I recently read a description of an outhouse: A small building a hundred feet from your house that’s a hundred feet too far in the winter, and a hundred feet too close in the summer.
This reminded me of a conversation I had with Dad a few years ago. I grew up with indoor plumbing. Every friend I knew had indoor plumbing. My father did not until he was about 8. Before then, he had to use an outhouse and bed pans.
This shocked me. Although I knew indoor plumbing was a modern invention, I assumed that outhouses were a thing from the distant past or something in the Wild West. I Googled it, and found out that after World War II, nearly one-third of American homes didn’t have complete indoor plumbing.
Something that I took for granted was not enjoyed by all Americans just a couple of decades before I was born. I sure missed indoor plumbing after spending a summer sleeping in a tent while working at Manassas National Battlefield Park in high school.
Today, nearly all Americans take indoor plumbing for granted. But there are other technologies that have become widespread that some Americans still lack access to.
My grandfather grew up on a farm without electricity. FDR brought rural electrification that made Grandpa’s life so much easier. Dad’s life improved dramatically when indoor plumbing was added to his home.
Technology advances and is widely adopted, but sometimes it takes time and extra effort to make sure all Americans benefit from it. We have seen that with cell phone service. For years, I couldn’t reliably make calls while driving through large parts of downstate Illinois. Today, there are still rural areas where I lose signal.
That’s why I am proud that one of the investments we have made through our FIRST Fund is helping bring coverage to more parts of Illinois. Many people rely on internet access to work and learn better. Unfortunately, there are still places, specifically classrooms, where students don’t have access to reliable high-speed internet.
That’s why I was excited to invest in Crosstown Fiber, which provides reliable, high-speed internet to more than 165,000 of our public-school students.
Projects like Crosstown Fiber don’t look like a typical construction project we associate with infrastructure. But it’s no different than electricity that’s piped through the grid, or the plumbing that brings clean water into homes. By investing in high-speed internet, we connect students with information. The knowledge gleaned through that access will pay off in the short-term and long-term, just like our investment in the project.
I am grateful that the federal government stepped up to improve the quality of life for my grandfather. I know my dad lived a much easier life with indoor plumbing. It’s what inspired our infrastructure fund. Our investments make money for the state, make our businesses more competitive, improve the lives of our citizens, and put people to work.
That is how government should work.
Sincerely,
Michael