Geographically Ireland is a medium-sized rural island that is slowly but steadily being consumed by sheep.

Yeah I spent my teen years in West Virginia and when I was a kid in Louisiana. I definitely have that exposure to two different sorts of rural: the South and Appalachia.

President Obama's fight for rural America is personal. He was raised by a single mom and grandparents from Kansas. He hails from a farming state Illinois.

I was brought up in a very open rural countryside in the middle of nowhere. There were no cell phones. If your lights went out you were lit by candlelight for a good four days before they can get to you. And so my imagination was crazy.

The openness of rural Nebraska certainly influenced me. That openness in a way fosters the imagination. But growing up Lincoln wasn't a small town. It was a college town. It had record stores and was a liberal place.

In my wildest imagination I never thought that the fifth of six children born to Helen and Buddy Watts - in a poor black neighborhood in the poor rural community of Eufaula Oklahoma - would someday be called Congressman.

The H-1B visa program which helps sustain our rapidly growing economy and also helps meet the health care needs of families living in rural New Mexico.

When I gave birth to my fourth child I suffered from post partum hemorrhaging. I almost lost my life. I was lucky to be under the care of trained health care personnel. I started wondering then what was happening to women in rural villages.

A common misconception is that the costs of health care are cheaper in rural America when in fact the reality is that they are more expensive and more difficult to access.

Many health care providers particularly physicians in rural and urban areas are leaving the Government programs because of inadequate reimbursement rates.

Let us build a 21st-century rural economy of cutting-edge companies and technologies that lead us to energy and food security. Such an investment will revitalize rural America re-establish our moral leadership on climate security and eliminate our addiction to foreign oil.

You know rural Americans are a special people. Their labor puts food on our table and fuel in our gas tanks. Their service in our military sets a powerful example of leadership honor and sacrifice. Their spirit of community inspires us all.

Living in a rural setting exposes you to so many marvelous things - the natural world and the particular texture of small-town life and the exhilarating experience of open space.

Cities all over the world are getting bigger as more and more people move from rural to urban sites but that has created enormous problems with respect to environmental pollution and the general quality of life.

I belong to the generation of workers who born in the villages and hamlets of rural Poland had the opportunity to acquire education and find employment in industry becoming in the course conscious of their rights and importance in society.

I could be on 52nd and Third in Manhattan up and ask a strange for directions and they will help you that's a rural heart. Your car breaks down in the middle of Iowa or somewhere or Tennessee where I'm from people want to help each other. Given each opportunity you see how people come together.

As Members of Congress we can now engage with our constituents via online innovations like the Huffington Post while a small business in rural Oregon can use the Internet to find customers around the world.