Some thoughts on SOPA...

Over the last few days, the media world has been dominated by the SOPA discussion, from NPR to my FB page. Inspired by my friend Ranessa and her partner Jason’s post “What has the Internet done for me lately?”, I began to ask myself that question, and the list builds so rapidly that it would be pointless to innumerate, but one overarching theme became clearly dominant- The internet has EMPOWERED me. It has empowered me in ways that nothing else has, as a consumer, as a parent, as a patient, as a tenant, a home-buyer, a home-seller, a student, and employee, hell, as a citizen at large - from having the freedom and ability diagnose a mystery rash on my toddler and then treat it homeopathically at home, to understanding my legal rights, to learning how to trim my own bangs and make my own cleaning products; the internet has fully changed and augmented my life more than any other relationship outside my spouse and children. Anything you want to take the time to learn, you can learn on the internet- you are limited only by your own determination, which is gratifying and inspiring, if not occasionally overwhelming. The reason the internet is able to do this is because, by and large, it has remained the last truly free frontier, the last venue for unrestricted information exchange. The internet is the only true global democracy-your vote is your mouse click every time you navigate to a specific page. SOPA aims to change that, to begin the process of slowly regulating and dismantling the free internet. This is catastrophic. The beauty of the free internet is its capacity to support change, whether that change is personal or political, from the Arab Spring to the social-media outpouring of love and subsequent benefit organization for Esme Barrera. The free exchange of information has allowed society to progress more in the last 20 years than it has in the last 2,000. I am aware of the arguments from Sen. Chris Dodd and others, that profit loss due to piracy has lead to and will lead to many more job losses. I empathize with this-piracy must be addressed, but not at the cost of internet liberty. In my opinion, you can’t really put a price on the freedom and most of all, empowerment that the internet provides. So please, sign a petition, write your Senator, tell a friend. Do what you can to support those that are fighting SOPA. Take a stand for the fabulously free “Wild West” of the internet.