
more
but
K
you
was
the
first
time
that
I
saw
you
know,
I
didn't
even
have
a
language
for
the
things
that
were
going
on
on
campus.
B
C
Clue
about
where
I
come
from
and
the
struggles
there,
and
so
so
I
set
out
to
write
this
book.
It
took
me
over
a
decade
to
write
it
in
large
part
because
I
was
in
poverty
most
of
those
years
when
I
left
school
and
my
excuse
me
home
left
the
farm
in
my
beat-up
car
to
drive
north
from
southern
Kansas
to
Lawrence
in
1998.
I
was
from
that
point
on
financially
independent
and
putting
you
know.
C
C
B
C
This
is,
there
are
some
interesting
characters
in
this
story,
but
what's
the
point,
what
does
it
mean
now
to
be
fair?
There
might
have
within
those
critiques,
been
some
fair
criticisms
of
where
how
the
book
needed
to
evolve
in
some
ways,
but
but
but
there
was
also
something
else
going
on
which
you
can
hear,
which
is
that
I
was
writing
about
a
place
that
has
been
and
a
people
in
a
class
that
has
been
historically.
B
B
C
The
news
media,
and
so
there
are
all
these
ways
in
which
that
was
sort
of
a
blind
spot
for
our
country,
and
that
was
the
moment
when
I
was
trying
to
get
this
story
into
the
world
and
in
2014
I
wrote
a
excuse
me,
an
essay
that,
as
they
say,
went
viral
about
specifically
the
connection
between
one's
access
to
dental
care
and
one's
socioeconomic
class.
So
some
people
might
not
know
this.
C
C
Gonna
read
a
little
bit
of
out
of
the
book,
I
hate
to
read
too
long,
because
I,
sometimes
even
as
a
writer,
find
that
my
fellow
writers
holding
forth
too
long
with
their
with
their
own
written
words,
is
like
not
necessarily
adorable
for
me.
So
I'm
gonna
read
short
and
give
more
time
to
have
conversation
with
you
all
which
I
look
forward
to.
But
this
this
passage
that
I'm
gonna
read
I
thought
it
might
be
appropriate
for
you
all
here
in
Iowa.
C
C
So
the
first
chapter,
which
is
called
a
penny
in
a
purse,
is
about
money,
labor
wages.
What
are
we?
How
are
we
compensated
for
our
work?
The
second
chapter
called
the
body
of
a
poor
girl,
is
about
health.
The
physical
danger
of
you,
the
work
as
a
laborer
and
so
on.
Chapter
3
is
about
place,
and
how
does
that
relate
to
to
class?
C
And
what
what
the
fortunes
that
we
are
and
are
not
born
into
I
should
say
that
when
you
hear
me
shift
into
in
person-
which
I
think
might
happen
one
or
two
times
in
this
reading
and
I,
don't
want
to
throw
you
off
I'll
tell
you
who
I'm
speaking
to
so
I,
am
a
fifth-generation
Kansas
farm
kid!
That's
on
my
dad's
side
of
the
family,
my
mom's
side
of
the
family
was
a
by
the
time.
I
was
born.
C
They
were
a
couple
generations
off
the
farm
and
it
was
pretty
much
a
more
Wichita
based
more
sort
of
transient
poverty.
I
find
that
poor
folks
in
rural
areas
tend
to
be
very
rooted.
They've
been
there
a
long
time
they
stay
put
for
various
reasons
and
folks.
In
more
urban
environments,
poverty
can
look
much
more
transient.
If
anybody
knows
a
book
by
matthew,
desmond,
called
evicted
sociologist
who
a
wonderful
book,
I
think
he
won
the
pulitzer
a
couple
of
years
ago
who
documents
essentially
the
the
ongoing.
B
C
Of
for
affordable
housing
in
an
in
a
more
urban
environment,
and
so
my
my
mom's
side
of
the
family
looked
more
like
that.
But
but
I
did
inherit
a
very
specific
generational
legacy
from
her
and
that's
teen
pregnancy,
so
which
has
a
strong
correlation
with
poverty
and
that's
in
global
terms.
I'm.
The
first
woman
in
my
direct
maternal
line
to
not
have
a
baby
as
a
teenager.
All.
C
Like
as
far
back
as
records
were
kept
like
the
19th
century,
when,
when
you,
the
trailer,
stop
s--
so
I
I
was
very
I,
was
aware
of
that.
So
I
was
keenly
aware
of
that
as
a
even
as
an
adolescent
to
some
extent,
even
as
a
child
believe
it
or
not,
and
and
one
of
my
mission
statements
had
to
do
with
attempting
to
as
the
cliche
goes
break,
that
cycle
and
and
I.
B
C
This
sort
of
trick
in
my
psyche,
where
I
would
have
a
conversation
with
that
would
be
child
that
I
knew
I
was
going
to.
You
know,
intend
to
not
conceive,
and
it's
a
it's
a
quite
intimate
thing
to
to
share
with
people,
but
I
think
that
that
it
serves
the
book.
Well
in
that
what
I'm
about
as
a
writer
is
trying
to
reveal.
You
know
what
trained
to
be
a
journalist
and
they
were
saying,
go,
get
the
facts
and
report
them,
and
that
is
an
absolutely
essential
service
to
society.
C
But
sometimes
I
find
today
that
we
have
perhaps
too
much
information
too
much
data
and
not
enough
contextualization
for
us
to
deeply
understand
and
feel
what's
coming
at
us.
And
so
what
I
haven't
endeavoured
to
do
like
in
the
essay
about
my
dad's
teeth
is
bring
together
those
two
spheres
of
the
public
and
the
private,
and
that
means
sometimes
being
vulnerable
in
uncomfortable
ways.
But
I
find
that
that
it
helps
folks
to
to
ponder
realities
of
this
country
and
and
what
could
be
more
personal
and
intimate
than
one's
reproductive
health.
C
Knew
that
if
that
cycle
continued
through
me,
I
was
going
to
have
a
very
hard
time.
Breaking
out
of
poverty
had
a
hard
time
doing
that
anyway,
but
if
you're,
if
you're
doing
it
as
a
teenage
mother,
then
it's
all
the
harder,
no
doubt
so.
This
is
from
a
stretch
of
gravel
with
wheat
on
either
side
by
the
middle
of
the
twentieth
century.
Most
Americans
didn't
live
in
rural
areas,
not
even
most
Midwesterners,
but
I
was
born
a
fifth-generation
Kansas
farmer
roots.
C
Of
course,
those
tribes
had
been
harmed
by
European
Raiders
long
before
the
United
States
was
formed,
but
the
late
19th
century
marked
the
devastation
of
the
Plains
tribes.
As
the
federal
government
strategically
and
violently
removed
their
people
and
annihilated
the
bison
herds,
they
followed
for
sustenance.
C
Meanwhile,
1.6
million
people,
many
of
whom
were
poor
whites,
were
welcomed,
West
with
the
promise
of
land
ownership
that
was
profit
motivated
propaganda.
The
United
States
had
given
massive
swaths
of
land
to
private
railroad
companies,
with
the
idea
that
the
development
they
promoted
and
enabled
would
commercially
invigorate
the
country
from
one
coast
to
the
other,
and
the
concern
was
never
about
the
people
being
summoned
to
farm
the
land.
It
was
rather
about
turning
land
into
a
commodity
and
immigrants
into
its
workers.
C
A
handful
of
smarsh
ah's
came
to
the
United
States
in
the
1800s,
stopped
for
a
generation
in
Pennsylvania
Dutch
country
and
took
on
the
Kansas
prairie
by
the
1880s.
They
could
have
stayed
in
New,
York
City,
as
so
many
did
after
crossing
the
Atlantic.
Instead,
they
ventured
into
the
so-called
frontier
I
grew
up,
not
knowing
about
that
history.
What
would
have
been
your
history?
C
Because
my
family
had
a
way
of
not
discussing
themselves
or
the
past?
The
stories
I
know
I
know
because
I
asked
again
and
again,
but
as
a
child
nonetheless
absorbed
the
self
understanding
that
sustains
a
rural
people
who
have
grown
and
hunted
their
own
food
for
a
long
time.
What
I
understood
is
that
we
were
hard
workers
and
what
we
worked
was
the
earth.
C
Many
who
tried
that
work
as
homesteaders
didn't
last
more
than
a
few
years
on
the
Prairie
they
shot
themselves
in
the
head,
while
blizzards
buried
their
sod
houses
and
drifts,
they
pushed
farther
west
toward
more
verdant
places
when
drought
starved
their
crops
and
therefore
their
children.
They
took
a
pawnees
flint
arrow
to
the
thigh
and
died
from
infection,
intimate
problems
all
of
them,
but
ones
that
stemmed
from
public
policy.
C
C
However,
after
the
Homestead
Act,
it
was
only
a
matter
of
decades
until
the
American
industrial
revolution
made
cities
into
hotbeds
of
economic
potential.
Factory
smokestacks
beckoned
from
city
skylines
and
agriculture
became
an
option
rather
than
a
requirement
for
the
underclasses,
for
some
of
them.
A
new
system
of
state
universities
and
land-grant
colleges
held
the
promise
of
higher
education
and
work
in
office
chairs,
rather
than
on
their
feet,
so
where
once
immigrants
were
told
to
go
west
as
quote-unquote
pioneers
now,
their
bodies
were
needed
for
urbanization
boom.
C
Thus
44
of
Kansas's
105
counties
had
reached
their
peak
population
by
1910
sounds
like
over
a
century
ago,
though,
those
places
began
to
quote
unquote
dwindle
flowing
from
that
history
of
westward
expansion,
subsequent
rural
flight
to
cities
and
the
vast
land
that
enabled
it
all.
The
United
States
still
has
a
uniquely
mobile
population,
but
once
my
family
got
to
Kansas,
they
stayed.
They
worked
the
land
too
hard
and
too
fast
for
the
soil
to
keep
up
and
the
Great
Prairie
wind
buried
their
houses
in
dirt.
B
C
Family
stayed:
maybe
they
wanted
to
leave
but
didn't
or
couldn't
I,
don't
no,
but
not
even
the
dustbowl
drove
them
out.
By
the
time
my
grandma
gave
birth
to
my
dad
and
night
in
the
1950s
advancements
in
farming
equipment
finally
allowed
for
the
economic
dream
of
something
beyond
mere
substance.
Farmers
were
working
huge
swaths
of
land,
putting
away
a
large
supply
of
grain
that
would
be
distributed
around
the
world
by
way
of
new
transportation
infrastructure,
ports,
highways
and
railroads.
C
C
Land
prices
rose
in
the
1970s,
and
banks
started
granting
farm
mortgages
using
a
farms
productivity
as
collateral,
regardless
of
a
family's
ability
to
pay
repay
when
land
prices
fell.
During
my
1980s
childhood
collateral
value
did
too
interest
rates.
Spiked
and
farms
were
foreclosed
on
in
droves.
They
called
it.
The
farm
crisis,
family
operations
went
under
in
record
numbers
and
federal
farm
bills.
C
Didn't
stop
the
corporate
and
global
forces
that
were
devastating
small
farmers
like
us
during
the
first
10
years
of
my
life,
from
1980
to
1990
rural
Kansas
lost
about
40,000
residents,
while
Kansas
metro
areas
gained
about
a
hundred
and
fifty
thousand.
That
was
the
climate.
I
came
up
in
all
around
us.
Things
were
closing.
C
The
small
town
department
store
the
hardware
store,
with
its
tiny
drawers
stretching
to
the
ceiling
the
local
restaurant
lawyers
took
down
their
small
town,
shingles
and
doctors
moved
to
cities,
but
we
held
on
so
when
I
think
of
you,
I
think
of
a
place
you
would
have
been
born
as
I
was
in
a
place.
People
said
was
dying
just
one
more
bit.
C
So
if
I
live
to
be
an
old
woman
and
the
trends
of
my
early
life
continued
by
the
I
might
die,
half
the
Kansas
population
will
live
in
only
five
of
a
hundred
and
five
counties.
People
consolidated
like
seed
companies
there's
a
strength
in
that
environmentalists
and
economists
suggest,
but
perhaps
a
greater
weakness.
C
President
Dwight
Eisenhower,
a
native
of
rural
Kansas,
said
whatever
America
hopes
to
bring
to
pass
in
the
world
must
first
come
to
pass
in
the
heart
of
America.
The
countryside
is
no
more
noble
and
dignified
than
cities,
but
to
do
value
in
our
social
investments.
The
people
who
tend
crops
and
livestock
or
to
refer
to
their
place
as
flyover
country,
is
to
forget
not
just
a
country's
foundation
but
its
connection
to
the
earth.
Two
cycles
of
life
scarcely
witnessed
in
concrete
landscapes.
C
The
Kentucky
farmer
and
activist
Wendell
Berry
wrote
for
the
Atlantic
in
1991
quote.
The
only
sustainable
city
to
me
is
a
city
in
balance
with
its
countryside.
End
quote.
To
achieve
that
balance
both
economically
and
environmentally.
The
American
heart
needs
a
strong,
well
supported,
well
respected
chamber
outside
its
metropolis
and
that
life
force
that
flows
back
into
it
may
well
come
from
other
places.
C
The
Meatpacking
towns
of
western
Kansas,
for
instance,
have
become
some
of
the
most
ethnically
diverse
places
in
the
country
as
immigrants,
stream
in
from
Mexico
the
Middle
East
and
Central
America
to
take
factory
jobs
amid
industrial
Agriculture's
boom
statewide
according
to
the
2010
census.
Many
rural
counties
had
declined
and
more
than
eight
out
of
ten
Kansans
were
white,
but
the
Hispanic
population
had
grown
by
60%
in
the
last
ten
years.
That
is
a
demographic
shift.
C
That's
not
without
tensions,
but
one
that
has
been
embraced
by
some
small-town
White's
who
knew
their
home
must
change
to
survive.
In
places
like
my
home,
you
either
work
together
or
starve
alone
of
all
the
gifts
and
paradoxes
of
rural
life.
One
of
the
most
wonderful
is
that
closeness
born
of
our
biggest
spaces,
a
deep
intimacy
forced
not
by
the
proximity
of
rows
of
apartments,
but
by
having
only
one
neighbor
within
three
miles
to
help
when
you're
sick
when
your
tractors
down
and
you
need
a
ride
when
the
snow
starts
drifting.
C
So
you
check
on
the
old
woman
with
the
mean
dog,
regardless
of
whether
you
like
her
when
I
was
a
teenager
in
1996
I
went
to
New
York
City
for
the
first
time
to
compete
in
a
national
communications
contest
I'd
qualified
for
from
my
rural
high
school,
we
visited
the
Statue
of
Liberty,
which
I
was
excited
to
climb
inside
I'm
gonna.
Give
you
a
quick
summary.
C
Basically,
I
learned
in
the
Statue
of
Liberty's
crown
that
I'm
claustrophobic
that's
a
hell
of
a
place
to
find
out,
but
having
grown
up
on
the
plains,
I'd
never
been
somewhere
crowded
enough
to
know
that
I
had
that
problem.
Well,
there
I,
found
out
and
and
and
I
had
this
moment
where
and
I
didn't
know
what
was
happening,
but
it
was
a
panic
attack
with
the
one
of
the
first
and
only
times,
I've
done.
A
C
And
and
and
I
I
went
back
home
in
my
mind
to
calm
myself,
down,
I
saw
the
place,
I
come
from,
and
I
took
deep,
breaths
and
I.
Let
myself
feel
like
I
was
in
that
big
open
space
with
that
flat
horizon
and
big
swirling,
sky
and
and
I
calmed
down
and
I
ended
up
having
a
great
time
and
taking
a
smiling
photograph.
So
so
so
that
leads
me
to
this.
C
That's
how
I'd
come
to
resolve
the
tensions
of
my
childhood,
about
country
and
city
I,
craved
the
opportunity
that
cities
contained
and
I'd
pursue
it,
but
most
essential
to
my
well-being
was
the
unobstructed
freedom
of
a
flat
wide
horizon.
When
I
was
well
into
adulthood.
The
United
States
developed
the
notion
that
a
dividing
line
of
class
and
geography
separated
two
essentially
different
kind
of
people.
You
might
have
heard
this
talk
about
the
rural
urban
divide
as
kind
of
a
catchphrase.
C
These
days,
I
knew
that
wasn't
right,
because
both
sides
existed
in
me
where
I
was
from
and
what
I
hope
to
do
in
life.
The
place
that
best
sustained
me
and
the
places
I
needed
to
go
for
the
things
I
needed
to
do
straddling
that
supposedly
Nazz
I
did
I
knew
it
was
about
a
difference
of
experience
not
of
humanity.
B
Thank
you
so
much
for
that.
Sir
I
want
to
pick
up
right
on
that
point,
because
I
had
highlighted
and
written
down,
your
quote
about
the
countryside
is
no
more
our
nation's
heart
than
are
its
cities,
but
to
refer
to
a
place
as
flyover
country
and
devalue.
Those
people
is
to
lose
our
connection
to
the
earth
as
a
bridge
builder.
As
someone
who
has
lived
in
both
worlds
and
traverses
them,
what
does
it
mean
to
lose
our
connection
to
the
earth?
Well,.
C
I
guess
the
the
best
anecdote
I
could
provide
to
kind
of
give
a
vision
of
that
and
I
think
that
many
of
you
will
relate
to
this
haven't
raised
your
hands
that
you
that
you
know
about
rural,
which
isn't
necessarily
agricultural
work,
of
course,
but
there's
a
strong
overlap,
I
remember
once
being
in
a
writing
workshop
in
New
York
City.
This
was
when
I
was
a
graduate
student
working
on
this
book.
In,
like
my
early
20s
and
and
this
woman,
very
young
woman,
one
of
my
peers
was
vexed
by
some
of
the
language.
C
I
was
using
and
she
said
she
had
circled
all
over.
Like
there's
a
red
wart
she's,
like
the
same
word,
was
so
it
circled
over
and
over
in
my
piece
that
she
was
giving
me
feedback
on,
and
she
said
what
is
a
combine
and
and
and
I
am
not
making
this
up
this.
This
class
took
place
over
sort
of
midday,
so
sometimes
kid
people
would
bring
their
lunch
and
she
was
eating
a
sandwich
on
bread.
C
While
she
asked
me
that
and
I
was
just
like
that-
someone-
the
irony-
you
know
that
she
and
she
came
from
a
very
privileged
place
that
you
know
you,
we
we
more
often
associate
my
folks
with
quote
unquote
ignorance
than
her,
and
that's
where
you
see
the
power
dynamic,
because
that's
certainly
ignorant
I
think
in
a
sense
not
to
be
disparaging,
but
it
it.
It
denotes
the
disconnect
that
so
many
people
have
from
the
fact
that
we,
you
know
food
doesn't
just
magically
poof
appear
on
your
table.
C
B
C
It
was
a
real
aspect
of
my
growing
up.
That
I
would
talk
to
this
sort
of
like
didn't,
exist
child
entity
as
a
way
to
clarify
my
own
thoughts
and
find
my
own
inner
voice
that
there
in
you
know
that
that
experience
kind
of
kind
of
contained,
both
the
public
and
the
private
realities,
because
the
reason
I
had
to
be
so
concerned.
B
C
Not
repeating
a
family
cycle
had
to
do
with
big-picture
economic
stuff.
That
was
way
bigger
than
me,
and
yet
this
thing
about
one's
family
and
reproduct
productivity
and
one's
own
body
is,
you
know
like
what
could
be
more
intimate
than
that.
So
it's
kind
of
the
public
and
private
are
interwoven
into
that
aspect
of
my
life
and
I
thought
by
weaving
it
in
and
letting
the
reader
into
that
it
might
seem
the
narrative
together
and.
B
C
I
had
many
and
I'd
love
to
tell
you
all
about
how
this
book
came
into
being
so
or
how
I
got
the
information.
That's
in
it.
Those
of
you
have
read.
It
know
who
there
are
many
scenes
at
which
I
wasn't
even
present
or
born.
Yet
to
witness-
and
you
know
we-
it's
called
it's
referred
to
as
a
memoir
in
the
subtitle,
but
it's
really
a
story
of
generations
of
a
family
and
the
way
that
I
got
that
information
was
I.
C
Put
on
my
journalist,
hat
and
I
did
deep
archival
research
as
best
I
could
into
my
family.
With
her
blessing
I
found,
you
know,
troves
of
old
letters
and
I
was
figuring
out,
while
that
postmark
says
Chicago
in
1964,
and
she
said
she
lived
here
today,
just
piecing
together
who
what
when
where,
but,
as
for
the,
why
to
understand
how
my
family
felt
about
these
things.
They
were
so
generous
to
let
me
and
interview
them
at
length
for
it
for
years
for
many
years,
so
there
are
a
lot
much
of
this
book.
C
It's
me
attempting
to
honor
and
somehow
capture
their
perspectives
too,
and-
and
maybe
it's
for
that
reason-
that
I
it's
a
kind
of
common
story-
that
if
you
write
a
memoir,
that's
very
revealing,
then
you
like
there's
a
big
falling
out
with
the
family
or
something
and
you
catch
hell
from
aunt,
whoever
who's
mad
about
how
she's
portrayed
and
I
was
very
fortunate
at
perhaps
because
they
were
kind
of
brought
along
the
journey
with
me
that
that
everyone's
really
happy
now.
So
when.
B
C
C
Gonna,
sell
myself
short
I
had
all
those
things
and
I
put
them
to
good
use,
but
it
would
be
a
falsehood
and
an
incomplete
story
if
I
didn't
also
acknowledge
the
the
bigger
picture,
things
that
that
blessings
for
which
I
can't
take
any
credit
help
from
a
teacher
in
fourth
grade
a
federally
funded
program
when
I
was
an
undergraduate
that
said,
you're
gonna
apply
for
graduate
school.
Here's
how
you
do
it
you
know
like
I,
wanted
to
expand
beyond
just
the
story
of
you
know:
hardscrabble
life
and
she
endeavors
to
get
out.
C
There
are
a
lot
of
problems
with
that
narrative.
One
is
that
when
we
have
hyper
focus
on
the
individual
tale
as
someone
who
is
concerned
about
class
and
in
particular
the
shame
that
can
come
with
being
of
one
of
the
quote-
unquote
lower
classes,
so
much
of
the
onus
is
put
on
the
on
the
individual
to
surmount
that
seemingly
insurmountable
odds
went
to
my
mind.
There
are
things
that
we
can
do
collectively
as
a
society
so
that
it
doesn't
have
to
be
so
damn
hard
and
and
also
I.
C
Wasn't
somebody
who
wanted
to
quote-unquote
get
out
I
love
my
home
I
love.
My
family
I
live
30
miles
from
the
farm
that
I
grew
up
on
today.
The
first
thing
I
did
as
soon
as
I
finished
at
Columbia
was
leaving
New
York
City.
God
bless
I,
love
them,
but
a
great
place
to
visit
as
they
say,
but
that's
all
just
to
say
that
it's
my
story
is
not
the
one
of
somebody
who
you
know,
I
said
to
hell
with
everybody
and
worked
hard
and
got
out
of
some
horrible
thing.
C
I'm
I
I
wanted
to
have
more
opportunities
so
that
I
could
help
my
whole
family
and
my
whole
community
and
not
to
say,
look
how
I
beat
the
odds,
but
rather
to
be
on
a
stage
like
this
and
say:
I
did
somehow
beat
the
odds,
seemingly
and
and
therefore
it's
my
responsibility
to
say
it's
almost
impossible
able
to
do.
I
can't
take
credit
for
it.
Even
somehow
Here
I
am,
and
how
can
we
make
this
easier
for
everybody
else
in.
B
The
book
you,
you
know
your
great-grandmother
I
mean
you
know
her
well
enough
to
have
memories
of
her
and
something
that
struck
me
is,
as
women
have
children
later
in
life,
as
is
happening
via
all
the
data,
we're
sort
of
missing
that
intergenerational
living
and
that
intergenerational
communication
becomes
rarer
and
I'm
wondering
how
that
shaped.
You.
C
What
a
great
question
that's
the
first
time
I've
ever
been
asked
that-
and
this
is
actually
one
of
the
things
that
I
hope
comes
across
in
in
heartland.
Is
it's
not
just
a
you
know,
sad
tale,
I
also
I
mentioned
I
love,
where
I'm
from
I
hope
that
there's
some
good
laughs
in
the
book.
There
are
many
beautiful
things
about
my
upbringing
that
I
wouldn't
trade
for
a
million
bucks
and
someone.
One
of
those
things
is
that
intergenerational
aspect
of
our
households.
C
Now
that
was
my
way
of
economics
necessity
often
you
know
an
aunt
would
move
in
with
her
daughters
because
they
got
a
divorce
and
they
couldn't
afford
their
own
place,
or
my
great-grandparents
moved
into
my
grandparents
farm
house
when
they're,
older
and
and
there's
no,
you
know,
there's
no
like
part
of
savings,
money
to
pay
for
their
end-of-life
care
or
whatever,
and
those
might
sound
like
disadvantages,
but
actually
some
of
the
beautiful
things
that
came
out
of
that
was
a
very
close
family
fabric
that
that
I
personally
count
as
a
privilege.
You.
B
Talk
at
the
book,
so
it
looks
about
your
family,
but
the
women
take
kind
of
the
forefront
throughout
the
novel
or
the
not
novel
throughout
the
memoir,
and
so
you
talk
a
lot
about
them,
not
connecting
with
the
word
feminist
or
not
identifying
that
themselves.
As
that,
what
do
you
think
about
using
that
word
about
this
book?
Is
this
book
a
feminist
book.
C
That's
a
great
question
too,
and
I
think
my
point
about
parsing
out
how
people
relate
to
language
as
a
writer
I'm
very
sensitive
to
the
clunky
way
in
which
we
are
attempting
as
a
nation,
to
have
these
political
dialogues,
and
we
don't
even
have
a
share
set
of
definitions
for
the
words
that
were
using.
So
how
can
we
be
communicating
clearly
when
you
might
have
a
woman
in
a
small
town
in
Idaho
who
is
living
and
breathing
her
belief
in
herself
as
an
as
equal
to
all
beings,
everyday
and
kickin
ass
along
the
way?
C
And
yet
maybe
she's
in
an
environment
where
she
has
learned
or
been
taught
and
has
accepted
that
the
word
feminist
has
a
negative
connotation
so
she's
averse
to
that
word,
and
yet
she
herself
might
be
a
better
feminist
in
practice.
In
terms
of
like
the
act,
the
literal
definition
of
the
word
about
equality
than
a
woman
wearing
the
that
word
on
her
t-shirt
in
some
liberal
Enclave.
You
know
what
I
mean
so
like
that's,
where
I
think
it's
helpful
for
us
to
get
past
labels.
Oh
my
god!
C
When
we
start
talking
about
liberal
and
conservative,
it
all
shuts
down,
you
know
what
I
mean
and
so
so
I
personally,
the
way
that
I
identify
with
the
word
the
way
that
I
defined
the
word
feminist
is
predictable.
For
someone
who
I
have
a
lot
of
formal
education,
I
have
some
liberal
peer
groups
and
I
think
of
feminists,
as
just
believing
that
men
and
women
are
equal
and
and
should
enjoy
equitable
lives,
and
in
that
sense,
yes,
I,
would
think
of
this
book
as
a
feminist
story.
B
To
get
back
to
that
liberal
and
conservative
idea,
but
before
we
leave
the
farm
a
questioner
remember
please
fill
these
out.
A
questioner
says:
I
grew
up
in
rural
South
Dakota
in
the
early
1950s,
no
TV,
no
internet,
no
knowledge
of
what
we
didn't
have
I
didn't
really
know.
We
were
poor.
It
must
be
much
more
different.
Now
everyone
growing
up
now
has
a
vision
of
what
they
don't
have
right
in
their
pocket.
How
does
this
change
the
conversation
technology?
How
does
this
change
the
conversation
that.
B
C
Sort
of
technology-
and
we
I-
didn't-
have
my
first
computer
till
like
2000
when
I
was
a
student,
so
some
of
these
things
have
to
do
with
just
me
being
on
kind
of
the
low
economic
end
of
my
generation,
but
in
any
way,
I
think
often
how
I,
also
never
in
a
million
years
would
have
thought
would
have
used
the
word
poor
about
my
family.
It
in
facts
I
still
don't
like
the
term
for
various
reasons,
and
it
doesn't
even
feel
right
applied
to
my
family,
but
according
to
all
economic
measures.
C
It
absolutely
was
true,
but
I.
Think
about
that.
Sometimes
that's!
Just
in
like
ten
years
after
I
left
the
farm
that
quick
of
a
shift,
the
the
child
that
used
that
today,
who
was
me
and
a
former
generation,
is,
as
the
questioner
so
eloquently
said,
seeing
what
she
doesn't
have
and
I
think
there
that
could
be
a
danger
and
a
blessing
I
think
the
blessing
would
be
the
the
hell
of
being
on
the
losing
end
of
some
spectrums.
C
Is
that
often
you're
working
so
dang
hard
and
tirelessly
and
lacking
information
that
you
don't
even
know
that
you're
getting
screwed?
You
know
what
I
mean
and
and
and
so
I
think
that
access
to
that
information
might
be
good
for
something
like
a
worker
sensing,
his
or
her
own
rights
and
wanting
to
fight
for
them,
not
to
mention
a
way
to
connect
across
the
Geographic
remoteness
that
often
comes
with
rural
life.
The
the
curse
of
it,
of
course,
might
be
that
you
know
gosh
I
I
had
a
great
time
as
a
kid.
C
We
would
take
this
beat-up
canoe
and
tie
it
behind
the
tractor
and
I
didn't
feel
a
bit
ashamed,
just
like
being
pulled
across
a
snowy
field
and
just
having
the
time
of
my
life
and
and-
and
it
does
concern
me
a
little
bit
that
there's
something
about
that.
Authentic
isolation
isn't
quite
the
right
word,
but
to
live
in
one's
own
experience
without
a
constant
contrast
with
other
people
has
some
gifts
about
it.
C
Well,
there's
a
couple
things:
it
certainly
was
not
an
environment
where
anybody
was
treating
the
children.
Preciously,
you
know
is
like
Sarah
get
out
of
here
and
they're
smoking
and
drinking
and
go
entertaining
yourself
and-
and
that
was
fine,
but
so
there
are
a
couple
ways
that
it
shaped
me
I,
think
one
is
that
I
did
not
have
like
the
classic
teenage
rebellion
that
a
lot
of
people
have,
because
my
own
family
were
brazenly.
C
You
know
doing
all
the
you
know:
quote-unquote
bad
things
in
terms
of
smoking
and
drinking
and
cuss
it
in
or
whatever
that,
and
they
never
and
they
didn't
expect
me
not
to
you
know
what
I
mean
like
I
mean,
there's
a
really
admirable
honesty
about
my
family
I.
Think
where
there's
like
we
never
pretended
like.
We
got
it
right.
We
don't
know
just
do
your
thing
and
for
me
and
I
happen
to
have,
as
my
grandpa
would
have
said,
a
good
good
head
on
my
shoulders.
C
I,
never
gated
that
pretty
well
and
so
I
didn't
feel
like
his
sense
that
I
needed
to
rebel,
and
that
was
probably
helpful
because
in
those
teenage
years
that
was
a
very
crucial
moment
where
I
was
needing
to
get
straight
A's
to
qualify
for
scholarships.
Er
I
wasn't
gonna
go
to
K
U
and
all
that.
The
other
thing
is
that,
once
people
get
loosened
up,
as
you
might
have
noticed,
they
tend
to
tell
more
stories
and
a
lot
of
the
information
that
I'll
years
later
circle
back
and
said.
C
B
You've
been
working
on
this
book
for
15
years
to
some
extent,
and
yet
it
arrives
in
the
wake
of
the
2016
election.
I
think
you
said
you
signed
about
four
years
ago
on
your
path:
to2015,
yeah,
yeah,
so
Donald
Trump
was
just
descending
from
his
escalator
at
the
time,
so
I'm
wondering
considering
that
it
arrives,
but
wasn't
conceived
in
this
time,
how
you
sort
of
think
about
that
and
and
whether
the
book
flexed
or
changed
to
reflect
the
time
today.
C
C
B
C
It
gets
emotions,
boiling
people,
sit
there
and
love
to
get
outraged,
and
meanwhile,
the
advertised
revenue
rolls
in
for
CNN
or
fox
or
MSNBC,
or
whoever
and
so
I
find
and
I'm
trying
to
to
to
fight
the
toxic
aspects
of
that
within
the
media.
Realm.
But
I
think
that
as
media
consumers,
who
are
ultimately
the
people
on
the
ground
affected
by
this
thing
that
we
have
called
the
presidential
election,
you
can
demand
that
that
the
conversation
be
about
real
world
policies.
C
What
are
you
specifically
going
to
do
for
whether
your
concern
is
the
least
of
these?
The
people
in
the
country
who
need
help
whether
your
concern
is
your
checkbook,
that
you're
working
on
at
your
kitchen
table
I
think
the
the
greatest
specificity
and
hold
people
holding
people
accountable
in
terms
of
specific
policy
is
an
important
corrective
to
the
unnecessary
and
toxic
and
destructive
drama
that
has
often
whipped
up
around
the
conversation.
C
I'm
sure
I've
interviewed
many
politicians,
I
have
I,
have
talked
with
some
of
the
leading
presidential
candidates
and
I
bet
that
you
all
know
in
a
way
that
you're
lucky
to
know
because
most
people
in
the
country
don't
get
to
have
those
intimate
chats
that
you
do
that
that
often
even
the
politicians
themselves
want
to
have
the
nuts
and
bolts
real
deal
governing
conversations
like.
Can
we
talk
about
governing
since
it's
government,
you
know
what
I
mean,
so
that's
my
hope
for
the
shift
that
you
all
are
part
of.
B
C
My
goodness,
you
know
I
never
want
to
once
in
a
while.
I
will
get
I've
done,
a
bazillion
interviews,
since
the
book
came
out,
which
is
a
great
honor,
but
you
do
see,
themes
recur
and
it
and
I
find
that
the
more
removed
the
journalist
or
the
outlet
from
this
part
of
the
country,
the
more
likely
that,
and
so
that
would
include
the
the
media
mecca
of
New
York
City.
The
more
likely
that
the
question
is
going
to
sort
of
ask
me
to
speak
for
all
of
you
and
everyone
in
the
Midwest.
C
You
know
what
I
mean
and-
and
there
are
some
authors
who
happily
take
up
that
mantle
and
I
personally
feel
uncomfortable,
because
there's
no
one
Midwest
and
there's
no
one
rural
Iowa.
You
know
all
of
those
kids
come
from
a
very
different
experience,
so,
while
I'm
tempted
to
kind
of
project
onto
them
and
say
what
would
I
tell
them,
I
would
say
and
I
shift
into
my
own
childhood
and
make
assumptions
about
theirs
that
I
shouldn't
so
but
I
do
know
this,
regardless
of
they
might
be
well-off
rural,
that's
a
thing.
C
They
might
be
poor
rural.
That
might
be
middle-class
rural
wherever
they
are
on
the
socio-economic
spectrum
in
terms
of
income
and
their
families,
education,
and
all
that
still.
What
is
what
I
described
in
Chapter
three
of
my
book
that
I
was
reading
to
you
about
they
are
at
in
some
ways,
but
perceived
up
being
a
disadvantage
for
where
they
come
from
and
what
I
would
say
to
them.
Is
you
know
when
I
was
a
kid
people
used
to
say?
C
How
can
you
be
of
service
to
this
place,
and
does
that
might
mean
going
off
somewhere
and
gaining
some
sort
of
assets
or
connections
or
whatever
and
then
coming
back
depending
on
the
age
of
these
kids?
You
know
this
would
need
to
be
framed
differently,
but,
like
I'm
excited
about
a
sense
of
new
energy
that
I
find
when
I
go
around
the
country.
C
Among
people
who
are
saying
we
we
are,
we
have
decided,
we
are
invested
in
this
place
and
we're
not
leaving,
and
so
some
of
that
children
are
going
to
be
part
of
that
future,
so
so
allowing
them
to
simultaneously
access
all
the
opportunities
and
treasures
of
digital
and
and
books
and
travel
and
all
those
things,
but
to
also
say,
there's
something
here
worth
fighting
for
and
what
is
it?
And
what's
your
role
in
that,
if
any
this.
B
Next
question
sort
of
very
much
picks
picks
right
off
of
that
this
questioner
says,
as
you
read
in
your
book,
rural
towns
have
been
gutted
to
some
extent.
This
person
says
by
big
AG
and
the
digital
age,
but
thinking
about
sort
of
the
decline.
What
do
you
believe
will
reverse
the
trend,
and
should
we
try
to
reverse
that
trend?
Well,.
C
The
second
part
for
me
is
easy,
which
is
yes
absolutely
we
should
when
Wendell
Berry.
Has
that
quote
about
saying
you
know
often
where
it's
a
very
urban
centric
discussion
that
we
usually
have
and
the
conversation
about
rural
is
always
like
us
in
service
to
the
resources
needed
by
the
the
metropolis.
I
lived
that
firsthand
when
eminent
domain
put
my
family's
land
under
water
for
a
state
reservoir.
That
is
now,
though,
with
Wichita
water
supply
and
so
I
guess.
C
That
piece
is
easy
for
me
that
absolutely
we
should
be
rebuilding
and
fighting
for
those
places
because
well
like
we
need
stewards
of
the
land.
We
need
people
who
understand
the
earth.
We
need
people
who
are
connected
to
cycles
of
life,
all
those
things
I
was
talking
about
in
the
book
and
then,
as
far
as
like
how
we
do
that.
That's
a
much
more
complicated
question
I
would
recommend
for
those
of
you
who
are
interested
in
these
issues.
There
are.
C
There
are
a
few
outfits
where
there's
some
real,
exciting
conversation
going
on
about
this
exact
topic.
One's
called
the
Center
for
rural
strategies
and
they
are
based
in
Kentucky.
They've
got
a
great
robust
website;
they
actually
run
a
media
outfit
called
the
daily
yonder
that
all
only
reports,
rural
news
and
it's
written
by
people
who
get
the
rural
experience
they
go.
I
met
the
executive
director
of
that
at
a
rural
summit
that
the
the
United
States
Senate
hosted,
and
we
were
you
know
there
are
people
having
conversations
about
this.
C
C
I'm
averse
on
that
front,
the
way
that
that
questioner
is
it
sounds
like,
but
I'm,
more
of
a
wendell
berry
thinker,
who
he
this.
He
also
in
Kentucky.
Actually,
as
a
farmer
and
philosopher,
thinks
a
lot
about
localism
and
how
you
know
we
get
in
these
fights
about
liberal
and
conservative.
But,
interestingly
there's
this
one
thing
that
people
tend
to
agree
about:
it's
not
to
do
with
federal
public
programs
and
it's
not
to
do
with
unchecked
free-market
these
being
the
two
kind
of
extremes
of
our
political
solutions.
C
B
C
Thanks,
thank
you
for
the
vote
of
confidence.
First,
let
me
say
that
I.
This
has
come
up
at
the
strong
encouragement
of
various
factions
in
who
are
both
in
federal
politics
and
Kansas
politics,
and
just
my
readers.
We
had
a
Senator
Pat
Roberts
who's
been
in
the
Senate
for
a
very
long
time
in
Kansas,
announced
that
he
wouldn't
seek
reelection
in
2020
and
thus
that's
become
a
wide
open
seat
and
and
and
I
just
started
getting
messages
from
all
over
encouraging
me
to
run
for
that
seat,
which
was
like
it's
humbling.
C
C
This
is
just
like
this.
This
was
an
exploration.
I
was
encouraged
to
have,
and
so
I
have
had
a
number
of
conversations
as
one
does
to
explore
the
option
feeling
like
that
was
the
due
diligence
for
that.
The
moment
that
had
arisen
and
and
I
haven't
made
a
specific
announcement
about
that
and
it's
been
a
hard.
It's
been
a
hard
thing
to
navigate
because
I
I
became
a
writer
in
some
ways
to
kind
of,
like
you
know,
be
a
member
of
what
we
call
the
Fourth
Estate.
C
B
B
Before
I,
let
you
go
I
just
have
a
few
notes
here
and
I
want
to
say
that
I'm,
a
product
of
public
schools
and
of
public
libraries
and
these
institutions
literally
save
lives.
Not
only
are
they
shelters
from
the
hardship
of
the
world,
in
some
cases
they're
houses
of
knowledge
and
in
America
we
get
those
things
for
free.
B
So,
if
you
are
able,
please
give
if
you're,
not
that's
fine,
please
just
visit
the
des
moines
public
library
is
a
treasure
here
in
Iowa
in
an
our
city,
the
next
avid
event
is
Thursday
May
16th,
here
at
central
library,
featuring
Madeline
Miller,
author
of
Circe,
you
can
go
to
DM
PL
org,
slash
avid
for
more.
There
is
snacks
and
refreshments
outside
courtesy
of
the
Des
Moines
Public,
Library,
Foundation
and
Sara
will
be
signing
books
right
outside
your
this
room
to
your
right.