(Sigh) Another Net Neutrality Vote Today or Tomorrow AGAIN!

[mntleo2]

Mods I hope I posted this in the right place....

COPE Act being voted upon in Congress today or tomorrow. Call your congress people ASAP!

I am a supporter of the Community Technology Networks which is a government supported program that funds Community Technology Centers (CTC's) so that low income people get access to the Internet and computers, with its terribly under-funded budget. The COPE bill does not address the terrible need for rural and low income inner city people and their kids access the Internet at all. It just wants to allow the big companies to have it all and "F" the rest of us.

Most rural communities don't have high speed and/or wireless access is not available because it is not being supported by our "uberseers" in DC and high speed access/wireless access is not well-funded in inner cities much either. Sometimes these centers are in libraries, in community centers, Boys and Girls Clubs, in housing complexes, you name it. All are made available to anyone and run the range of teaching computer skills to seniors, teaching newbies computer skills, working with teens, creating collaborations with government and social service communities for access. These technology centers are available for everyone, not just low income people, but because of the lack of funding they are poorly funded, poorly equipped and have little management because they cannot afford it.

Oh. BTW, in the entire nation there are only two non-paying computer centers for disabled people ~ and they are both on the West Coast. The center I worked in here in Seattle is the only one where the blind, people with cerebal palsy, wheelchair bound, or the hard of hearing could actually use for free and it only has 12 stations ~ only one or two stations that actually cater to a particular population such as having a braille/spoken software and keyboard for the blind, wheelchair access, braille for people who are both blind and without hearing, or a special keyboard for CP people.

My point here that, they just want to "corral" people so they can make more money. Meanwhile we could use support and funding for disabled, rural and low income access rather than giving it all away to the already rich telecommunications industry who would only use it to make money for themselves by making their services only available to wealthy communities.

Here is a link to CTCNet where you can see what CTCs do: http://ctcnet.org/

Here is a link to an article that quotes one of my friends, Angela who runs some of Ohio's CTCs: http://www.cleveland.com/business/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/business/114966923628850.xml&coll=2&thispage=2

Here is MoveOn's petition you can sign as well as a funny video by Moby on YouTube (bandwidth need): http://civic.moveon.org/mobyinternet/video.html?cp_id=337&mode=house.senate

Here is a link to the website also linked to MoveOn called "Save Our Internet": http://www.myspace.com/savetheinternet