Audrey Tillmans

St. Charles, Ill.

To the Editor:

Opinion pieces such as “In the Land of Self-Defeat” attempting to paint a description of the urban-rural divide do nothing more than increase that divide. In the past 10 years I have lived in five states, in cities, towns and now finally a rural county of about 15,000. Now that I live in a rural county, I am more curious to understand how people view areas such as mine.

The New York Times has a responsibility to report the truth accurately. While some people do hold such thoughts as those described in the article, running articles on this divide every few months describing a new rural location with the same “backward beliefs” does a disservice to all Americans. People in rural areas feel they are being misrepresented.

For urbanites who will never visit rural areas, such articles are their only exposure, and they’re not a complete picture.

Kjersten Oudman

Mineral Point, Wis.

To the Editor:

Monica Potts’s article about Clinton, Ark., was outstanding. It managed to evoke a clear sense of the attitudes among the people there who voted for Donald Trump. I could not help but make the connection with the piece written by Richard V. Reeves, “Now the Rich Want Your Pity, Too,” on the same page . Rich, poor and even those in between, so many Americans express self-pity rather than a sense of optimism and ambition.

My grandfather, who came to this continent on a boat, alone, from Liverpool, England, at the age of 9, and my father, who studied at night and worked so hard to escape the shoe factory system of mid-20th-century America, would both not understand such self-pity.

I want to thank these two writers for helping me understand why the supreme crybaby of them all is now in the White House.

Jim Sutton

Andover, Mass.

The writer is a retired librarian.

To the Editor:

In one important aspect people in rural America are no different than those in urban America. We all tend to react to events and elections as positive or negative depending on how we think they affect us, particularly financially. I’m sure the article accurately depicts what is happening in rural America, and it’s unfortunate, even sad. I think the bigger question is: “Does anyone care, and how do we fix the problem?” Do we want rural America to continue to die?