At the first National Invitational Meeting on Rural Postsecondary Education (also known as the Kansas City Initiative), 28 rural specialists in lifelong learning produced an 8-item Bill of Rights and an 11-item rural postsecondary action agenda. Participants discussed organizational deficiencies in rural adult education, the sense of isolation all felt, and the need to link experiences of adult learners in different parts of the country. The essential message was that the rural lifelong learning movement was coming of age, and that its first responsibility was self-definition. The history of rural adult education, including the Extension Service, was discussed. Participants compared difficulties they faced, including natural constraints of terrain and weather, and also another kind of "weather": poverty, unemployment, despair--the social winds that buffet many small communities. To overcome the consequences of despair, also called "rural fatalism," delegates preferred three kinds of pedagogical medicine: special programming, individual counseling, and community development. The Bill of Rights emphasized the right of all rural students to equal opportunities for lifelong learning, the need for immediate national action, and the diversity of rural people's educational needs, including a need to help plan their educational programs. (MH)