Nothing is sacred in the hands of corporate America. It’s a guarantee, if you have anything culturally good and original, some huckster with a bloated salary wearing business casual will render it useless with a greedy business scheme.
Most people probably know that, and those who don’t are probably busy taking business classes or watching “American Idol.” Many people are not aware that our great land of information and entertainment known as the Internet is about to be stolen right out from under us.
Companies such as Verizon and AT&T are spending millions of dollars on advertising and lobbying to essentially gain control of the internet.
They’ve said that they intend to create a tiered system in which web and info sites pay to play. Larger companies that have the capability of paying the big bucks will get high-speed priority over the smaller sites that can’t financially compete.

Would an Amazon, an eBay or a MySpace exist as they do today if a company like Wal-Mart could just sink millions into online services and overshadow upstart companies? It’s doubtful that there would have even been an Internet revolution had it originally started out in a tiered service system.
Home computers would have most likely become mere advertising boxes with little creative redemption. I guess for many people, that’s currently the case anyway, but at least there’s still the possibility of independent online innovation.
As for the political side, there are plenty of politicians like Montana Sen. Conrad Burns and Virginia Sen. George Allen who are reportedly helping to fund their political campaigns with giant chunks of telecom money. It’s no big mystery as to how these kept men will stand on the issue.
Tennessee’s senators, Bill Frist and Lamar Alexander, haven’t formally taken sides on the issue, but senatorial candidate, Harold Ford Jr., has come out in favor of protecting a neutral Internet. So that’s another good reason to vote for Ford come November, even if he does side with the party of intolerance on many key democratic issues.
Verizon and AT&T are claiming there is a necessity in charging higher prices for a high-tiered internet service so they can recoup money they have invested in creating high bandwidth capabilities. Because we know they got into this business because of their high concern for progressing society through technological innovation. Okay, that’s not the correct answer.
The correct answer is that companies like these are greedy. They’d cut the head off of a bald eagle if they thought there would be a crisp dollar bill hidden in its neck. It’s companies like these that want to shoot advertisements into outer space, decorate public schools with soda advertisements and secretly hire “cool kids” to push products on their friends. It’s all about the buck.
If the idea of Internet freedom coming to an end doesn’t get under your skin, I don’t know what will. Maybe there’s nothing left in the world too sacred to be manipulated by companies. Maybe people want this, and maybe in the future when people go to church, Christ will be hanging from yellow arches instead of a cross.
Then again, maybe this will be the point where the tide turns and people begin to fight the capitalist monsters that have overtaken our democracy.
Probably not, but a guy can dream.