You don t have to be small-town bred to have a soft spot for America s small<br > towns. For at least half our history， we were mostly a nation of microcenters<br > surrounded by farms. In 10，000 Centervilles scattered across the land， the<br > American idea took root， flourished， and fed the nation. You can still catch a<br > glimpse of this old America from the window seat of ajetliner on a clear night，<br > spotting small clusters of light across whole time zones.<br > The 1990 Census contained no real surprises for small-town America.<br > Many of the rural lights have dimmed and some have flickered out， a long-<br > term trend that is well understood， if not well accepted. When the old family<br > homestead is gone and good jobs are elsewhere， people move away. In 1950，<br >44 percent of the U.S. population still lived on farms or in small towns; by<br > 1990， that segment was down to 23 percent. ~<br > Ask small-towners what their place contributes to the national economy<br >and they ll tell you， with a mixture of pride and sadness: our kids. You can<br >forget about those bumper crops of corn and beans and truckloads of beef<br >and machinery--the big export item of small-town America always has been<br >people， mostly young people， and mostly reared in an environment where<br >traditional values of family， community， faith， hard work， and patriotism re-<br >main strong. Small wonder we put our small towns up on a pedestal--they re<br >helping to preserve the American dream.<br >