<story><title>Mendon, Missouri</title><url>https://seandietrich.com/mendon-missouri/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ryan_j_naughton</author><text>&amp;gt; And the most unusual thing about all this is: None of this is unusual. At least not within the national tapestry that is The Great American Small Town.&lt;p&gt;It also isn&amp;#x27;t unusual in the cities. Humans are wonderful and terrible everywhere. It reminds me of the 30 Rock episode where Jack and Liz go to Georgia to find a new comedian in touch with the &amp;quot;real America&amp;quot; and Liz keeps insisting that all Americans are real Americans and there is no &amp;quot;real America.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;The acts of people after 9&amp;#x2F;11 in NYC remind us of the good in humans just as this small town inspires us.&lt;p&gt;As Mr Rogers said, &amp;quot;When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, &amp;quot;Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.&amp;quot;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>kiernanmcgowan</author><text>When I lived in Chicago I saw the aftermath of a car&amp;#x2F;moped accident up close. I had just gotten off the L at Western and was walking to the north exit. To my right was a moped turning left under the tracks and to my left was a sedan driving out of an alley, also turning under the tracks.&lt;p&gt;I heard a crunch and a group of people at the exit all jumped and rushed over. I hadn&amp;#x27;t seen the actual accident, but feared the worst. Once I was street level the group that had rushed over had already called 911, was comforting the person on the moped (they were fine, at most concussed), and directing traffic around the accident. I ended up leaving because there wasn&amp;#x27;t anything to do and didn&amp;#x27;t want to get in the way.&lt;p&gt;60 seconds was all it took for a group of strangers to provide an overwhelming amount of help.&lt;p&gt;Walking home, I heard the siren of the ambulance, but that eventually faded as I walked another block or so, the scene of the accident swallowed by the vastness of the city.&lt;p&gt;I probably walked past a couple hundred people or so that evening, all of them unaware of what had happened under Western, yet filled with the hope all of them could provide an overwhelming amount of help.</text></comment>
<story><title>Mendon, Missouri</title><url>https://seandietrich.com/mendon-missouri/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ryan_j_naughton</author><text>&amp;gt; And the most unusual thing about all this is: None of this is unusual. At least not within the national tapestry that is The Great American Small Town.&lt;p&gt;It also isn&amp;#x27;t unusual in the cities. Humans are wonderful and terrible everywhere. It reminds me of the 30 Rock episode where Jack and Liz go to Georgia to find a new comedian in touch with the &amp;quot;real America&amp;quot; and Liz keeps insisting that all Americans are real Americans and there is no &amp;quot;real America.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;The acts of people after 9&amp;#x2F;11 in NYC remind us of the good in humans just as this small town inspires us.&lt;p&gt;As Mr Rogers said, &amp;quot;When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, &amp;quot;Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.&amp;quot;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>melenaboija</author><text>Although I agree with it I think that small towns have something that is lost in big cities which is the sense of community, and that is simply because in towns you know every single person that has some impact in your daily live.&lt;p&gt;My family is from a small town who moved to the city right before I was born and there is something my mom said to me when I was a kid that got stuck in my mind which is the awareness of death, in big cities is like people don&amp;#x27;t die because you don&amp;#x27;t know about it. Although it may sound macabre I think that knowing about death helps me better understand being alive.</text></comment>