Philip David Morgan

Let me vote with my mouse!

I first stumbled onto the Esperanto language in late 2005, and decided on a whim to try my hand at learning "la internacia lingvo" (the international language). In the months since then, I've discovered how much company I've got. One survey has put the number of Esperantists at roughly 2,000,000 worldwide. And I have no doubt that a free and open Internet is the reason for such a number.

Of course, I could have mouse-clicked away from the many Esperanto-language sites and blogs that have emerged since 2005. But I have many of them bookmarked in my browser. I have them bookmarked because I made the choice to do so. No one else did.

So it's sad to note that 2005 was the year that the FCC decided to remove the protection of Net Neutrality from the online experience in these United States. That alone has allowed Verizon, Comcast, Cablevision, and the "new" AT&T to lobby our own government for the right to play gatekeepers... thus opening the door to the potential, arbitrary blocking of websites that won't make them money. I suspect their CEOs don't know about or care about planned languages such as Esperanto, so...

I appeal to the FCC to not cave into telecom/cable lobby pressure; doing so would not only affect First Amendment rights, but also damage our national (and global) economy in a very profound way. In the end, all I ask is for the right to vote on my own, with my own mouse. That is something I do not want a Verizon or AT&T to take away from me.