If you’ve read recent studies or articles about small town America, then you have read that many rural towns struggle to maintain residents. They find themselves shriveling and withering, unable to assure a prosperous future for the next generation of residents.
It’s a hard problem, and efforts to overcome a decline in population – no matter how strenuous and sincere – often fail. The best efforts of these places might seem laughable, were they not so sad.
Whitewater, Wisconsin does not confront the desiccation that afflicts these other places. Two groups – vibrant and energetic – give Whitewater opportunities and hope that shriveling places elsewhere do not have.
We have thousands of students on a campus in town, and thousands of immigrants, mostly from Mexico, who have come to Whitewater. These groups offer us possibilities that other rural towns cannot hope to match.
Without them, this town would collapse – as it once did – into poverty and disgrace. The City of Whitewater, and all its proud Scandinavian and German residents, would live in a bankrupt and decayed shell of a town without students on campus and so many immigrants willing to venture their futures here.
Why did they come? America brought them here – the American dream of an education or a job, the hope of a good life regardless of race or ethnicity or class. America at her best supports and encourages as much, as part of the dream of a better life.
We are a nation of individualists and optimists, and the American way encourages respect and tolerance for diverse dreams and ambitions. It hasn’t always been so, surely. Some of our worst moments have come when we have departed from our fundamental principles.
In their hopes and ambitions, the students and immigrant newcomers to our community are closer to the founders of this town than to those who now claim to represent their legacy.
They’re far closer – regardless of age or ethnicity, those who come here for an education or a place in the community embody an ambition and adventurous spirit more like those who settled here than long-standing residents who decry their presence.
They did not come uninvited – America extended an invitation, and a certain and specific one. In my next post, I’ll describe that specific American invitation, and why it threatens a certain, small group of stodgy, dull, and listless residents.