Small homogenous populations favor development of community. Rural farming economies are tight-knit and require community. Fairfield's economic activity for a 10,000 person town is impressive, to say the least, if what wikipedia says is true. Maharishi Effect or no, all that meditating couldn't be hurting and this is a great article on what "community" looks and feels like from an attitude perspective.
________________________________ From: feste37 <fest...@yahoo.com> To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, January 1, 2012 6:23 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] amazing article in Washington Post about Washington, IA “‘Life is good’ in Iowa’s Washington, but the candidates keep raising alarms.â€� This is an extraordinary article in the Washington Post about Washington, IA, which is less than 30 miles from Fairfield. I have never read an article quite like it. Amazing. Superradiance, anyone? WASHINGTON, Iowa â€" It is the final day of his best year at work, and Keith Lazar, 62, settles into his corner office at the community bank. He eats a doughnut with a fork and turns on an instrumental CD titled “Relaxation.â€� Outside his office window, the town square is bustling with proof of his impact during the past 12 months: trucks financed by his loans, restaurants expanding because of his savings advice and small businesses created with his support. The first customer of the day arrives at 8:20 a.m., 40 minutes before the bank is scheduled to open. It’s a hog farmer wearing overalls and work boots, another longtime customer enjoying a record year. He wants to apply for a loan so he can expand his operation again. Lazar opens the door and waves him inside. “Hiya, Keith,â€� the farmer says. “How’s it going?â€� “Couldn’t be better,â€� Lazar says. “Life is good.â€� Life is good. It has become Lazar’s default greeting, the motto he inscribed on the wall of his kitchen and printed on T-shirts to distribute at family gatherings. What could be better at the beginning of 2012 in this other city called Washington, a rural town of 7,200 surrounded by the corn and soybean fields of eastern Iowa? This is the Washington with a 4 percent unemployment rate, with record-breaking hog and cattle production, with a new high school and a $6 million library, with a newspaper that doesn’t bother to print a crime blotter, with heated sidewalks in front of the bank so customers never have to walk in the snow. Complete article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/life-is-good-in-iowas-washington-but-the-candidates-keep-raising-alarms/2012/01/01/gIQAjgluUP_story_2.html
