Op-ed by Michelle Higgs
Rural Indiana is at a crossroads, and the people who call our small towns home know it.
Across our state, families are working harder for less security. Hospitals are closing. Teachers are stretched thin. Childcare is unaffordable, if it’s even available. Young people leave towns they love because they can’t find jobs that pay enough to stay. Once-thriving main streets are hollowed out, replaced by dollar stores and gas station mini-marts. Decisions about our land, our water, and our livelihoods are too often made without us by people who don’t live in small towns and don’t have to deal with the consequences.
For too long, rural Hoosiers have been told that this is just the way it is: that our communities are dying, that we should be grateful for whatever scraps of investment come our way, and that we don’t have the political power to demand more.
That narrative is wrong. Rural Hoosiers don’t accept it.
