I was told a story from my elders....
A Group of blind folks were taken to a Zoo and they were giving an
opportunity to 'see' an elephant. Obviously they used their touch / feel
and smell sense to 'see' the elephant. Later on, upon their return they
were asked to describe the elephant.
The fellow who got to touch the elephant's Legs, described the elephant
like a 'Tree', the fellow who got to touch the elephant's trunk,
described the elephant as a big rubber hose pipe, the fellow who got to
touch the elephant's tail got to describe the elephant as a 'rope'.
Mark, I don't know you , but have read your posts, on the WISPA lists,
as well as other Lists and forum you post you.. I have to say, while
your heart may be in the right place.. but I am sorry to say that your
layout of the problem, logic you use to explain the issue and the the
suggested reaction only leads me to believe that you are seriously
disillusioned about where you live and how the US Gov. operates and has
operated since the inception of time.
I was tempted to reply to your earlier email, but decided against it..
seeing another long email, I could not hold back... (BTW.. did you not
say that the one before was your last email ?) :)
While you, myself and many others will agree on the undesirable
attributes of the US Government, I cannot but chuckle at childish
suggestion of throwing a what would be equivalent to a 'tantrum' and
hiding your head in the sand , assuming that no one will see you .... as
a solution to the current problem. Guess what, this is exactly what the
folks who are getting away with what they can want you, us and the
others to do..
I really think you seriously need to read about our founding fathers,
and how they operated, (they all did not get together and sing kumbaya
at the camp fire, neither did they pickup their scrolls of paper and
walk away to their own corners when there was disagreement )...and try
to gain an understanding on the 'Democratic Principles of Government'
on how they function and operate.
You seem to be totally missing the last 2 thirds of the 'for the
people, of the people and by the people' , and yes it is precisely
because of thinking like yours (suggested in your own words), that the
Great French Philosophers of their time, said that the US Constitution /
way of Governing is never going to work, and it is doomed for
failure.... When asked why ? The response was .. 'Simple. common people
are not interested in participating in the Governing process'.
Keep it up, and you will make true everything that you are trying to avoid..
Be like the Ostrich.... hide your head in the sand, and
no-body can see you ...
:)
Faisal Imtiaz
Snappy Internet& Telecom
7266 SW 48 Street
Miami, Fl 33155
Tel: 305 663 5518 x 232
Helpdesk: 305 663 5518 option 2 Email: supp...@snappydsl.net
On 5/2/2012 9:09 PM, MDK wrote:
There was a time, Marlon, when I would have agreed with you. Except
that I've been paying attention for a quite a few years...
"compromise" is what got us to this. Not galloping, leaps and bounds,
unhindered statism, but the exact compromise you are talking about -
it ALWAYS goes in one direction. The only "compromise" has been how
far and how much. It's the ratchet effect. Sometimes not moving, but
NEVER going in the right direction. It has found its way into every
detail of every thing. So, no, no more compromising. I'm done.
It's now REVERSE. Not compromise on "not as much more" but, NO MORE,
and NOW LESS. And if you're (WISPA) not actively acting to
accomplish that, then it's actively hindering that action. It's on
the wrong side. It's like travelling a road. You're going to go one
way... Or the other. There isn't a compromise, if you're not going
north, you're going south, if you're not going east, you're going
west, and there is no such thing as standing still without being
pointed in some direction.
You say that you alone can't do anything. That I can't. I agree.
But it has to start...somewhere. If Uncle Sam came running, handing
me "free money" I would not take it - and I, personally, have never
been personally in as precarious financially as I am now, with no
assurance I'll even have a home from one week to the next. It's
called "principle", Marlon. I have no right to what other people have
worked for, or will work for in the next 50 years ( paying interest on
our ocean of debt), and I will not take it. In fact, it has to start
with EVERY ONE OF US, not just how we vote, but how we act, how we
talk to our neighbors, how we make our decisions, and what ideas we
promote. I can't say "I'm for this" and then not live it.
It's pure hypocrisy to say "you gotta live with the system". No, you
don't. You have the freedom to still say "no". You have the freedom
to NOT take CRP or RUS loans, or look for ways to get USF funding, for
instance. But, if you're willing to sell the use of your land for the
pittance they give you, then you have no claim to saying you're 'with
me', because you're not - you're completely willing to agree with, and
take money from a program that robs one set of citizens to give money
to another, plain and simple. And look how widespread acceptance is
among people who would otherwise claim to be small government
conservatives. I'm grateful you're now telling them to end USF and
other stuff, but you know it's not going away until the Congress makes
it go away.
But Congress (and whoever is president) isn't going to make it go away
until a very large majority of us, the people, demand it. And no such
demands are going to happen until we (you, me, and every single other
person) have made the case for free markets, economic freedom, freedom
to be in business, freedom of innovation, and freedom from political
burdens with no redeeming value whatsoever. But we're not there.
You're as helpful to the cause as the current president, because
you're (and maybe not you, personally, Marlon, this has NEVER been
about you in a personal way... My conversations referenced before...
were not with you. I've have conversations you don't know about)
still willing to take money in opposition to what you claim to think.
Until we're not, Marlon, then we're not really believing what we're
saying ,and of course, if we're not, we're never going to convince the
country it has to change, or face a crisis beyond those of recorded
history.
Is WISPA making the case, not to just DC, but to the members as well,
industry wide, that free markets solve problems? Does the
organization actively promote unfettered competition, by its members?
Does it make the case that "no subsidies" is, in fact, the only truly
viable business and national strategy? If not, then WISPA is still
in diametric opposition to me. Does WISPA leadership routinely offer
workshops on how individual WISP's can find opportunity to be those
free market powerhouses? And why and how you should stand on your own
and why you should not get tangled up in trying to get a few dollars
in exchange for a lack of autonomy?
Going back to CRP, the people who signed up didn't see it in the terms
I've posted. Because we're conditioned to not think about it.
Because so many of us just see the dollars and don't apply forgotten
principles that matter. Look how many millions of people went and
borrowed money on a loan guaranteed by our federal government - many
of which I'm sure, still claim to be for freedom, for limited
government, and so on. Look how it has corrupted us as a people,
that we'll now give up almost anything we believe in for a few dollars
or other material or monetary benefit. Nothing will change, until
we're ready to live by what we think, and start doing so, and that
includes our businesses, our financial lives, and every vote we make,
and really, truly, stop compromising.
You talk about joining and getting elected to leadership. One thing
about leadership, is that if those you're leading don't want to go
where you're going, you're not leading, you're just exploring space on
your own. I stated as clearly as I could, that the issue here, is
that the membership is NOT in agreement with me, save for probably a
few. And to what end, other than acrimony, would trying to be a
strident voice for certain principled things?
I said in my previous post, that this isn't nearly as political as
some want it to be made out to be. It's more about the realities of
business, economics, and management of our own enterprises. We as a
nation are incredibly ignorant about how to be the businessmen we want
to be (and I put myself in that statement) , and if we learned what we
should, whatever political aspects of our lives are impacted, would
take care of themselves. I, too, live in a very rural area, and watch
the people decry the price supports, controls, subsidies, and then
engage in them, because they believe they cannot compete or succeed
without them.
I read two stories recently, one was of a sizeable business (assets in
the billions) that was slowly going bankrupt, which was offered a loan
by the federal government. But the CEO turned it down, and instead,
announced impending bankruptcy. He chose to own it as failure,
rather than throw good money after bad. That's integrity. Another
was in the process of borrowing money from the DOE, cash that would be
immensely helpful to his company. He cancelled it and announced
they'll just struggle through on their own. We CAN live without being
bribed, we can say "no". And it's going to take millions of us
saying "no", but we can do it and we can turn our industries.. .and
country... around it. And it's all about individuals, decisions, and
principled choices - not about politics, but about rational choices
about the present and future.
Maybe I am asking to too much. What little optimism I have left
says... I am not. But my time and energy probably best employed
elsewhere.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Neofast, Inc, Making internet easy
541-969-8200 509-386-4589
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
*From:* Marlon K. Schafer (509-982-2181) <mailto:o...@odessaoffice.com>
*Sent:* Wednesday, May 02, 2012 12:07 PM
*To:* WISPA General List <mailto:wireless@wispa.org>
*Subject:* Re: [WISPA] It's been a ride... Some up, some down.
Since you are talking about me Mark I'll chime in here a bit too.
As I've said before. You and I mostly agree. Government is, with
precious few exceptions, the enemy of the people. Government and far
to many that work in it are just plain evil. Or maybe arrogant but in
the end that causes them to do evil things to the regular folk of the
country.
WISPA is an association of or membership. The members are encouraged
to run for leadership positions every year (half the board is up for
election every year). There is no restriction on who can run for the
board other than they have to be a member in good standing. There are
a few other things that we ask of our candidates but they don't
generally apply to the people here (no one I know of is sitting in
jail right now :-).
WISPA was formed to help protect our industry. Mostly from the
government. That's why we are so focused and spend most of our money
on FCC and legislative issues. We've actually been pretty successful
here. We've had good success on favorable rules changes, gotten
additional spectrum and we've stopped quite a few bad ideas from
coming to fruition.
I remember getting into it with you on the idea of reporting on the
477. You called me a traitor. Perhaps that fits but I think of
myself as more of a realist. The 477 is there. We can't make it go
away. In fact, much to my chagrin, it's work with the stupid
broadband map.
Tell you what though. They ARE there. They DO exist. And your
competition is going to be government funded, or not, based at least
in part on what the map shows. If you refuse to place yourself on the
map, that's your choice. A foolish choice that's bad for you AND the
rest of the industry, but your choice to make none the less.
I live in farm country. Everyone out here gets government money for
something. Crop failures, CRP programs, price supports etc. It
sucks. Government money is poison. But so is NO money. It's like
salt in many ways. Too much will kill you just as dead as too
little. Here's a current example. We have bought out some of the CRP
my family has. We run off road motorbike races on the ground. Now
it's up for renewal. But the Fish and Wildlife department is refusing
to allow the renewal because we need a buffer zone around the track.
One that's probably bigger than the 49 acres of crp will support.
Dad's still looking into it. Dad's PISSED off though. He didn't
enter into any contracts with Fish and Game, why are they involved
with this issue at all???? It's ALL private property. But, since
it's rented to the government we have to live by it's rules.
The bike races bring 10s of thousands or dollars into our local
economy. Probably closer to 100k. But that doesn't matter to the
dickheads at Fish and Game. They are more worried about the fish that
don't exist in the middle of a field and the game birds that might be
harmed in some way. I guess birds and deer can't hear a dirt bike
coming soon enough to get out of the way.
Wanna know the funniest part of all this? Dad plants habitat and
birds because he loves that kind of stuff. That doesn't matter to
Fish and Game though. They still want the races stopped. Or he has
to give up over $2500 per year in revenue from the CRP payments on
that ground. More than he'd make farming it (that's the reason for
CRP in the first place).
So a guy is stuck. The government controls (in one way or another)
the prices farmers can charge for their crops, chemical use etc. and
therefore the revenue that a farmer can generate. They then offer a
program that will pay the farmer more money for the use of his poor
ground and set the rules for it's use (basically nothing). Then they
change the rules as time goes on, making them more and more
restrictive. Eventually out here people tend to eventually give up
and sell the ground to the government. MOST of the water ways are now
owned by the state.
I could go on, but everyone here has a similar story to tell. Look at
the recent thread about the idiotic OSHA rules. Who's going to let
anyone put a fall restraint system on their home? If you have a habit
of falling off roofs, go get a desk job!
In the end though. You and I, alone, can't fix any of this. We can't
control anything. We have to band together into groups. And those
groups have to compromise. Those groups also have to deal with
reality as it exists while they try to enact their ultimate goals.
WISPA did tell the FCC to eliminate USF, CAF or any other subsidies.
We told them to just let the market deal with the issues. We knew
ahead of time that they'd reject that stance though. So we also
suggested alternative plans and mechanisms that would do the least
harm to our industry, communities and country.
Your problem Mark is that you don't understand the compromise part.
It's funny though, we all do it every day. We walk on different sides
of the hall. We use different urinals. We turn our music down in at
night. Life is always a compromise. Many of them well and truly
suck. But they are what they are. A person can sit there and refuse
to move when he's in the crosswalk. It's his right to be there. But
when that truck and trailer blows through the intersection at 60mph
you'll still be dead as a doornail. Sometimes it's a good idea to
have a plan B.
Yeah, sometimes plan B is getting shot in the foot. But that's better
than plan A (getting shot in the head). When the bag guy tells you
he's going to shoot you no matter what telling him to pound sand isn't
going to be very effective. At least if you get shot in the foot
eventually you can try to go after the SOB!!!!
I hope that someday you'll understand what reality is Mark. There's
the perfect world then there's the one we're stuck with. I wish you'd
climb off of your high horse and volunteer to go to DC and meet the
people back there. They aren't all bad, but often their hands are
tied too. Whining to us, or worse sticking your head firmly in the
sand, is no substitute for working to make it better. Join the
committees, run for the board etc. Talk is talk, but it takes action
to fix things.
Laters,
marlon
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