Why is it that when you live in a small town, people think you're stupid? That somehow moving into a smaller community, and living in the mountains must have sapped all the intelligence right out of a person? Small towns seem to be equated with the uneducated and the less fortunate. Maybe that is in some part true. But I *choose* to live in a small town.

Cities may be the hub of culture. The ebb and flow of humanity as it wheezes in and out of its daily existence: building upon that which came before. But in a city, you can lie half dead on the sidewalk as hundreds of people pass you by; too scared to care. Or too jaded. Too something.

In a small town? Those same people would stop. Figure out what was wrong and get you up on your feet or to the hospital or where ever you needed to go.

So I was surprised to find rather vitriolic comments in the Sacramento Bee last week in response to an article about Placerville's upcoming Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebrations. The implication seemed to be that up in the hills, we had no need for peaceful coexistence and a desire for equality for all. That somehow our smallish town consists of hicks and tweekers, neither of which are apparently deserving of peace or tolerance.

http://www.sacbee.com/ourregion/story/1546506.html