Mayberry RFD was fiction, y'all

Herewith, another reminder that the vision of small town America painted by Mayberry RFD and other shows ws utopian - Kentucky sheriff charged in killing of judge at courthouse. All this took place in a town of 1700 people in a county of around 20,000 people. Everybody knows everybody - in fact the county prosecutor had to recuse himself because the Sheriff's his brother-in-law.

The only difference between small towns and the big cities is that there are more people in a big city. Crime, poverty, drugs, racism - you find the same proportion of that in both places. This is why I get a bit testy when people wax emotionally about the "heartland of America."