Kindness

It's hard to be objective about whether a place is rude or nice. The best gauge just might be how tourists perceive a place. If that's accurate then Illinois is much nicer than Missouri based on some just updated statistics.

Sometimes it's the small victories you learn to cherish. This is a great example. I saw the smallest of gestures recently that made a bigger than expected impact on me. It was a guy at a store in Missouri who voluntarily surrendered his shopping cart to a lady who needed one.