The Gallup folks measure well-being. In this country, we are not all equal.

Two small town libraries in Oregon are thriving by making big changes in funding, delivery, and technology.

More often these days we are coming across web sites that tell a local story — really a local struggle taking place somewhere in Yonder. People still meet in church halls and local libraries. But they also build web sites. We saw two recently, one put up by residents living near the Southeastern Colorado Canyondlands who are trying to limit the expansion of a U.S. Army training site. The other was set up by those who live near a planned super-sized dairy in far northwestern Illinois.

Pinoncanyon.com was set up by those who oppose the expansion of an Army training facility into the Pinon Canyon area of Southeastern Colorado. The Army would like to add over 100,000 acres to its Pinion Canyon Maneuver Site. The Pinion Canyon Expansion Opposition Coalition has put together a very slick site that both describes the fight and pictures the land in dispute. Good photographs and information (and paintings, like the one above). Check it out. 

In Nora, Illinois, residents are fighting a two large dairy farms planned by a California dairy operator. Each dairy would have 5,500 animals (cows and heifers). Their web site is stopthemegadairy.com.  This is conflict familiar to many people across the country, as farms turn into factories and communities struggle with the waste produced by "concentrated animal feeding operations" (CAFO). The web site reports that the Jo Daviess County Board will vote on this project shortly. The opposition group meets every Tuesday night at 6:30 pm at Hixster's, right above the BP station in downtown Warren.

Small towns that have survived natural disasters have learned something -- something critical to surviving "ordinary" times.