I live in one of the the Whitest, poorest, places in America.

The people here are some of America's oldest and fattest populations, too.

Racism is obviously not much of a problem.

Oddly, despite the fact that this is one of the poorest places in the nation, crime isn't really much of a problem, either.

Now, one might be tempted to think that minorities and a high crime rate are somehow inextricably linked, but I think the explanation for crime is much more complex than that.

The expectations of the people here are just different than they are in most of American where I used to live. (New York, PA, FLA, CA, MA, CT)

Despite the fact that the native population here is about as xenophobic (not racist.. xenophobic) as anyplace I've ever been, there's a general live and let live attitude which I think explains some of why people manage to live in peace with each other.

People aren't very ambitious here.

Their expectations are fairly modest, and they expect that life will be a hard row to hoe, hereabouts.

People don't expect to get rich here.

Given their modest expectations, they're not likely to take shortcuts (like crime and aggressive business practices) to get ahead.

Gettin' by seems to be the number one ambition of most people hereabouts.

I can't help but think that living in one of the more beautiful places on earth can't hurt to keep most people fairly easy going, either.

Most of us are armed to the teeth, but there's very little violence.

If you are going to be killed in Maine the odds are that you're going to be killed in a domestic violence situation.

I think we had nine murders in Maine so far this year. Seven of them were domestic violence.

Maybe there just isn't anything worth stealing, here, I can't be sure.

but I do think that it's not just that there are no minorities, I think that all the things I've mentioned, age, race, population density, expectations, familiarity, hell even the weather, all play a part to keep this place what it is.

If this place's population was 98% Black, but Blacks with the same history as the poor Whites here have had, I expect it would be, much like this place, a gentle easy going place to live, too.