The helping culture of 'small' city America
Yesterday, I met a man from Mumbai. He happened to mention that he was new to Idaho, so I asked how new, and it turned out he'd been here for only a month and a half. He spoke good English, and I learned he'd gone to an English-speaking school, which made his getting a job here in Idaho possible.
I asked him what he thought about Boise, and he said he loved it here better than Mumbai. People don't care about you in a big city, he said. Whether you live or die makes no difference to them. But here in a little-big city like Boise, he said he could stand outside a store with a large purchase, and people would ask if he needed help. He'd already done this the day before and been asked by eight people. He'd never seen anything like it in his life.
His wife and children had the same impression and were generally impressed by how healthy the culture was here. Not the same ugly bustle of a New York City or a Philadelphia, the facelessness of the crowds, the concern for you and yours and yours only, but a real humanity that sees a neighbor as a neighbor and asks him if he needs anything.
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I have seen the same culture in rural Texas. You can see it somewhat in communities within the large cities in Texas. There it is more a neighborhood thing.
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