One year of pandemic. One year of indoors.
The vaccines for the much-hated COVID-19 are going out, and people are once again looking forward to the outdoors, despite recent gatherings leading to outbreaks and further lockdowns.
We live in the kind of place where people easily live off the grid, and tend to keep to themselves. Imposing “entry contracts” sit at various gates, No Trespassing signs at fences along deep roads, and roads leading off into the woods. Our remoteness, and rural-ness, is deniable.
Bob’s column this week is about being proud of being a ‘redneck’, or a ‘hillbilly’. There’s some merit to that, of course; rural living tends to feel familiar, with a greater sense of community, You know some of your neighbours and in some sense, rely on them.
Whitewater seems to pride itself on its sense of community, on its unity. Beachburg, Westmeath, and Cobden all have a sense of familiarity about them; regulars who come in, get to know the shop owners or customers.
It also means we have to manage a lot of things ourselves. Cellphone reception is still terrible out here, and EORN is just getting to trying to make it less so. Distances are still pretty great, even with cars. Despite centralization to big cities being the name of the national game, we still rely on our Council and local civil servants, people who know and live in the area, to be able to function.
It actually has a lot of benefits regarding acceptance, especially to people of different races. While racism is a problem in rural areas – in all white-dominant areas, frankly, due to centuries of bias – the sense of community and independence in a lot of areas like Whitewater lead to a greater sense of welcoming. I’ve seem many instances of friendly welcoming with gay, or trans, or people-of-colour here.
Granted, I’m not really the group to be party to those kinds of altercations. Being aware of those kinds of prejudices and listening when people say they’ve been subjected to them, and learning how to change it, is a rather simple thing to do without fearing demonization. Rarely, admitting one has done racist things makes one a pariah, if they’re expressing a willingness to avoid and push against such attitudes going forward.
I’m rather a shut-in, frankly, but I’ve been largely accepted in Whitewater. I think that that kind of attitude is more prevalent than isolation; especially now, where information is getting more prevalent, and travel is easier. With the pandemic, we’re getting a lot of people moving here, attempting to avoid dangerous cities.
I think the ‘hillbillies’ need to be accepting of new people and embrace the admixture of independence and community. The region certainly can’t rely on the Province to understand its specific needs, nor become too dependent on neighbouring cities. Our individual voices have to be heard, at least to make the larger County and Province aware of our unique needs, and how blanket plans might harm them.
It’s not something to be feared.
