When Verizon extends fiber to the curb and then cuts the copper cable behind it on the way out while Homeland Security gives lectures about the need for multiple paths of redundancy built into essential networks, it’s time for net neutrality.

When large digital content companies align themselves with the digital pipes that distribute their content and coordinate public campaigns designed to concentrate content in a closed system, it’s time for net neutrality.

When broadband service is available overseas for twice the speed at half the price while the public is lectured about how interference with private markets reduces economic efficiency, it’s time for net neutrality.

When one cannot walk on a public street or in a shopping mall wearing a protest slogan on a tee shirt without being surveilled, tagged and run through a bank of data mines, it’s time for net neutrality.

When public relations firms spend millions to generate messages disguised to appear as emerging independently from grassroot levels as well as professional sources, it’s time for net neutrality.

When a broken health-care industry issues warnings that going online for medical information can be dangerous and one should see a physician before taking aspirin, it’s time for net neutrality.

When a lobbying industry with over 30,000 members spends $17M a day while Congress is in session to influence the democratic process through special access, it’s time for net neutrality.

When a broadband provider treats a public hearing like an annoying irritation from the public that just doesn’t understand how markets work and buys up the seats like a strip mall crowding out the public square, it’s time for net neutrality.

When broadband providers issue threats not to invest or build out networks under the competitive conditions imposed on content by network neutralty - in effect holding customers hostage to their market power over physical networks - it’s time for net neutrality.

When the enforcement of property rights over content and security over the protection of the network is exploited and abused ad nauseum as absurd excuses to undermine the competition among content producers and consumers enabled by net neutrality, it’s time for net neutrality.

When “hands off the internet” means “hands on free speech”, it’s time for net neutrality.

It’s the last frontier for spontaneous, self-organizing free speech to thrive from the bottom up on a level playing field, free of manipulation and crowding out from the top down. One voice, one vote for anyone who wants to participate.

As Lawrence Lessig stated eloquently in the Standford hearing, support competition, support net neutrality - not its promise, its clear enforcement.

It’s not just an alternative to competition and free speech any more. For many, it is the only alternative. Let a thousand flowers bloom, and a thousand more …