Medicine Lodge High School
Medicine Lodge, Kansas
Teachers: Devra Parker and Mike Hubka
Our Town
By Dustin Keltner
12th Grade
The gleaming mid-day sun illuminates a cozy, white picket fence separating one freshly mown lawn from the next. A busy gardener raises her head from her work for a moment and, with a glove-covered hand, waves hello to her neighbor as he walks to his mailbox. A gentle warm breeze rustles the newspaper in a young man’s hands while he rests in his hammock in the shade between two trees. While these images are stereotypical, they are by no means far-fetched. The prevalence of personal responsibility has managed to preserve the peaceful nature of the typical American small town.
A diminutive population is the cornerstone of every small town. This means that, essentially, there is more personal responsibility needed per person. For example, in small town student organizations, those involved must accept their responsibilities in order to accomplish the task at hand. Unlike metropolitan schools with many hundreds of students, there is no slack in the labor pool. Where in a large school even a modest percentage of the student body can accomplish a goal, small schools must unite to achieve their objectives.
With a smaller town, the schools have smaller student bodies. While this may be difficult at times, for the most part it is a blessing, not a curse. Student organizations have a smaller body of students to choose their representatives from, which means that the candidates selected are candidates the entire student body knows. This forms a cozy atmosphere where it is easier to trust the representatives, which in turn makes it much easier to work together.
The citizens of a small town, for the most part, find it easy to trust the national government. It’s business, with the exception of farm subsidies, doesn’t seem to apply to them much. So long as the “laissez faire” attitude is still exuded by the government, it appears as though it will stay that way for the times to come.
In many ways, the present-day small town has not changed from the ideal town in the 1950s. Sure, the words of the day have changed from “swell” and “neat oh”, but the moral values haven’t. It is not odd to borrow a pair of eggs from your neighbor to make a cake. The principles of safety are still intact. It is still considered safe for parents to let their children play in the neighbor’s yard, since there is little threat of gang activity or other violence. Early afternoon bike-rides are perfectly natural, as are late night walks.
An indomitable sense of community pride lurks in every small town. The eventual arrival of high school homecoming manages to metaphorically paint the town in school colors year after year. The football field in continually packed with on-lookers, cheering on their children, friends, and neighbors. Seats are hard to come by in the gymnasium during basketball season, as it seems every citizen in town attends. After one year when the boys’ basketball team made it to the state finals, a sign hung from the city limit marker that read “Last person out of town: please turn out my lights.” With the majority of the town packing into the stands during the state championship game, the town left behind must have been bleak, a mere ghost of it’s former self.
The Christmas season sets the town ablaze in strings of colored lights. Often times families will go driving at night to witness the different Christmas displays all over town. Community pride breeds a playful sense of competition during this time of year, as families will constantly try to outdo themselves and each other by creating a masterpiece of fluorescent lights and earn the title of “best Christmas display” from the locals. At this time of the year, pride is almost a scourge to some, since the overbearing presence of lights creates insomnia due to lack of darkness. Electricity bills run especially high, but no one seems to notice. If it is noticed at all, it is a necessary evil that is easily tolerated.
Another familiar point of small towns is the fact that everyone knows everyone. This manages to breed a sense of trust unrivaled anywhere else. Cars are rarely locked, since the owner knows everyone else wouldn’t try stealing it. Trust even goes to the extent that houses are frequently left unlocked.
To conclude, the prevalence of personal responsibility has managed to preserve the peaceful nature of the typical American small town. The diminutive population constructs a cozy atmosphere enjoyable to all those around. A small student body makes it easy for the students to trust their organization’s leaders. The sense of community pride makes itself known most of all during the sports seasons and during the holiday season. The fact that everyone knows everyone else builds an unrivaled sense of trust. So long as those features remain intact and no one tries to exploit them, it appears as if the peaceful nature of the small town will be preserved for years to come.
Answers To Questions
Q1. How does society invest in marriage in the USA and in Manus? In the USA, the main thing invested is decision-making; having sex, living together, making babies are the main decisions solved. In Manus, investments include dog’s teeth, shell money, oil, and pigs.
Q2. Interview 10 married people. Ask them what it takes to make a long, happy relationship and how long they have been married.
6 years and 3 years: Work at it daily and always communicate.
20 years: Communicate, marry for reasons other than physical attraction.
16 years: Work at it and don't take it for granted.
9 months: Don't go to sleep mad.
6 months: Respect each other's opinions.
23 years: Communicate, love, respect other's feelings.
29 years: Compromise, never go to bed mad.
23 years: Communicate well and trust in each other.
22 years: Have same goals, communicate, and trust each other.
Q3. According to Richard Eckersley, what should our collective goal be? The collective goal sought after in Eckersley’s opinion is progress and a happier life.
Q4. Write a worthy goal for your local community. A worthy goal for our community is to agree on something, anything, unanimously. When opinions differ, every side believes their opinion is the correct one, causing tempers to flare. If we could all agree, life would generally be more peaceful.
Q5. Comment on the excerpts from “Tomorrow’s Child.” The excerpt from page 54 is naïve. A doll meant to represent a mother is a fool’s crutch. However, the excerpt from page 56 is very enlightening, explaining the widening gaps between classes and races.
Q6. How does the fact that the USA is a democracy make lawyers particularly useful, according to Kathleen Sullivan? How does our diversity, wealth, and size make lawyers particularly useful? Lawyers help by creating “a form of public responsibility and accountability that would not happen in an untrammeled democracy.” We are heterogeneous and divers, not homogenous and local, which cause conflict between different groups. Since we want luxuries, like clean air and water, health care, and Medicare, we need those who understand the law to help us attain them. Because of our size, lawyers have set up processes, procedures, and rules, which help us as a large territory with large work forces and large transactions.
Q7. Ms. Sullivan claims bad practices are changed either by regulations or punitive damages. Which do you prefer and why? Can you think of an alternative? I prefer regulations because the changes brought about by them are uniform. I can not think of an alternative.
Q8. Briefly describe three ways society would benefit from the coming retirement of baby boomers, according to the required reading. One way society would benefit from the retirement of the baby boomers would be an improvement in commerce, since many baby boomers would want to start their own businesses. Another benefit would be the invention of “elder care”, much like day care for infants, where the companies that employ Gen-Xers would take care of the employees’ parents. One more way society could benefit from the baby boomers would be the baby boomer’s attitude to stay in work past retirement age, which would allow more Gen-Xers to settle down and start families.
Q9. Evaluate the likelihood of President Clinton’s anti-poverty program making a real impact. Give at least three reasons to back up your conclusion. I believe President Clinton's anti-poverty program is destined for success. He has decided to take the initiative right now, which will end the poverty problem sooner. His idea to use the poor as a labor pool for companies is also a very bright idea, since this would not only add workers to the economic scene, but consumers as well. I also agree with his policy to invest in new markets inside America rather than going out to invest in foreign markets. While this may make some nations poorer by limiting commerce, it will make the poor areas of America more prosperous.
Q10. Name three things Truett Cathy and Tom Lewis have in common. Truett and Tom both had an interesting vision on what they wanted to do. Both of their plans were plans that had not been attempted before. They both succeeded in what they set out to do.