I have limited sympathy with your comments for a simple reason... Health Care IS NOW a political topic. So is broadband. So is internet network operations. So is bandwidth control, so is hiring someone, so is firing someone, so are the money management choices you make, so is retirement, so are benefits, so are, well, dang near every aspect of our business lives.
I'd say none of us, at least the smaller guys, asked for any of this to be brought upon us. 20 years ago, hardly a single thing mentioned above was or had ANY political concerns, and now, they're all political, and rarely are the political concerns going to bring about wise or prudent outcomes. This has been pushed upon us, by interests not in our favor, and those interests are not going away, nor are they moderating in the slightest. In fact, they are intent upon making MUCH more of our businesses and lives political. Yes, there are simple dollar value equations to some aspects of employer based health care, but some of it's purely political now. Any discussion of bandwidth management and application prioritization necessitates a weighing and ultimately making judgments about political things. Even arguments over what the politics actually means and how far it intends to reach and how much it legally CAN reach. Which ultimately brings us to the point where we discuss the topic of health care the same way we discuss customers who use the CD tray as a coffee cup holder, or expect us to do miracles, on a budget of dander and fluff - and that discussion is by necessity as much political as moral, logical, ethical. So you want us to NOT express our opinions on the nature of the political intrusions into our business. Might as well say that we can't express opinion about cranky customers, or which operating system is best on SBC's or how to manage a network. By necessity, these things are all relevant, as are our opinions of them. But so, too, the political aspects of our business, must be at least some what legitimate to discuss, lest we as a group by default follow a political course with no discussion or even consideration to where that leads us. It would be reasonable and proper to ask to keep such discussions relevant and topically accurate, and to try to keep this from degenerating into a political flame war. More importantly, it is necessary that respect be given to those who don't agree with your opinion, and that the "there is only one default and acceptable opinion - that which is "politically correct" and I see that happen in a lot of places these days. And usually, that opinion and default position is utterly indefensible, but is never challenged, due to the powers that be preventing dissent. I would prefer that our discussions were not about politics. But they have to be, since politics has invited itself into darn near every aspect of our business. I'd say there's a powerful lesson there... but that would be ideological, huh. Sigh..... ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Neofast, Inc, Making internet easy 541-969-8200 509-386-4589 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ -------------------------------------------------- From: "Forbes Mercy" <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, August 03, 2010 10:45 AM To: "WISPA General List" <[email protected]>; <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [WISPA] [WISPA Members] Health Insurance > Rick, > > Can we nip this in the butt right now? The discussion was to see if it > was feasible for WISPA to look at a group rate for health care, it is > now evolving into a political discussion. Political discussions usually > degrade into undesirable threads which make people mad and ultimately > cause one or more to ask to be unsubscribed from the Members list. We > consider that a sad loss because they won't get the benefit of the many > discussions we have that have to do with being a WISP just because > someone wanted to spread their own political views. We are not an > advocacy for political causes other than for more spectrum and better > rules for WISP's. You obviously wanted to spread your views all across -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wireless List: [email protected] Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
