It's been sort of weird watching the news lately. President Obama keeps referring to "the people of Elkhart" after his visit here yesterday. I'm not used to living in a place that gets noticed by national leaders. I have a number of friends who were able to get tickets to see President Obama - so it really feels like there aren't as many degrees of separation between me and the top as there once were.
Pres. Obama packed a local high school gym - the tickets were gone in about half an hour. The funny part of it is that this has been an extremely conservative area for as long as anyone can remember. Just a few years ago, if you had sympathies for Democrats, you knew to keep quiet about it. If Pres. Clinton had come to town during his term, I wonder if anyone would have showed up to see him (Mrs. Clinton would have drawn a crowd, but not the positive kind). It seems that some things have changed since our area has been hit hard with the consequences of bad Republican policies.
One of the contentious pieces of Pres. Obama's stimulus proposal is increasing broadband access across the country. My younger brother, who is gainfully employed as a techie, asserts that the US actually has the worst broadband Internet access among developed countries. Basically, we just lowered our expectations for what is called "high speed." My brother said that DSL definitely does not count as high speed (upon which I reminded him of using our 900 baud modem, complete with chirping noises, to get dialup access to our e-mail). Although what we have now feels like progress compared to 15 years ago, I still think that schools and libraries across the country need to be upgraded to the highest speed Internet connections available. I find it laughable that folks are worried about wasteful spending on this domestic recovery plan, when the same folks have been willing to dump billions into poorly supervised projects and wasteful war in the Middle East.
Let's spend some money on Americans. I think the investment might actually pay off. For too long we've been held hostage by tax and spend Republicans who like to spend their money on out-of-control wars and tax cuts for the rich. Pres. Obama seems surprisingly conservative in contrast. I'm grateful for the change in leadership. I hope Pres. Obama can accomplish what he's set out to do.
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HERE HERE! Or, HEAR HEAR! Which is it? Either way, I wholeheartedly agree. I love your point (or Bro's point) about lowering expectations. It is time fast internet access is considered a Public Good, along with Police and Fire Rescue, electricity, and the like.
ReplyDeleteOne point to consider; I do hope there is provision in the bill to provide tech support, rather than just paying for the labor to install lines. It seems to me that an equal number of men and women are in need of employment, and yet most of the job-creation funding seems to be headed to male-dominated industries (construction, roads, and factories).
Here's to the Inter-Web! Cheers!
Hear, hear, Karl! I agree with your brother whoelheartedly. Check out the following link to learn more about how libraries can benefit from the economic stimulus bill: www.ala.org/knowyourstimulus/
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