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Posted By Katie On October 15, 2011 7 Comments

Engage. Empower. Share your voice.

Filed Under: Life in North Dakota, Motivated Moms Tagged With: North Dakota, prairie, rural life, working mom 7 Comments

A few issues I deeply care about especially when they directly impact my family and business. You probably have a few of those issues too. One issue that was top of mind when we made the decision to go rural with our family was the access to high speed internet. It actually was the decision point, the icing on the cake. My husband said we couldn’t go deep into rural North Dakota, taking a huge risk with out high speed internet. Then my boss said the same thing. I needed high speed internet to keep my job and work remotely from home.

I made one phone call to the small town phone company thinking they might have a business option that we could have for high speed internet but I was prepared for them to tell me they offered dial-up service only. Our future was in limbo because of this phone call. My local telephone company not only had internet service, they had broadband internet. High speed. Lightning fast.

At about the 10 minute point of this video can hear me tell more of the story of making that call. This video was produced and shared yesterday by BEK Communications. Unfortunately, the FCC is threatening to cut our high speed internet funding. It would cut profits of small, rural telephone cooperatives by 20-30%. Therefore, BEK is sharing stories of people on the prairie, telling how they use and need high speed internet.

Now there are a lot of issues that we take on ourselves and fix with out the government’s help. We work hard. Our state is booming with energy and agriculture. We have the lowest unemployment rate in the nation. Need a job? We have thousands. But taking our high speed internet funding from us is a issue and problem we cannot fix on our own.

In order to keep growing and quite literally for our family business that my husband now operates alongside his parents to keep building, our rural infrastructure has to be wired for growth. We need high speed internet.

And it is not just our family or our business. There are faces from across our rural communities that depend on it for personal and business connectivity. Congressman in Washington D.C. often listen to the population centers because that is where the voters are. 
But rural has a voice. We are sharing our voice. I hope someone is listening that can impact positive growth and not have us stepping backwards to lose our funding that is the foundation of our future in rural North Dakota. 
Very brief video on how I use high speed internet…it’s my life line.
No matter what the issues are that you are passionate about, engage. Choose the few that you care about most. For me, many of my passions fall into categories around family, farming, food and rural development. Share your voice and most importantly I think is to allow your voice to empower others. It takes all of us. 
Now no one knew I was going to write this blog post. BEK Communications didn’t pay me to do the video. I was a volunteer. And in case you haven’t figured it out yet, I have strong opinions. We aren’t all going to agree on issues but I believe in engaging on those issues you care about and empowering others to engage is vital for progress, growth and change. 
Be empowered to share your voice.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. TexWisGirl says

    October 15, 2011 at 1:40 am

    good luck, katie! i truly hope the funding remains. i can’t imagine losing high speed internet just for my personal use – much less when you need it for work and family business!

    Reply
  2. Amanda M. says

    October 15, 2011 at 2:06 am

    Good luck. I am sending up a prayer on this issue for you! I believe you all deserve this with all my heart.

    Reply
  3. Farmchick says

    October 15, 2011 at 12:24 pm

    High speed internet needs to be common place everywhere in this day and age. I don’t see how business growth can continue without it. Nice to see your video clip and you speaking out about this issue.

    Reply
  4. Prairie Mother says

    October 15, 2011 at 2:05 pm

    Good for you Katie! I don’t know how anyone could get along without high speed these days. Hoping all works out for you.

    Reply
  5. Lisa @ Two Bears Farm says

    October 15, 2011 at 3:52 pm

    Oh gosh, I hope the funding doesn’t get pulled. You’re fighting an eloquent fight – you got my vote to keep it!

    Reply
  6. Roxane B. Salonen says

    October 15, 2011 at 7:42 pm

    Lovely, Katie, of course. And you know what? It’s really not just about the tools but what we are doing with them. But we can’t stay engaged with the world without the tools. I wholeheartedly agree! Thanks for being an important voice and being courageous enough to share that strong opinion. 🙂

    Reply
  7. Anonymous says

    October 16, 2011 at 2:11 am

    Articulately done, Katie. Seems like pulling high speed internet would be putting rural America back in the dark ages. And with North Dakota’s reputation for job growth and low unemployment,I can’t imagine that a decision to pull this service would be wise for anyone. Proud of what you are doing..

    R and “boys”

    Reply

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I am a mom of three kids and a wife to Nathan. Together we live on the North Dakota prairie, 97 miles from a Starbuck's. I share about family, food, farming and the prairie that I love. I used to commute 98 miles one-way to work but it required too much coffee. So now I am home, consulting, speaking, writing and primarily, juggling family life.
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