By Judith Gayle | Political Waves
It’s the lusty month of May, a time when the emergence of spring leads us to a kind of giddy relief that the cold and dark are behind. It would be lovely to throw our arms wide to embrace less restriction and more freedom of body and spirit, essentially what this season represents, but our enthusiasm seems dampened by the calamities that are not just piled up to confront us, but continue to pop up like mushrooms in dank places. And this year, we’re rather like a newly sober and regretful drunk, looking back at the trail of destruction our long binge created.
Signs of adult behavior notwithstanding, news of faulty decisions and disturbing events keeps cluttering the headlines. Elizabeth Warren has joined Al Franken and Bernie Sanders in going after the FCC and its proposal to allow charges for service, essentially gutting net neutrality. Warren has gravitas, and she ties the FCC’s suggestions to her campaign against big-money exploitation of the struggling class (et al). The new proposal violates the basic premise of net neutrality, that similar content should be treated equally, creating, as Obama has suggested, a tool for equality.
Freenet, a group dedicated to remediating this problem, tells us, “The right response is to reclassify broadband Internet access as a telecommunications service that can be regulated in the public interest.” Visit their site to learn more and find out what you can do in the weeks remaining until a decision is finalized. (They’re also mobilized to try to stop cable monopoly should Comcast be allowed to buy Time Warner.) We need to write letters and make phone calls. From their editorial at Common Dreams, Bill Moyers and Michael Winship add “… you can send an e-mail to make your opinion known at openinternet@fcc.gov. Or direct a tweet to Wheeler @TomWheelerFCC.” You can find more group activities here. This FCC ruling will gum up the information pipeline and severely limit our ability to gather, share and influence our mutual, if virtual, reality, as well as limit innovation and tech start-ups. Creating tiers in service would be an across the board game changer, little guys like you and me, bloggers and yes, astrology sites, the losers.