and she writes, my name is sarah downey and i'm a practicing community planner in kansas and missouri. as i was doing some research this morning i came across an article in your book. i felt compelled to get in touch with you and express my interest in your research ideas. i am from earl northwest kansas, will be specifically, and i was raised in a working family farm. my father, mother, myself and two siblings ran the farm growing wheat, corn, soybeans, sunflower, and my love. i said that right. within the last past ten years or so many of our farming neighbors have sold or lost their farms. while my father is still operating as farm. i left colby to go to college where i received a ba in political science and a masters degree in regional and community planning. a master's degrees from kansas state, where another rutgers graduate was on my professors. being from a rural era and theme the continuing rapid decline of population, one of my passions is understanding borough population decline and the death of this community. i wrote my master's paper on this topic. focusing specifically