Legislature ignoring citizen needs
To the Editor:
I have no clue what last Wednesday’s 24-hour Frontier internet outage cost Macon County residents. We are still waiting to know why it happened.
Our North Carolina Legislature could do something about our limited and slow internet service by setting up internet service such as the 1936 Rural Electrification Act. This act brought electricity into coves and hollows the for-profit corporations did not want to serve. For-profit outfits do not want to serve rural areas with a small density of population. It cuts into their profits. That, in my opinion, is what is happening now with internet.
Big, for-profit, energy corporations tried to block rural electrification. For-profit internet corporations do the same. Is anyone looking into their campaign contributions? Could that be the smoking gun? Where are all the internet expansions and improvements we have been led for years to believe from politician’s glowing news releases? Who is keeping tabs on those $14 billion-dollar federal internet improvement Covid relief funds we heard about?
North Carolina is getting a reputation for being one of the most authoritarian states in the U.S. Our legislature is obsessed with abortion, bathrooms, transgenderism, sexual orientation of athletes, and turning every nonpartisan election partisan. Same as they have done with gerrymandering and voter suppression. Another of their obsessions and bravado is their glee in wielding the ability to override Gov. Roy Cooper’s vetoes. Our legislators should stop its intrusion into people’s private lives and work on meaningful services and issues such as fast, reliable Internet. Forget your legislation by ideology. Get busy with what affects us all and not just what imperils us based on your personal beliefs and religion. Forget getting reelected. Do what the Legislature is supposed to do. Give us services we cannot afford as individuals. Stop wringing your hands over issues that amount to little in the great scheme of governance!
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Politics was never meant to be a profession. It was to be a service. To everyone. Now it is a service to those who contribute to campaigns. It is a follow the money deal!
And another thing, why are our legislators politicizing and gutting public education in favor of charter, home schooling and parochial education? That’s another example of putting ideology before practicality.
Bob Scott
Franklin
