Asked to picture rural America, most will conjure bucolic images of rolling hills, green meadows, and livestock peacefully grazing on pasture, dotted by the silhouettes of the hardworking, salt-of-the-Earth folks who work the countryside. These communities, however, conceal a darker secret. Having grown up on a dairy farm in upstate New York, where the closest town was populated by a mere 500 people, I am a rural American. My firsthand perspective was shaped by living in a small community of industrious, independent, resilient people who were kind and quick to lend a hand.