December 21, the Winter Solstice…our first official day of winter.  It marks the shortest day of our year, which seems all too real as I drive to and from work in the dark these days.  For me, the solstice kindles the furtive hope that summer will return, as each day will get longer than the last.  So today we celebrate Death to Darkness!

Think of what it must have been like 75 years ago when there was no electricity across 80 percent of the country’s footprint.  Back then, rural citizens couldn’t turn on electric lights during those long, dark December nights.  Light came only from kerosene, and indoor cooking was done on a wood stove.  In contrast, most city dwellers in our region had electricity.  Large electric companies in that era refused service to the rural countryside, knowing they couldn’t make their desired profits, and thinking that electricity was a privilege only for city dwellers.  That’s when America’s rural citizens without electricity took matters into their own hands to form cooperatives to provide their own rural electric service.

Sounds a little like internet service today, doesn’t it?  If you live near a city, you might have access to high speed cable internet, or maybe wireless internet, but most rural American citizens do not.  Many broadband providers consider slower internet technologies satisfactory for rural spaces.  If you’ve ever tried satellite internet (I call mine “Sorta-Net”), you may be surprised to learn that the FCC qualifies that technology as “High-Speed” in rural places – as if rural people should expect to get by with less!

Electric cooperatives around the country have begun to give this topic considerable thought.  They wrestle with questions about whether providing internet service is consistent with their original mission of electricity.  They worry rightfully about technology risk, whether investing in fiber could topple their strong balance sheets, and how they would manage the operational complexity.  Others, like Midwest Energy, decided that their mission transcends electricity – they exist to improve the lives of their rural members.  They argue that internet service, like electricity 75 years ago, is essential to life quality and opportunity, and no longer a luxury belonging only to urban dwellers.  So they began stringing fiber to every one of their rural customers, and they provide internet speeds as high as 1-gigabyte!

The questions about whether or not to enter the fiber telecommunications fray have no easy answers.  Good arguments exist on either side of the debate, and I’m proud that the Michigan cooperatives have started asking these hard questions, and seeking answers that might direct our future.  Death to darkness begins on December 21 when our days grow longer.  It also began 75 years ago when our founders mustered the courage to string electric wires in rural America.  It may also be coming in a third form, as a faint ember of fiber-optic light.  Maybe death will come to internet darkness, and rural homes, businesses and schools will have access to the same telecommunication light as urban America.