Broadband and common sense | Eastern North Carolina Now

By:  Hood Richardson

Beaufort County is scheduled to get a boatload of money (borrowed mind you) in Covid relief funding.  A series of public hearings has been held seeking public input on how that money should be spent.

We started hearing about “broadband” during the Obama administration.  We heard how important it is to our personal success and the nation as a whole.  We heard that with broadband life would be much easier, we could prosper and enter into a heavenly state.  Finally there are people telling me that broadband is necessary to sustain life itself.

Well, all of this hype and monotonous stressing of the need for broadband made me suspicious.  When you are told you cannot live without something, it is time to figure out whose pocket the money is going in and why are these people so interested in every person on the face of the earth that they would preach the holy benefits of broadband.

Google “broadband.”  You get nothing but advertisements for the internet.  There is no definition for “broadband.”  Broadband is a combination of two words intended to mystify us so we would not address the sins of the internet directly. This is another hype that allows others to benefit from your money.  Doesn’t Google, Facebook, Instagram, Apple and all of the companies that provide products and service to the internet have enough of your money?

We know how those people over in the internet industry benefit, they sell us something.  What about that Obama government crowd and now the Biden crowd that worked so long and hard to make us believe “broadband” or the internet is necessary to sustain life.  I believe their motive is to have a computer hooked on to the internet in every house hold.  Their purpose is to gather information about us, to spy on us.  We know that unless the battery is taken out that super duper cell phone or the computer is unplugged, not just turned off, we can be spied on in many ways.  The government does not push anything that does not help it.  The radical left is working hard to establish a socialist or communist dictatorship in the United States.  They need broadband (the internet) to spy on us, to control us.

The broad band thing has become a handy conspiracy between the providers of services and those who need to spy on and control us.

Let a little reality set in.  Very few people, less than 5 percent in my opinion, can justify cell phones or computes based on economics.  We use the phone to play games on, send meaningless messages to friends, listen to political gossip and for status symbols.  We strut around, letting them know we can afford an 800 dollar device and the 40 dollars a month to keep it running.  We are connected, and important.

We had several millionaire farmers come before commissioners and tell us we should spend 7 to 9 million dollars so they could continue to farm, they had to have broadband.  The simple truth is, if we did what they wanted there is no guarantee, not even a promise, they would have any better intent service than they now have.  Actually for covering large areas getting the internet off the satellite is probably best for them.  Getting it any other way would require them to set up repeaters to make sure they have a signal.  They had a political ally on the Board of Commissioners who was promising to waste large amounts of money for their broadband dreams.

There are several groups in our very sparsely populated county who believe they are entitled to the same level of service as is provided to the most densely populated areas.  I cannot imagine the tens maybe hundreds of millions of dollars that would cost.  

There are those who claim the internet educates children and unless the children have it they will all grow up with lopsided heads.  The internet has been proven to be a major handicap to education.  I am not talking about the kind of education where the student sits in class, watches the internet behaves himself and finally graduates knowing only how to push the buttons on his cell phone.  I am talking about a real education.  Consider reading, writing and arithmetic, students do not need the internet until they are in the 11^th or 12^th grade.  We should ban computers and cell phones from the schools until then.  Pencils and paper along with the lectures of teachers are what put us on the moon, not cell phones.

Do not get taken in by the broadband religion.  The world was a better place before cell phones and the internet.

I do not deny the benefits of the internet for a very few of us.  I use it. About 95 percent of the public is paying for a vast, highly technical but useless broadband industry that is improperly used and is slowly enslaving all of us.  There is no economic benefit to 95 percent of those using the internet.  There are feelings of comfort, social contact and personal security.  We cannot measure these in dollars.  These have a zero value.

The spending of 12 million dollars (the latest estimate of our share of the free money) on the Beaufort County internet backbone will not necessarily improve service to our citizens for three reasons.  First, the true estimate is 60 million to build out the Beaufort County internet and this does not guarantee service to all.  Second, federal and state rules on the spending of their money require it to be used to provide new service to those who do not have it.  Basically this means the far reaches of the county would get internet.  There simply are not enough people in these areas to pay for the electricity to run the system much less maintenance.  Thirdly, it appears that fiber optic cables may soon be as outdated as copper wire for internet uses.  Reports are that companies are already working on putting up enough satellites that would provide devices internet connectivity from anywhere in the world, without need for fiber or copper wires connected to routers.  Turn off your mobile data on your phone and see how successful you are at getting a connection to the internet without going to where there is an available router.  Spending millions on “broadband” wires may not provide any better internet access than most people now have.  This much you can count on:  It will not be as great as the snake oil salesmen are telling us it will be.

Now we come the part that strains the brains of many liberals and ethically and morally challenged people.  Is it morally acceptable to take this money and spend it on something that no one is going to use.  To put it another way, how do you feel about loading down your plate knowing you cannot eat it all and are going to waste it.  My Christian teaching says this is sinful.   What do you say? We should give the money back rather than wasting it.  I do not believe we should volunteer for sin.