Election season is upon us again, and with it comes something that rural Louisiana does both remarkably well and, at times, remarkably poorly. There is a kind of unity that exists in small communities that people in big cities simply do not have. In rural parishes, you know your neighbors. You went to school with them, or your parents did. You sit near them at Friday night football games. You worship in the same churches. You show up at the same funerals. When somebody’s house burns down or a family gets a devastating diagnosis, the community rallies without being asked, because that is simply what people do for each other out here.