Communicating is good and important. This morning was a magical time when I got my twin babies out of their cribs. Diapers were changed & then I simply said “lets go upstairs to the play room.â€
That’s all it took, they went off, climbed the stairs, and then gave me the sign that they wanted their milk. It was wonderful. I have longed for the ability to communicate with them since before they were born & granted this was not the first time, but this week it seems they understand and convey more.
Today is a day that many websites, including Google and Wikapedia, are protesting two bills currently in Congress – SOPA & PIPA.
These two bills do many things, but one of the big concerns is that without any judicial review the bills allow people to end communications by a person, group or business. It reminds me of what the Communists in Cuba use to do with TV and Radio signals from free countries – they would jam the signal so that their citizens would not be able to watch that American TV & see a world beyond what the, the Cuban Government, Â wanted to seen.
The US Government Officials supporting these bills claim SOPA & PIPA are about stopping online piracy. This is either a lie or out of ignorance.
What they would do is give more power to the US Government, probably some bureaucrat, to take websites down. In a world where if you are not online you do not exist, this is like executing the person, group, or business, but the people & groups that this is intended to stop would simply set up a new website in moments. The people really hurt are the individuals & groups who are unjustly accused.
Let’s say that  you are a parent or maybe you can remember a time when you were a child. Something happened and a child was punished, then later it was revealed that the child did no wrong.
The punishment cannot be undone.
You cannot give that child back the time he spent in timeout, or remove the pain of a spanking … but the parent feels extremely bad.
The thing with SOPA & PIPA is just that … allowing someone to eliminate from the internet a person, group, or brand when that individual decides to. Without this additional power the US Government can still prosecute pirates, even bringing down their site, but are closer to a concept the USA was founded on:
Innocent Until Proven Guilty
Tell your Congressmen that the censorship, additional power to the US Government, and breaking the internet are bad ideas — Stop SOPA & PIPA in all forms.
