Ma and Pa Bell's Web Power Grab

There are certain legislative landmarks in history that redefine the evolution of society, for better or for worst. Most reflect upon the institutions of government, finance and the unelected capitalist forces that guide and influence the business world around us.

We now live in times in which such a vast disproportion of our manufacturing power has been outsourced by globalist barons, that only homegrown realms of entertainment and services are less filtered and divided by corporate monopolies.

The world wide web is a classic case in point. The Internet is such a democratic and ethereal entity that if the same ownership mentality is applied to it, then the net will cease to exist as the fair and balanced forum that ushers in our last best hope of international unity in this the 21st century, 3rd millennium and beyond.

As I write this, dial-up and high speed middlemen who played only a proprietary secondary role in the design and invention of web technology - -your ISP providers - -(take your pick) are lobbying Congress to institute new toll standards and practices that will ultimately initiate economic separatist rules to syphon new unheard of profits.

The gall and guile of such greed merchants defies moral and philosophical description. For if they get away with this without public outcry, it will amount to the end of the Internet as we know it.

ISP readjustment of rates and charges according to fiberoptic speed and upkeep is a ploy to turn the sword of E freedom into a plowshare of dollars and cents. In so doing, they will be acting like your water man charging you not just for the water itself, but for the quality and pressure of your pipes.

In essense, old school telephone company parties want to control the new age technology and pricing of cyberspace. This is wrong and unjust. It won't allow for the same mom and pop garage status that spearheaded the explosion of the dot com revolution. Booms will go bust because only those with money and power will have a hand in access, control and distribution.

That's what this blatant power grab amounts to. ISPs are out to pick our pockets by establishing new cost standards that will not only enrich themselves further but will lead to control and censorship of content in much the same way as old world newspaper conglomerates conquered media markets to literarily and editorially define the status quo.

If you wish to enjoy sites like this and others, which play by a free enterprise anti-trust system as of yet untainted, then now has never been a better time to voice your concern in protest and demand a nay vote in Washington on any new legislation regarding the economics of Internet billing.

The cyberspace frontier should stay as is, a limitless fruitful bounty of opportunity that defies mainstream media, sets its own bylaws and is not beholden to powers that be with special interest agendas. After all, this is why you can only get the newsworthy truth online and transgenerational droves of entertainment consumers flock here to escape TV media.

In the end, the rules they want will not make room or allow for alternative methods of electronic transmission that ISPs don't want you to know about. That in and of itself is proof enough that unscrupulous moneymen are out to own cyberspace.

Sure, the net is another utility that costs money to access and operate. But it belongs to all of us, not just those either in the kickback halls of Congress or the back alleys of bottom line corporate America who can and will buy and sell it right under our noses. Don't let it happen. Not to our Internet. Write your Congress person today.