I hate when the the Daily Advertiser tells the story a little black girl doing research for a science project (”I might have to use books or go to the library if I didn’t have the internet.” Imagine that.) Let’s be realistic here, how much is the internet being used for strictly educational purposes?

Reminds me of a time I sat in on one of Jordan’s classes at a small Community College in Boston. Tuition there is pretty expensive, and some people consider it kind of elite. A lot of colorful folks there, and one guy there was using the high speed internet connection, which was supplied to every desk, to read a Paul Krugman editorial in the NY Times. A quick survey of the class showed a lot of people were pissing away their time in one way or the other, thanks to the miracle of high-speed internet in the classroom.

Now little black kids in Lafayette can read the NY Times (at best!) instead of doing their homework.

All that being said, living out in the sticks gets one no love from telephone or cable companies. I could sympathize with people wanting to do something about it. But it was cheap satellite dishes that provided television content the whole countryside, not a TVA of the twenty-first century. And if you don’t want to get it, you don’t have to pay anything. I figure it would be the same for the internet in a couple of years, at no cost to those who don’t want the internet.

Anyway, check out www.theadvertiser.com to see the story.