From West by Northwest.org Voices of the Northwest Why We Must Preserve the Neutrality of the Internet Now By Carol McBrian May 10, 2006 There is a bill in Congress with an imminent "stealth attack" clause on our freedom of the Internet. This is urgently important because the Internet is the major way that individuals and grassroots groups can get their messages out. If we lose the Internet, we lose our ability to organize against the war, for political candidates, and for or against any other important issue.  Up to this point, the Internet has been a place--perhaps the only remaining place--where an individual or a grassroots group can get their message out as easily as the largest corporation. This equality of all Internet users is known as Internet Neutrality. But the corporate giants like ATT and Verizon want to change all that. They want to get rid of Internet Neutrality so that they can run the Internet themselves. They want to reserve the fast lanes of the Information Highway for themselves and their high-paying customers, and consign the rest of us to the slow lane--or even deny us access if they don't like our message. I have seen only a few alerts on this topic, and only one newspaper article, an editorial in  the New York Times. None of these have mentioned a bill number or the status of the bill. I called my representative, Congressman Peter DeFazio's office, to find out the details on this bill. They told me that the bill may come up as early as this week, but that it doesn't even have a name! The bill number is HR5252, and the sponsor is Rep Joe Barton. The part about the Internet Neutrality is buried deep within the bill. It came out last week. Judging from its timetable, the Republican leadership really seems to want to push it through with a minimum of discussion. The Democrats, on the other hand, may not know what is going on. When this bill was in committee, they didn't seem to try hard to stop it. Political activists are no better. MoveOn only got 250,000 signatures on their petition. I believe that they've gotten millions to come out against the war, yet only thousands have signed a petition to save the tools that help them to organize against the war. Meanwhile, there is some good news in the Senate. Senator Wydenof Oregon has introduced the Internet Nondiscrimination Act of 2006, which would ensure internet neutrality. Senators Olympia Snow and Byron Dorgan are expected to introduce an ammendment supporting net neutrality when the Senate takes a look at the Telecommunications Act later this year. We need to thank these Senators and urge the other Senators to follow their example. May 3, 2006 Click on the petition links from MoveOnorg, and The Pen, The People's Email Network.. I am a wife, stepmother, grandmother, gardener, and substitute teacher.  I am also an active citizen. I have been following a spiritual path for the past 30 years and have been attending the Eugene Friends Meeting since June 2001. Eleven years ago I read The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People by Stephen Covey, and it made a profound impression upon me. Covey stated that, in each area of our lives, we should ask ourself, "What is the thing I could do that would make the biggest positive difference in this area?" and then do that thing. For the past eight years, I have begun each day meditating upon the most important thing I can do for myself, my family, my work, and the world. For eight years I have gone to bed satisfied that I have spent my day doing what is most important, or at least what is very important.  The idea of the most important possible action is particularly meaningful in the area of being a good world citizen, since there are so many urgent situations in the world right now that no one could possibly attend to them all.  When I look at the flood of urgent messages in my e-mail, I skim each message and ask the following questions: 1) Is this message one of my present priorities, or is it even more important than my present priorities? 2) Does it offer me a simple and relatively easy action that I can take in order to help this situation?  3) Does that action have a chance of making a difference?  When I first found out about the threat to Internet Neutrality, it immediately occurred to me that this was the most important issue I could work on. If we are unable to communicate with each other and with the outside world about the issues we feel strongly about, then we are unable to accomplish what we wish to do in the world. I have written this article with the purpose of preserving our ability to talk about the things that are important to us, so that we can have an effect on the world.  Visit other articles by our author: Mr. Bush and The Good Book: A Personal Christian Perspective by Carol McBrian Unhealthy Forest Update: Battle of the Two Bad Fire Bills by Carol McBrian © Copyright 2000-2004 by West by Northwest.org