Happy
MLK Day: Thoughts on Treating People Like Family
1/18/2016
“We
have flown the air like birds and swum the sea like fishes, but have
yet to learn the simple act of walking the earth like brothers.” Martin Luther King Jr.
I
find this both poignant and particularly apropos when I consider the
cause for which I'm advocating:
Bringing
Tennessee into the 21st century by expanding high speed
broadband internet to rural communities.
Seventeen
years ago, the legislature reluctantly passed into law the right for
municipal electric utilities to offer fiber optic high speed
broadband and other services to their electric power customers, in
direct competition with very vocal and well funded opposition from
the legacy providers, At&T, Comcast and others. The law was
necessary because these carriers were simply not doing what
Tennesseans needed. But the legislators, many of them beholden to
their corporate donors made sure to protect the carriers' interests
by making sure the utilities could serve
only their electric
utility customers.
Not
all utility providers were willing or able to take on the daunting
and expensive challenge but seven did*, and they have all prospered
beyond their wildest dreams. Thousands
of new jobs came to Tennessee, many of them high tech-high pay.
Chattanooga added some 2800 new jobs. The city attracted innovative
young entrepreneurs who started new businesses, and venture capital
to fund them. Pulaski – tiny Pulaski – population 7800 –
attracted an innovative Italian manufacturer of automotive lighting,
drawing in over 1,000 new hires. Morristown landed Sykes, an inbound
call center, with a forecasted need for over 500 workers.
Indeed,
Thousands of new jobs came to Tennessee, but most to the cities with
high speed broadband – and therein lies the lessons. Where there is
broadband, there are jobs. If Tennessee's counties all had broadband,
they would outcompete the counties in eighteen other states.
But
the lessons failed to resonate with all but a few of the state's
legislators. It's not that the rest were ignorant, or deaf. Not at
all. They knew well how the broadband communities were faring, but
their ears belonged to lobbyists with different music – and pockets
of money. And money talks.
It
is incumbent on Tennessee's citizens to call out the legislators
whose self interest runs contrary to the needs of their constituents
and, indeed the entire state. I am one of those citizens. I now know
which of the members of the House and Senate committees who receive
the bills ( HB1303, SB1134**) and decide whether to pass them along
for a floor vote is receiving thousands of dollars in contributions
to influence a No vote, and who in the House and Senate are
receiving similar contributions with the expectation that their
votes, too, will be negative.
I
and the thousands like me are going all out to educate our fellow
citizens, and we're in this to win it.
Many
people just don't get it that the successes of the seven cities
represent a model for the potential success of the state. Tennessee
is one of 20 states that are controlled by the giants and, as a
result, are self-limiting their abilities to compete on a global
basis. If we, like Alabama, break out of this model, the entire state
stands to attract and secure new businesses, attract new innovators
and entrepreneurs, grow the businesses we have, better educate our
students, and provide much needed medical care at much lower prices.
Tennesseans stand to prosper if the bills pass into law. It remains
to be seen who our legislators work for.
*
The 7 cities: Bristol, Morristown, Chattanooga, Clarksville, Jackson,
Tullahoma, Pulaski
**
Introduced by Representative Kevin Brooks and
Senator Janice Bowling respectively
Joseph
Malgeri Dandridge, TN 37725 email: fibreopticconsultant@gmail.com
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