A topic that has run across my “desk” a few times recently is the concept of “Greater Minnesota versus the Metro,” and I really think we are winning out here.

That doesn’t mean people in the metro need to agree. Maybe they hear the opposite sentiment, and people are grateful they left a rural setting to be in a big city?

I am getting up there in age so I listen to WCCO, have been doing so for several years. Maybe it’s because I am older, maybe it is because they let you call in and share an opinion. More often than not, an attempted call leads to a quick conversation between me and one of the talk show hosts.

They were discussing the aforementioned topic and I shared my experience of growing up near a small town in South Dakota. Us youngins weren’t debating the rural-metro divide, it was country kids against the town kids. The point was that it’s a pretty natural thing for people to look for groups where they see an affinity and ready themselves to defend their choice. Pick your poison, in my grade school days if it wasn’t townies versus the country kids there was a comeuppance brewing between the Catholics and Lutherans or John Deere versus International.

I shared observations delved from serving on three different state education boards at the same time. Most meetings were in the Twin Cities with the majority of attendees from that vicinity. We all know where Minneapolis and St. Paul are, but only a small portion of my colleagues from that area had a clue where St. James might be located. An even smaller slice cared.

That’s fine.

We don’t need anybody coming out here and messing things up, right?

The statement is a bit tongue in cheek, but I do see that thread of thought holding some merit. Happened to be writing an article about a Century Farm once and it made even more sense. If a family has found a way to keep a farm operating through World War I, the Depression, World War II, several more wars, market volatility, and the crisis of the ’80s … why would they be looking for someone to come and tell them to do it differently? Again, we have the buffer of being in places they can’t envision, but once in a while a new idea gets offered up from the metro that simply doesn’t fit Greater Minnesota.

Yes, a metropolitan area has a lot to offer.

It’s not too bad from where I live either. There can be found a Mayo Clinic, theater, bakery, several banks, a courthouse, a pool, a variety of ethnic food choices, churches, schools, fire department, police station, eye doctors and chiropractors, banks, library, jewelry store, coffee shops, bar and grills, hotel, gas stations, the county fairgrounds, ballparks and a football stadium, a lake and walking path.

Literally, within a minute or two I can be at any one of those locations.

I challenge any metro location to match that claim.

Railroad Days gave us another example. The extreme heat triggered the cancellation of the parade. Plenty of people were disappointed, but most importantly, they were all safe. The St. James Fire Department stepped up and offered water activities that same afternoon to water down the disappointment. As fate would have it, the same firefighters, joined by EMS, were doing their job an hour later, fighting a fire in an environment that was already pushing 110 degree heat index.

Gawker slowdowns can add issues to emergency situations, so measures are taken to close off streets and keep people at a distance. That didn’t stop the good people of St. James.

After flames were extinguished, a Facebook message thanked concerned citizens who brought coolers, ice, water, Gatorade and more to keep the emergency crews cool and hydrated. Blistering high temps can bring out the worst in people, and St. James proved it can bring out the best in people too.

Well done.