Today is a planned day off, but I wanted to show you the mess in my town, in case you didn’t watch the national news over the weekend. Toledo has never been on the edge of anything. City council refers to study after study rather than take action. We lost a very nice multiple suburban water park a few years back because of Toledo’s unwillingness to move. The motto here, if a motto was ever agreed upon, and the commissioned study agreed as well, would be “Stagnancy is Good.” Change is not considered good or bad—it is not considered at all.
Now, Toledo has a new type of mayor. For the first time, the mayor makes decisions and acts on them. No $50,000 commissions thus far from Mayor Collins. It is about time, but may be too late. He did handle the toxic water incident as a leader should: he was tough, on top of things, and kept the people informed. Big business was never considered (but, then, big business doesn’t make it to Toledo, unless it is manufacturing. Yeah, not many of those in the US anymore.) My cynicism aside, here was the state of our water, which will return, probably in September.
This is the mess Mayor Collins woke up to and this is going to happen again. The first is a glass of water taken directly out of Lake Erie. The second is blue-green algae at the surface of Lake Erie near the water intake (background), and the third is the color of Lake Erie water. Not the blue of a healthy lake , but a green of an algae infested lake. The microcystis the algae produces could actually burn skin and cause your liver to shutdown in the high doses of this past weekend. Can you imagine swimming in that water? We once did—when it was a normal blue color.
glass of water taken directly out of Lake Erie
blue-green algae at the surface of Lake Erie near the water intake (background)
the color of Lake Erie water, one person said it was the color of green paint
Then there is one more IMPORTANT issue. It affects everyone who uses the Internet. NET NEUTRALITY, put simply, involves Internet ISP’s that supply us a way to move around the Internet, currently with freedom and everyone moving at close to the same speed, and landing on any website or blog we please. But the major players want Congress to allow them to structure the Internet as they do cable television. Those who can pay the most will get the fast lane and the rest of us will be clogged on the slow lane.
This is the SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT ISSUE THIS YEAR, and most likely every year until they give up. Since the Supreme Court gave corporations in this country people status—and all the rights that go with being a person in the USA—corporation slight-of-hand has increased. This is another slight-of-hand to take away the Internet and make it a corporate product rather than a form of communication. Internet communication that flows freely and equally will keep the playing fields a bit fairer; publishing easier; and new start-ups forming, with the jobs that come with them. THE TIME TO ACT IS NOW!
“By the People and For the People” representation no longer exists for the 99%. US. Corporations influence laws and bills that are passed in this country—usually in big business’ favor—than any of us could ever influence, just as they are pouring their money into owning the Internet. (The Internet was started by universities to further ease research and communication between them. Big business had no hand in making it, but now they want it handed to them.)
Please watch this MOCKumentary about getting rid of the Internet as we know it—for our own good—and the progress made by one marketing heaven for the corporations. PLEASE TAKE ACTION after you watch this oft-time humorous video. It last 29 minutes, but you’ll get the idea and why it is so frightening for us very quickly.
If ATT, Verizon, Comcast, and Time-Warner get control of the Internet, THE WORLD WILL RETURN TO BEING A SMALL WORLD ONCE AGAIN.
PLEASE GO NOW TO “We the People” and “Change.org” and sign the petition for Net Neutrality. Please DO IT NOW SO YOU DON’T FORGET. THIS IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT! (links embedded in organization’s name above)
Tomorrow life at KLR will return to normal and my politics will stay away. Thanks for reading, watching, and looking at our great lake, Lake Erie. It almost died once and Then Clean Water Act saved it. This needs to happen again. I hope someone knows what to do.
Our Internet needs to stay as is: free, equal access; but everyone needs to sign that petition and let congress know. Even better, call your congressperson and representatives. Please sign the petition. If we have another black out demonstration, please take part. Thank you. I know you never would expect this kind of post. Sincerely, thank you.
Here is a neutral explanation to Net Neutrality.
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photographs copyright Toledo Blade.
Kids Lit Review 
And I forgot to mention Lake Erie 😦 That doesn’t surprise me either. Look at the state of the planet and how we treat it 😦
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You know, I kept seeing “ads” on AOL to this effect, but I thought it was some other nonsense “hype” thing so didn’t take it seriously. From everything you just explained, it frightens me! These companies hate that the internet provides communication for free and cuts into profits they would make if the internet didn’t exist. They have no right and hopefully their big money won’t be able to buy what doesn’t rightfully belong to them. Just the way the soaring price of gas has made people curb their driving, if this were to happen, millions of people would be forced to curb their internet use. These companies would basically be biting off the hand that feeds them. None of it shocks me sigh Do we really think Mark Zuckerberg or anyone with that kind of power would allow this to happen? I highly doubt it so that’s something to hope for.
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LOVE your passion, Sue! HATE what has happened to your water supply. That is truly horrible! Freedom to the world wide web!
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Net Nuetrality is AWESOME!!! Good luck with your water!
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Yes, Net Neutrality is awesome. I don’t think you can sign the petition, though I know you would, but maybe two others in your house might be interested? Sorry, this really frustrates me. 😦
My water? I’m drinking bottled water. And use my filter on the sink tap for cooking water. I mean . . . did you see that water?! 🙂
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Thank you for sharing this Sue, two very important issues. I didn’t realize how bad the lake Erie situation is – I’m rather dumbfounded that it has been allowed to get this bad. I hope progress is made, and soon!
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The Clean Act of 1970’s helped a lot. The lake was almost dead and beyond repair. The farms were not included, nor were some other industries and individuals that dump crap into the lake. I will never swim in it again and that is heartbreaking. Thanks for commenting. We need to stick together for both of these problems.
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Hi Sue,
The water problem in your city is horrible. I do hope the mayor has solutions to put into place soon. I hope all the people and animals have clean water available to them somehow. What about wildlife? What’s going to happen to the wildlife that drinks from the lake?
Access to the freedom of the internet, for the majority of people, could be a life changing communication problem. I did sign the petition. Our world is changing so fast in so many ways, I worry for the future of mankind and magical creatures alike.
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All those algae blooms are scary. But the blooms themselves are not the problem, unless you wanted to go in the water. The algae makes Lake Erie look green, keeps people out of the water, and just looks nasty. The problem is the toxin microcystis that the blue-green algae can produce. That is the problem. All of this is caused by fertilizer run-off and other waste dumped into Lake Erie that is not regulated. The toxin is produced when the conditions are right, such as heat. We could not boil the water to make it safe because the toxin would have multiplied. Bottled water was the only choice and hard to find for a while. Right now, that toxin is below the “acceptable” measure. I am so glad I am moving to Central Ohio, I just wish I had already moved.
The idea that ATT, Verizon, Comcast, and Time-Warner (didn’t mention them specifically in post), could get congress to allow them to determine who goes where and how fast – rank services like cable television – is very scary. Those with loads of money will keep zipping along while everyone else in the 99% go slowly, frustratingly, along an Internet that is no longer completely open to us. We will lose the freedom of free, equal, speech and many of the marvelous things the internet can let us do will be no more. If this passes, I will most likely quit. Publishing will go back to mostly traditional as self-publishers will have a near zero chance of marketing that sells or finding a fan base. The world will go back to being a small world once again.
Don’t let me get going on this. To me this is frightening. Once it happens in US, Canada and other countries will be next and soon large corporations (4 basically) will own and run the Internet. Universities will need to start over and build a fresh Internet, only the chances of it being open to all the next time . . . I doubt it would be if we let the first Internet go into the hands of four companies instead of the hands of us billions of people.
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