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I really don't know where a person would find Barak Obama's "Small Town America". I know that I have not viewed that kind of world from my own vantage point...and I have lived in this so-called "Small Town America" for the past 35 years.

In political remarks that are burning up the Internet, leading the dialog of talk shows and firing up political pundits everywhere, the topic is Obama, speaking in San Francisco. He said, "You go to some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration and the Bush administration and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti- immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

Well, I don't think small-town Pennsylvania is too much different from small-town Exeter, California or small-town Cowiche, Washington or my small-town of Harlingen, Texas. All small towns are relatively the same. First of all, you know your neighbors. You know the town's strengths and its weaknesses. You know the leaders and the followers. There is teamwork to assure survival. There are helping hands for those in need.

Yes, there are guns in most small towns. People in many small towns like to hunt. There are also fishing poles, because the people also like to fish. Most of all, they love the Constitution and the Second Amendment.

Small town America has an abundance of churches and the pews are filled on Sunday mornings. But, this never happens out of bitterness but because of the love of God.

People in small town America have antipathy for people who aren't like them? I think not. You will find more human kindness, caring hearts and real compassion in small towns than you will ever discover inside those concrete jungles such as Washington D.C.

Security concerns for the nation cannot be shrugged off as anti- immigrant sentiment and the only place you hear anti-trade sentiment is out of the mouths of politicians.

Jobs come and jobs go in America. When I moved to the Rio Grande Valley of Texas the main work force was agriculture oriented. Those not involved with farming were in the textile and clothing- manufacturing field. The region had a historic 12% to 17% unemployment rate.

Well, that was 35 years ago and guess what! Most of those jobs are gone. The agriculture business is now half of its former self. All of the textile and clothing plants have closed.

Did small town Rio Grande Valley, Texas become bitter? I think not.

In fact, today, most of our Valley small towns have grown. Tourism, call centers, service industries, discount shopping malls and construction have replaced the lost jobs and our unemployment hovers in the area of 5%. All of this happened because small town folks worked together and not because of Big Brother Washington.

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