Local Community Ties and Shared Values in America

Duchesne City, UT

“There’s an undercurrent of unconditional love … I’ve seen people who have cancer, or an injured child, and I’ve seen the community really rally around those people. If somebody needs help, there is always somebody here to help.” This quote was from an entrepreneur and business coach about her community in Duchesne City, UT., and like many other interviewees, she had lived in urban areas prior to moving back to rural towns. Their decisions were motivated by a desire to be a part of a group where they were valued for their unique traits, viewed as important to the local community, and could trust that others had the best interests of them and their families in mind.

Most interviewees described a feeling of anonymity and isolation living in urban locations, ironic given the population concentration in these areas. After aspiring to live in Los Angeles growing up, an interviewee soon realized she felt like, “just a number, and I’m totally replaceable here, and no one cared”; another explained while living in the Wasatch Front, “people didn’t know me, people didn’t know my kids. People in the city are more disconnected with those around them.” Interviewees could not foresee raising a family in cities in which local ties were less vibrant, and where there was less trust in neighbors and community members to look out for one another.

After moving back to rural America, these families never looked back. Parents allow children to roam the open lands with friends and neighbors, without fear given the level of trust between community members. Some entrepreneurs are able to establish healthy businesses to sustain themselves and their families, and other workers are willing to commute multiple hours to work in urban areas if necessary, and maintain a home in the countryside. Interviewees mentioned many of their children haven’t kicked the love of the countryside either, with their young adult children preferring to stay in rural areas long-term, after a period of higher or technical education, given the heightened quality of life.

Many interviewees believe the country’s social fabric is tearing at the seams due to a lack of shared moral principles across the nation. Common principles they wished other urban Americans would embody moving forward include “strengthening the family”, “evaluating Americans on their morals and content of their hearts”, and “communicating from a place of empathy”. Through my early conversations in Utah and reflecting on my own upbringing, people’s sense of morality begins in the home, and is molded through several interactions over the course of a child’s life. Social sorting has occurred as Americans find towns in which neighbors are socioeconomically and politically aligned with one another, however sorting should be driven by a set of values irrespective of political ideology, and more aligned to morals. If we prescribe to the Jean-Jacques Rousseau philosophy that people are born good, and need society to continue to mold their propensity for good, local communities are critical towards molding the future generation.   

My choices to move to Boston or San Francisco were driven by employment opportunity, and personal desires for self-growth, however I’ll openly admit my blind spots in finding areas most aligned to my values. I’m constantly grateful for the highly-localized communities I established with life-long friends, but absent those interactions, I did not have an on-the-ground pulse of the greater Boston or San Francisco value-set, save for a filtered lens in the media. The further we allow ourselves to retract from local communities, the less opportunities and touchpoints we afford ourselves to truly test if our community members align with our values, and the less effort we’ll make to strengthen these values in the community. At some point, we can’t neglect our individual role in creating a sustainable community which espouses the values above, to ensure our and future generations of Americans reap the benefits of our efforts.

Despite the divisiveness across the nation, interviewees expressed hope for a future America in which shared principles can be re-established. Said one interviewee “I’m very hopeful – I see my kids, and I see their peers, I see in the next generation a purity of love that didn’t exist in my generation. There are people who are more willing to be more vulnerable and open to these conversations.” Change can be initiated by a handful of honest conversations where Americans identify the intersection of their individual values with one another, and then develop strategies to consciously use intersected values when making decisions about local communities or the country. Everyone can, and should, take time to have these conversations, as I’m confident people will be surprised by how much we have in common with one another!

Future blog posts will aim to confirm or refute the hypothesis that America’s greater social challenges are directly derived from the erosion of local communities, and articulate actionable recommendations to strengthen values in the local community and home.

What values do you believe should underpin communities in America? Please comment below with any reactions, or recommendations for The Next Tide to improve in the future. Thanks for reading!

Special thanks to residents in Spring City, UT and Duchesne City, UT for the above insights!

Blogs will be posted on a biweekly schedule on Mondays, at 11:00 AM EST. The next blog will be posted on Monday, 4/12/2021.