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The untold good news story of America today
BBC News ^ | 18 June 2018 | Tom Geoghegan

Posted on 06/23/2018 7:35:56 AM PDT by Vigilanteman

Political bickering has long been a roadblock to getting big things done in the US but a grassroots movement getting few headlines could yet herald a new American age of change.

A green giant in a loin cloth would seem an unlikely indicator for what some describe as a revolution under way in the heart of America.

But the Jolly Green Giant statue on Highway 169 in rural Minnesota wears a 48-inch (1.2m) smile for a reason.

Accompanied by the slogan Dream Big, he typifies a sense of hope and renewal in the nearby city of Blue Earth that is quietly being echoed across parts of the US.

As the country continues its long recovery from recession, there are signs that a much deeper shift is happening at a local level, the seeds of which were sown years ago.

Indicators far more subtle than job numbers suggest a flourishing of entrepreneurship, collaboration and problem-solving, away from the gaze of national media.

After five years spent visiting dozens of towns, The Atlantic writer James Fallows and his wife Deborah have written a book Our Towns which paints a portrait of renewal, a story at odds with the well-documented gridlock of higher levels of government.

Fallows says that in several areas - civic engagement, returning talent, growth of tech start-ups, downtown revitalisation, an openness to immigrants and thriving libraries - local America seems to be flourishing.

(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; US: Kansas; US: Minnesota
KEYWORDS: flyovercountry; goodnews; smalltowns
A nice view from the other side of the pond which will leave you feeling good. Americans have always (with isolated exceptions) have always been open to immigrants which have come to help weave the American fabric. Those who come to eat moth holes in it and turn it into a miniature version of the $#*+hole country which they fled, not so much.
1 posted on 06/23/2018 7:35:56 AM PDT by Vigilanteman
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To: Vigilanteman

So we are still able to recover from the corruptocracy that has been running the country lo these many years.


2 posted on 06/23/2018 7:40:09 AM PDT by AndyJackson
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To: Vigilanteman

We’re finally crawling out of the Obama Depression


3 posted on 06/23/2018 7:43:17 AM PDT by MuttTheHoople (Yes, Liberals, I question your patriotism3)
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To: AndyJackson
Libtards fail to understand that top down one size fits all management is resented whereas bottom up participatory governance is embraced. Even Bernie Sanders seems to have done a credible job as mayor of Burlington, Vermont before he got elected to the U.S. Senate and embraced the top down approach.

The top down approach for the left is so much more efficient, you see, than taking a chance that the locals might not go along with what they want.

4 posted on 06/23/2018 7:53:10 AM PDT by Vigilanteman (ObaMao: Fake America, Fake Messiah, Fake Black man. How many fakes can you fit into one Zer0?)
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To: Vigilanteman

The Green Giant billboard is closer to LeSueur than Blue Earth. But Blue Earth is a nice little town. Like St. Peter, on the same highway.


5 posted on 06/23/2018 7:54:05 AM PDT by IronJack (A)
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To: MuttTheHoople

Amen brother!

For the good of the nation and our future we need to expose and prosecute the evil done during those dark times.

Barry Soetero needs to go to jail.


6 posted on 06/23/2018 8:07:39 AM PDT by Wildbill22 ( They have us surrounded again, the poor bastards- Gen Creighton William Abrams)
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To: Vigilanteman
an openness to immigrants

There seems to be little mention of that in the article. And based on some of the other "aside" comments, it reads a little like an attack. Indeed, much of the attack is on Washington as a whole, but there is a bit of lefty-support throughout.

Regardless, a mostly decent article.

7 posted on 06/23/2018 8:15:46 AM PDT by T. P. Pole
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To: Vigilanteman

He was a Confederate spy. Tear him down!


8 posted on 06/23/2018 8:27:50 AM PDT by onedoug
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To: Vigilanteman

9 posted on 06/23/2018 8:28:06 AM PDT by heterosupremacist (Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God. - (Thomas Jefferson)
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To: Vigilanteman

The bottom up approach was what the founders envisioned. They’d seen the top down approach up close and personal, and didn’t much care for it.


10 posted on 06/23/2018 8:54:44 AM PDT by AFreeBird
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To: Vigilanteman

bump


11 posted on 06/24/2018 9:07:43 AM PDT by foreverfree
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To: AFreeBird; All
There's a Green Giant Road near Townsend, Delaware. No statues along it, though.

ff

12 posted on 06/24/2018 9:21:56 AM PDT by foreverfree
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To: T. P. Pole
Well, the article *does* cite a book by a writer for The Atlantic...

ff

13 posted on 06/24/2018 9:52:20 AM PDT by foreverfree
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To: Vigilanteman; All
Now that I've read the article, somewhere John D. Loudermilk is smiling.

But is T.P. Pole referring to the "long recovery from recession"?

ff

14 posted on 06/24/2018 1:48:33 PM PDT by foreverfree
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