“Y’all have a lot to be proud of, not simply because you keep the lights on, but because you are the anchors of the very communities you serve.”
Mike Partin, president of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) from Tennessee, shared that reminder in his closing remarks to the membership of the North Dakota Association of Rural Electric Cooperatives (NDAREC) annual meeting in February. While NRECA carries the national charge of advocating for electric cooperatives, Partin acknowledged the organization’s strength and credibility comes from the grassroots. It’s built on the backs of thousands of cooperative directors, employees and member-owners across the country who bring real-world service, real-world experience, real-world stories and a willingness to tackle real-world problems.
The advocacy work we do as electric cooperatives extends beyond poles and wires and ripples to make positive impacts in the community.
On the state level, NDAREC’s advocacy in the rural development space has led to the Legislature studying issues of food access, food deserts and rural grocery store closures. It’s led to the authorization and reauthorization of state funding for a rural grocery store sustainability grant program to help small-town grocery stores. In this issue of North Dakota Living, you’ll see a snapshot of that advocacy work making real impacts in North Dakota communities.
For too long on the national stage, real rural issues – like food access and maintaining essential services in rural communities – have taken a back seat to manufactured social agendas designed to polarize and divide. But by speaking with one voice of rural communities pulling in the same direction, perhaps electric cooperatives can help get the train back on the tracks.
Advocacy is more than politics.
“What matters is not whether someone is a Democrat or a Republican. What matters is they show up to solve problems and cooperate across the aisle, because the middle is where voices meet, solutions form and real progress happens,” Partin said.
Those words linger with me. Who doesn’t miss the days when ideas and policies were judged on their actual merit – when we recognized bad policy, called out flawed thinking and could distinguish right from wrong without checking which political party claimed it? Authentic political courage is harder to find. Doing what’s right may sound simple, but standing alone rarely is. Instead of criticizing those willing to speak honestly, we should be encouraging it.
Electric cooperatives label themselves the “truth-tellers.” I’ve always thought of rural people the same way.
Rural people are rounded, practical, community-focused, experienced in governance, civically and service-minded, and trusted as stewards.
Perhaps rural people, co-op people have a bigger role to play.
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Josh Kramer, editor-in-chief of North Dakota Living, is executive vice president and general manager of NDAREC. Contact him at jkramer@ndarec.com.
