Very simply, there's a reason the rural joke goes like this: "I'm from the government and I'm here to help". It's just not appreciated. If you want to genuine

Very simply, there's a reason the rural joke goes like this: "I'm from the government and I'm here to help". It's just not appreciated. If you want to genuinely assist, you have to find ways that cohere with the culture and traditions of the place you're trying to support. The Outsider from California is an old meme. It's captured in this very very popular postcard found throughout Montana/Idaho: http://duckboy.com/postcards/all-postcards/more-californians-no-doubt.html http://duckboy.com/postcards/all-postcards/more-californians... I'm willing to bet based on certain comments earlier this year, the Outsider from NYC is a similar figure in the eastern part of the US. And, of course, "DC" or "Washington" is similarly vilified across the nation. So, you're an advocate coming in from your position of privilege: you are, in humor, an alien, and you purport to teach the people, in all best of intentions, how to do better. It's not that you're wrong. You just can't get to where you want from here without profound and deep disruption. Does this make sense here? If this is the sort of thing that interests you, you'll want to be looking at working with the local civic minded community pillars. Pastors, teachers, principals, mayors, doctors, etc. People with influence and understandings of the local culture. People with generational roots, bluntly. There is a fierce, fierce, fierce independence and individualism: coming in and telling people how to live isn't appreciated. This is, by the by, virtually a Hollywood stereotype- the well intentioned urbanite helping out the rurals. :-) I don't know that I have much more to say on HN... if you want to take up this thread at length, my email is in my profile. :-)