Daniel Hendrix

I have stopped watching television

When the media was deregulated by Reagan and Clinton, I lost interest in much of what network news had to offer. Right and Left pundits who spent all of their time firing Americans up to divide them blackened the news with name-calling and biased reporting that reflected the mindset of their corporate overlords.

Not for me.

Television programming became a host of terrible reality shows. So, I sought my news AND entertainment through my computer and over the Internet.
I have always supported institutions like NPR and PBS because they are publicly not privately owned which gives them a measure of accountability. But even they have been under assault by these same forces.

Also, the freedoms in this country are quickly and vastly disappearing. We have allowed the Monopoly's we vowed to never let get control in this country, to own and charge access to things that were once free.

What does this mean? This means that the Internet is one of the last bastions of free speech and information. Is it any surprise that people are fighting this so intensely? I don't want to owe any more money to another company. For Christs sake, they charge me to drive on the roads, tolls at bridges, parking, just to have a car it must be registered, if you want decent pictire quality for your crappy shows you have to pay for cable. Cell phones, Insurance, rent, food, student loans, credit cards, GAS, the list of things we pay money for is STAGGERING. Yet, these guys want to squeeze the turnip for yet another drop of blood.

Please do not allow this to happen. My morale in part is based on how much I am able to save at the end of each month after looking back at all of the hard work I've done. Having these people charge me at every turn slowly chips away at that morale and makes me realize that getting ahead is not something that they want me to do. They want me in debt for the rest of my life. I use the internet for many, many things. Letting these companies decide what I get to see at speed or not and charge me for access that has been free is the death knell of the last of freedom in this country as far as I'm concerned.

I invite you to join me in the fight against it. It's your freedom too.

Net Neutrality is essential to free speech, equal opportunity and economic innovation in America. Since the FCC removed this basic protection in 2005, the top executives of phone and cable companies have stated their intention to become the Internet's gatekeepers and to discriminate against Web sites that don't pay their added tolls.

This fundamental change would end the open Internet as we know it. It would damage my ability to connect with others, share information and participate in our 21st century democracy and economy. The FCC must ensure that broadband providers do not block, interfere with or discriminate against any lawful Internet traffic based on its ownership, source or destination.