Sixty years ago you could drive down most rural roads at night for miles and miles in complete darkness with only the stars and moon to light the way. Most of the ranches and farmsteads that lay on either side of the two-lane had no electricity. Their occupants cooked on woodburning stoves, washed clothes by hand, and stored their food in cellars or cisterns to keep it cool.
Folks got by without electric lights and appliances back then, and some claim life was better, but once the Rural Electrification Administration began wiring the countryside in 1936 it wasn't long before almost everyone was connected to a power grid.
That was back when the majority of Americans still lived on farms or in rural areas of the nation. Electricity helped relieve the isolation of many rural farmsteads with telephones and radio, it gave students more time to do their homework, and it gave farmers access to technologies that improved production and marketing.
Now that most of us live in cities or suburbs and less than 2 percent earn a living off the land, a rural life is increasingly difficult to maintain. More and more of us, husbands and wives and children, have to commute dozens of miles for jobs and schooling. Rare is the rural family that can live and work and receive an education in close proximity to the land. More's the pity.
But the present doesn't necessarily mirror the future, and rural America could well be poised for an economic and cultural renaissance. Why? The Internet.
Overhyped and poorly understood, the Internet is not a new medium of communication like television, nor is it a faddish consumer electronics item like a Walkman. It is a utility, a tool like electricity, which is capable of changing our way of life immeasurably.
Because the exchange of messages on the Internet is quick and inexpensive, this tool diminishes the biggest handicap of rural living -- distance. Many rural commuters can become telecommuters, working from their homes several days a week. Farmers can have more control over their marketing and anyone with a product or service can sell farm-direct to a world-wide network of potential buyers. With more people in rural areas working at home or on the farm, local communities can be revitalized economically and socially.
Because there are vast libraries of information and dozens of experts on every conceivable subject available on the Internet, rural schools can offer a world-class education. Home-schooling becomes a more practical option and continuing education, whether to earn a degree or learn some new skill, can be done primarily in the home.
And because the Internet is so diverse and widespread, it has the potential for making us all, rural and city folk alike, less isolated. It can help link together widely dispersed family members and introduce us to communities of people with similar interests.
What stands in the way of this rural renaissance, at present, is "The Phone Bill." Most rural residents pay long distance charges for Internet access that their city cousins get toll-free. At from 10 to 75 cents a minute, these charges add up quickly, becoming a strong incentive for unplugging the computer's modem.
Since Internet access providers are unlikely to set up shop in sparsely populated areas with few potential customers and phone companies are unlikely to expand their local calling areas into the countryside, the future of rural America may depend on a government effort similar to rural electrification. Without affordable access to the Internet and all it has to offer, vast areas of America will be condemned to a digital dark age of limited horizons and unfulfilled promise.