Connections for the President’s Marquette Visit

Got a connection to events this week’s Presidential visit to Marquette, Michigan?  The President is coming to the U.P. because we have something to show America.

WiMax technology deployed by Northern Michigan University, the first public university in the country to do so, is a type of broadband internet connectivity that lets students and teachers in the Marquette area be connected faster, cheaper, more safely, and with more flexibility in Marquette County than before.  Its shared use by public service agencies let mobile units like ambulances maintain vital communication links when responding to emergencies.  People in Marquette County live more safely and work more efficiently in remote areas as a result of this investment in rural broadband development.

Rural America is a rich frontier often overlooked by the urban world but this is changing.  As rural areas get connected to the world they join the global marketplace and prosper..

The Presidential visit to the Upper Peninsula is a chance for Americans to see how investing in rural infrastructure promotes a climate for jobs and business success.  America succeeds when rural America is connected.

Small towns know the impact big box stores have on small family owned retail stores who go out of business when corporations like Walmart open a small town store and sell stuff for less than wholesale for a small business owner.  But rural American towns that have internet connectivity have a new main street where they can sell products.

Businesses like Getz’s department store in Marquette prove that family owned retail businesses can thrive in rural America if they can expand their services online and sell their products to the world.  More than a hundred years after his great-great-grandfather started Getzs Clothiers, John Spigarelli decided to learn about online sales and in 1997 launched the online store that possibly saved the company.

Today, eighty percent of Getz’s revenue comes from online customers – many who might never visit the Upper Peninsula or see the original Getz’s in downtown Marquette.  A small business succeeds.  Workers keep their jobs. Everybody is happy.

Success in rural America is what I want Americans to imagine when the President visits Marquette.  So, even though seeing the President at a public rally or speech might be exciting for those of us off the beaten path to witness, I want the White House to avoid it.

An event for the President to speak to the general public would almost certainly generate media “reports” of empty fluff.  Reporters would do stories on surviving deep snow, or they would interview people in snowmobile suits and ask things like “How do you people live up here?”  They would add facts like Taft and Bush were the only other Presidents who visited the U.P. while in office.  They may even amuse us with their interest in words like “pasty” and “Yooper.”

We Yoopers may care about that stuff, or enjoy informing non-Yoopers about all the Yooperisms.  But non-Yoopers really do not care it.  They care about their lives and how to get and keep good jobs.  They care about America’s success.  We have a chance this week to show America more than a great place to vacation.  We can tell them more than our rich history.  We can introduce them to more than good people who speak funny.  We can show them how to succeed anywhere.

The connection I want with the President’s visit is much more important to me than a ticket to personally glimpse a famous man.  The President should avoid the temptation to assemble a crowd to address because it will detract from the message of his visit.  I hope his visit is quick, the message is clear, and his visit sparks the nation’s imagination that value and endless opportunity exist by connecting the world to rural America.