Appalachian Youth Say Dial-Up Rocks -- Not

On Monday, groups around the country held actions calling for universal broadband access and Net Neutrality.

While the two should go hand-in-hand, Big Telco lobbyists have been spreading big lies about its ability to do both – and telling the communities stuck on the wrong side of the digital divide that they’ll need to choose between a high-speed Internet connection and a neutral Net.

This ridiculous claim prompted Malkia Cyril, director of the Center for Media Justice and the Media Action Grassroots Network to ask a few questions:

Why are Telecom companies and their Beltway allies asking poor communities and communities of color to choose between fair representation and access to high-speed Internet networks? Why can't we have both?

Youth in Appalachia aren’t buying the industry rhetoric either, and they’re making it known – even the toddlers. They’ve banded together to form a project called Dial-Up Rocks, which calls for Net Neutrality and universal broadband.

Their central belief: “That free and unrestricted communication is a human right and that media is the intersection of power, social justice and all kinds of equity – gender, racial, and cultural.”

Life without high-speed Internet hasn’t been easy for these young folks, as journalist Rend Smith documented in a blog post:

If you want high-speed Internet access, and you happen to live in certain areas on and around Eastern Kentucky's Pine Mountain — currently there's only one thing to do: Move.

Rend interviewed 21-year-old Samantha Sparkman, who battles daily with a slow dial-up connection that makes it difficult to do what others now take for granted on the Internet:

Whenever Samantha…pops open her Compaq laptop to try to surf the Internet, she has to deal with a plodding and unreliable dial-up connection. "It took me three days to download 15 songs" she says of the time she purchased music from iTunes.

People in Appalachia are also telling their broadband woes themselves, giving the digital divide a human face. Watch:

The FCC is creating a National Broadband Plan and crafting new Net Neutrality rules right now, and these kids in Kentucky are schooling us: There’s no mistake that closing our country’s broadband gap while simultaneously preserving the open Internet should be a national priority.

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