the telecomm bill

[Linda Dehnad]

I wondered if it was just coincidence today that NPR had a Milosc (I knew 
I'd have a problem spelling his name -- the world renowned Polish poet - 
first name begins with C and has a z Czeslaw Milosc?) reading a poem he 
wrote on a horrid day in Poland historically important in relationto the 
Warsaw Ghetto. He called it the end of the world, and painted a picture 
of women walking with umbrellas, and everyone doing everything they 
normally do every day, because the end of the world seems just like any 
other day until it's over, and then we see that, OH NO! it was 
extraordinary, if only we'd known. 
	People talked for months about the 
telecomunications bill, but it was hard to get excited about it. It 
didn't have a ring of reality about it, it being virtual reality and all. 
But now we all see, and it makes an impression. Surfing the net is 
a pain when so many pages are blacked out. But it becomes clear that 
plenty of people are very upset. And if that is what it took for us all 
to realize the depths of the disaster, well then all is not lost. At 
least we see and feel it now. Many people see and feel it. It might  be less difficult now for us to be moved to express ourselves, in 
unison perhaps. Or then again, an offshore island ISP isn't a bad idea.

Linda
Linda Dehnad  Kansai Gaidai Hawaii College  Honolulu HawaiiOn 
Fri, 9 Feb 1996, Elisabeth Roche wrote:

> Date: Fri, 9 Feb 1996 21:47:33 -0800
> From: Elisabeth Roche <ace at Opus1.COM>
> To: Multiple recipients of list <web4lib at library.berkeley.edu>
> Subject: Re: the telecomm bill
> 
> Karen-- anyone?.. want to go in on an "offshore" internet provider?
> 
> I say this to the entire list because I am in more than concurrence here
> with Karen's comments. It doesn't matter if I am a heterosexual female but
> watch out! I have links to banned books on my webpage, my email is perused
> just like others for something "funky" to someone and I am married to a past
> Libertarian Senate Candidate..
> 
> What astounds me the most, and was a total failure on all our attempts to
> get coverage, was the lack of print media attention to this of all most
> important issues.
> 
> Well, doesn't take a rocket scientist to get this one.
> 
> Did everyone see the articles into today's papers, Friday, the day after
> Clinton signed the bill?-- the most interesting lines being, "As the
> American people discover the benefits of the new Telecomm Bill..."
> 
> We couldn't get a fountain pen spill of ink into the papers on this Telecom
> Bill before the Congressional passage or Presidential signing, now its all
> fawning, while At*T announces their new plan (good, bad I wouldn't know but
> just johnny on the spot I'd say) as the brokers on wall street can't stop
> the tide of people dumping their money into stocks.  They are saying if they
> don't take the money and invest they will be accused of losing millions for
> their clients, while obviously more than uneasy about the problems of the
> next weeks.. remember Octber 1989?.. I do, took down American Rocket for a
> while, my bread and butter....
> 
> As for parent rights, well, when a self-confessed murderer who killed over
> child custody gets custody of another child before the stay-at-home mother
> (ex-wife of said murderer) I think we should consider taking to the
> hills!... actually we should stop asking the courts for child support! 
> 
> My tirade doesn't' end here... but I guess I'll end it because i know this
> isn't the list for this. 
> 
> I had to respond to Karen, a person I admire immensely for her Internet
> studies, I wish I could work with her up there in the cold climes... or
> anywhere.. 
> 
> Funny but truth is still truth no matter what those people say, those trying
> to take out the Internet the same way the radio stations were taken out in
> the 1920's and 1930's- death knell with "national security" of the WWII
> --makes way for big bucks and lotsa luck for the rest of us.
> 
> 
> Elisabeth Roche ace at opus1.com
> http://www.opus1.com/~ace
> serendipity RULES!
> 
> 
> 
> 
> At 08:15 PM 2/9/96 -0800, Karen G. Schneider wrote:
> >It's once again time to walk the walk. I was inspired to do so when  I
> >re-read a truly marvelous essay by Joan Didion where she describes a scene
> >from a trashy monster movie: "Say, why the brown study?"  "Oh,
> >nothing--just can't get that monster out of my mind."
> >
> >Well, I can't get the Telecomm monster out of *my* mind.  The folks who
> >preach about "decency" and the 'net (and pushed for the censorship sections
> >of the telecomm bill) have a pretty broad definition of what isn't decent.
> >I listen to them on the radio, I read their tracts, and I am here to tell
> >you they are very clear about what we should do and believe.
> >
> >One of the sublunary targets of the radical right is the gay-rights
> >movement, and they earn a "shack" on the Telecomm Bill.  As a librarian,
> >the Telecomm Bill annoys me, because it's so vague about funding.  Oh blah
> >blah blah, don't give me should--give me how and when.  But as a lesbian,
> >this bill terrifies me, because I feel targeted.  It also angers me,
> >because I believe I'm a good person. I go to church, I'm in a committed
> >monogamous relationship, I volunteer time to my community, I vote.  I work
> >very hard on those "ties that bind."  But to the right, I'm just something
> >to eradicate or at least make invisible--a cultural pimple.  Sure, the bill
> >doesn't mention homosexuals, gay websites, etc.  It doesn't have to.  Piece
> >together your typical right-wing talk show and the language of the Bill,
> >and to quote another famous American, "you don't have to be a weatherman to
> >know which way the wind blows."
> >
> >It hasn't been so long that gay people have had the rights we now have
> >(still far less than straight people, but better than before).  I also know
> >that what is given can be taken away.  There was a time--even in my own
> >lifetime--when anything relating to homosexuality sent through the mail was
> >considered prima facie obscene.  (Let's not even discuss the legal and
> >social consequences of living an open lifestyle; I'm just discussing
> >media.)  We know what I'm talking about--that any electronic media related
> >to homosexuality will soon be verboten, gone, disappeared El Salvador
> >style. (Au revoir Karen's Kitchen, among other things.)  Gay materials
> >won't be the only material to go, by a long shot--but we will be among the
> >first.
> >
> >We can ramble on about parental rights and so forth, but let's get real.
> >The folks behind the conservative parts of the telecomm bill aren't
> >concerned about parental rights, except to the point where they can control
> >what parents see. I seriously doubt they really care about kids. They think
> >it's o.k. for private companies and boards to determine public standards.
> >They're thrilled, I'm sure, to hear a deafening silence from the library
> >community, and even more thrilled to hear rumblings of discontent that web
> >pages were made slightly less convenient for several days.  (You want to
> >know what "inconvenient" means? My life-partner and I cannot marry or share
> >health benefits.  Talk to me some more about that hard-to-read web page you
> >hit this week.)  They must be in frissons of ecstacy that we are not
> >"naming it"--that is, saying what is REALLY going on.
> >
> >I feel a sense of futility--that some will be alienated by this post,
> >others will think it paranoid and a few who get my drift will, like me, not
> >know what to do. But I feel the new Right is talking, and more importantly,
> >acting in a code that we are refusing to read, however clear it will appear
> >in the aftermath.  All I can do is continue writing by candlelight.
> >
> >------------------------------------------------------------------
> >Karen G. Schneider * kgs at intac.com * kgs at interactive.net *
> >http://www.intac.com/~kgs/
> >Cybrarian * Columnist, American Libraries
> >Author, The Internet Access Cookbook (e-mail Neal-Schuman at icm.com)
> >Karen's Kitchen reopening soon at a URL near you!
> >
> >
> >
> 
>