Natasha Mitchell

The internet lets me be me.

I am not a blogger, nor, but for a few pictures scattered here and there, do I have my own website, but having a free and open internet makes my life better. This is because right now the sky is the limit to what one can produce on the internet and because of that, human creativity flourishes, unbridled. What I find of what people do, create and show on the internet inspires me, gives me ideas on how to live and helps me decide what matters most. Not all of the choices people make about what they do with that creativity are choices I would make, nor are all of the fruits of those creative labors what I consider healthy. And yet I am exceedingly glad that people have the freedom and space to make those choices and pursue those creative outlets. We are a nation founded on the idea that humans are, on balance, good, and that we will reach our highest potential when given the chance to flourish freely. The ability to express ourselves freely and creatively is key to that capacity to flourish, and it ought be protected and nourished fiercely. Commercial control of the internet will necessarily introduce biases, exclusionary conditions and uniformity to the net, and will therefore stifle this powerful outlet for human creativity.
Please do not let big business overrun a thing which is, in many ways, quintessentially American: it is a place where individual, unique human beings can be just that - individuals. I believe to my deepest heart and bones in the power of the human spirit's flourishing, and in the necessity of giving it room and the support to do so. Protect internet neutrality so that individual human beings can continue to have this outlet and source of inspiration, directly and unfiltered from other, unique human beings.