I’m becoming quite the penpal.
I sent one letter to Senator Chambliss last week. In return, I received a form letter, much like Amber’s.
This evening, after Nikki sent one of her own, I sent another. As I told her, I keep having this nagging notion of promise about Senator Chambliss. This is based mostly on the apparent cooperation on the part of his staff with Nikki was having post-wedding name-change SocSec card trouble. So part of me believes that a guy with decent folks in his employ might just listen to reason.
Today’s topic? Net Neutrality. I’m for it. So should you be. The bill has been passed over to the Senate via Senator Ted Stevens and his unfortunately (but honestly) titled “Communications, Consumer’s Choice, and Broadband Deployment Act of 2006.” For short, just call it S.2686.
This is what I said.
Senator –
You have another big decision to make.
In the weeks to come, you will have to cast your vote regarding S.2686 — the Communications, Consumer’s Choice, and Broadband Deployment Act.
As you consider your options, please remember just what the Internet really is. It is a conversation that spans across cultures, nations and even languages. This conversation is made possible only through the absolutely neutrality of the space in which we communicate. We are all on a level playing field. Me. You. Corporations. Principalities.
Senator Stevens has proposed a bill (S.2686) that seeks to redefine where and how we communicate. Instead of enjoying this limitless field of opportunity, we will have to navigate instead a virtual geography of hills and valleys.
Content providers that pay a premium to communications companies will be the most visible, the easiest to find. Those that cannot afford to pay will be lost in the middle. And worst of all, those same communications companies will have free reign to throttle and silence any online offering they see fit.
I know this is a complex issue. We are living in complicated times. But for a moment, simply look at the advances in communication that the Internet has provided to all of us over the past fifteen years. And this was all without regulations, without favoritism, without compromising to corporate whim this amazing means of forming communities, of improving our lives.
I will close with a statement you have perhaps heard. Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, states the issue plainly by saying “[a] neutral communications medium is essential to our society. It is the basis of a fair competitive market economy. It is the basis of democracy, by which a community should decide what to do. It is the basis of science, by which humankind should decide what is true.”
Please protect this wonderful and still new tool for democracy. Vote “No” for S.2686.
Thank you,
Thomas L. Strickland
Alpharetta, GA 30022
Too florid? To full of Doug Henning magic? When an issue is so complex that you have to call Vinton Cerf before committee to describe TCP/IP and packets in terms a fourth-grader could barely understand, I’m hoping the purple prose helps to emphasize the awesomely technical in majestic terms. Because honestly, I don’t think many of our Senators really grasp just what they’re risking.
I don’t think anybody does.
