I don't know how closely any of you follow national business news, but you may have heard today a small item about how my dad's job was eliminated. Actually, in point of fact, his whole company was eliminated. Luckily, I've talked to my father several times in the past few days and when I heard it on NPR this morning it wasn't a shock. Say what you will about the improved economy, this is the third major company headquartered in my parents' little community to close its doors in the past year. While the event must have sent shock waves through my hometown, it went almost unnoticed on the national front, with just a note about how the parent corporation would now be "leaner."

This is not as devastating to my immediate family as one might think. My dad was already unhappy enough in his job that he was actively looking, and had interviewied elsewhere, before the announcement was made. My dad will also likely be offered the chance to stay on with the parent corporation, albeit in a lower level position. Since my parents have lived in the same small house for the past 30 years and rarely splurge on anything more exciting than a dinner out, this will hardly be a problem for them.

But it affects them, and me, on a different level entirely. My uncle worked for that same company, and I don't yet know how he and my aunt and cousins will be affected. My mother's place of employment was largely reliant on the generosity of this company, as were many of the cultural institutions in town. My brother and I have many friends whose mothers, fathers, aunt, uncles, etc all worked there. In fact, I find it hard to imagine that anyone in town would not be affected in some way by the closing of this company. And in a town where many highly-skilled, highly-educated people have been out of work for a year or more already with few job prospects, this could be devastating news.

If the economy is indeed rebounding, it's doing so at the expense of small-town America.