PAF 494 Blog #8 - Not All Prisons Have Bars

Today I watched my fifteen year old son lie on the couch with his feet kicked up texting at what seemed like the speed of light as he watched the show of his choice on satellite cable TV. It still amazes me how my disciplinary action towards him when he violates the rules I've set down includes taking away his cell phone for a period of time (which has Internet access), or putting him on facebook restriction. He has a Twitter account also and doesn't want me to be a follower of his in the name of privacy and personal freedom. As a single mother, I consider myself as the governing body of my household. Even in this small arena which in no way compares to national and global government policies, human rights, and politics, I don't read his texts or rule him with an iron hand. At most, I'll let him know if I feel something he has posted on facebook is inappropriate and then he will take it down. Though he has to obey the rules of our house, I respect him as a human being and I allow him the right to communication and expression that extends from his physical existence to his virtual online existence.

I remember thinking as a teenager how it was the coolest thing in the world when I got a pager. I didn't have access to the Internet back then and Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of facebook, was probably but a twinkle in his parent's eyes. I traveled day by day through a time machine called life, and before I knew it I was in the digital age along with everybody else. Just as people have used the radio, television, fax machine, personal computer, cell phone, and other inventions of technology as they have emerged; they will use the Internet and who has the right to restrict his use of technology as long as the person using it is not breaking the law? If I have mice, I'm going to use the better mousetrap someone has built. Just for clarity's sake, I don't have mice, but my computer does have a mouse, a wireless one at that. Technology is made for the progression of humankind, but those in prison are not free to use it the way it was meant to be used. If I'm arrested I might get my one phone call, but I assure you that it won't be on a cell phone. I don't think there are Internet capable computer workstations setup next to the privacy-lacking public toilets in jail cells. 

The Internet offers a global passport to our voices, our thoughts, our visions, our expressed values, our missions in life, and our hopes to create a better living experience. Extreme Internet censorship, restriction, and repression forced upon people by the powers that be are a jagged crack in the liberating sound of cyberspace much louder and more prominent than the one in the Liberty Bell. As I hear the voice in my head of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. saying, "Let freedom ring," I wonder what he would have done or how much more he could have done with a tool like the Internet. The Internet is the world's public space, and my heart bleeds like the virtual backs of those that are beaten and abused who use it for nothing more than relaying vital information and expressing valid truths. Worldwide political bullies continue to police the innocent and cut out the implicit tongues of those who are doing no more than exercising their basic human rights of free thought and expression. The communication power of the Internet helps to facilitate the spread of democracy, but there are authoritarian and communist controlled nations that aren't having it. They are nothing more than watch dogs running freely putting leashes on those that choose to use man's best technology communication friend. 

A little over a week ago I saw one of the greatest sights I've ever witnessed in my life. I stepped into Time Square in New York City at night, and it was beautiful. It was extraordinarily beautiful. It was full of huge and magnificent digital displays, color, excitement, businesses, massive buildings, and people all doing what they do. Though most didn't know each other, they were part of a community of people coexisting in real time. The Internet is our other community; it is our virtual community composed like a symphony from technology. Extreme Internet censorship, shutdown, control, or repression would be equivalent to dropping a bomb on the people interacting, living their lives, and enjoying Time Square. New York was so phenomenal to me I called it, "Downtown America." The Internet is so phenomenal to me I call it, "The World's Community." 

The preservation of Internet freedom is as important as energy conservation, green initiatives, civil and human rights, and efforts to eliminate the extinction of an endangered species. Internet usage repression, censorship, and shutdown by controlling nations that are not thoughtful in regards to human rights attempt to extinct the very reason technology prevails. The protection of Internet freedom and the emancipation for the free use of social media must be a part of American foreign policy if it will continue to hold the title of the greatest nation in the world. The American Nation is a nation of people, helpers, and leaders who care about the world we live in and all people on this planet from the aluminum can you are willing to recycle, to the next well being dug in India or Africa to sustain life by providing clean water.

How important is it to preserve Internet freedom? It is as important as it is to be able to walk out to your car and drive it where you want because you own it and have the keys. It is as important as it was to give women and African Americans the right to vote in America. It is as important as the abolishment of slavery in these United States. If the Internet were to have come about in the days of slavery, slaves would not have been permitted to use it. The people that are in countries that have control over their Internet access are nothing less than slaves to their government. I hope that the American government in its efforts and Internet freedom policies becomes a 21st Century Abraham Lincoln that executes a global emancipation proclamation to free worldwide slaves from Internet repression and the silencing of their voices. 

As creatures that are all alike because we all bleed red blood, eat food and drink water to survive, breathe invisible air, speak in a certain tongue, and will all one day die; we should be free to speak our hearts and minds by using the technology our own kind has afforded to us. Social media continues to affect Internet freedom whether right or wrong. Many people are afraid to report news for fear of the repercussions of doing so. It's like having an armed guard outside your front door and the consequence of death could be your fate at any given time because you aren't free to be you and express what is true. While social media is still an avenue for people-reported news, those around the world continue to look in their rear view mirrors as they drive the Internet Super Highway. The fare that is paid on these tollways may not be fair, but it is real. Real sad! This may seem to be a fight between good and evil, good being the use of the Internet to meet, greet, and report in an online community, and evil being the restriction of it. I think Hillary Clinton said it best when she said, "The Internet is neither good nor bad, a force for neither liberation nor repression. It is the sum of what its users make it." I believe it is time to come together and use the Internet for good as our global cyber community in which we can all make a difference when we are free to do so. We have the power to use the Internet for good and this power should be restricted from no one. My hope is that the Internet does not continue to exist as a prison without metal bars while being one with political bars holding human rights captive. "You have not been given the spirit of fear, but the spirit of love, power, and a sound mind." - 2nd Timothy 1:7

We all have a voice which can be amplified by technology. Hopefully, I'll speak loudly with you again about the subjects that matter on the next blog entry of Deneene Says...Until then tweet like a bird, report the news like a journalist, and facebook like the world is your family album.