Page 2 The Skanner Portland & Seattle February 20, 2019
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Challenging People to Shape
a Better Future Now
Bernie Foster
Founder/Publisher
Opinion
Why We Need Net Neutrality
Bobbie Dore Foster
Executive Editor
W
Jerry Foster
Advertising Manager
Christen McCurdy
News Editor
Patricia Irvin
Graphic Designer
Monica J. Foster
Seattle Office Coordinator
Susan Fried
Photographer
2017
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AWARD
WINNER
The Skanner Newspaper, es-
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P.O. Box 5455
Portland, OR 97228
hen it comes to the
Trump
adminis-
tration’s record of
hurting
students
in low-income schools, its
senseless decision to pull the
plug last year on net neutral-
ity ranks among its most de-
structive.
Those students have far
less access to broadband, and
killing net neutrality marks a
devastating setback for those
children and their access to
equal educational opportuni-
ties.
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Net neutrality
is the princi-
ple that once
you’ve paid
your bill,
you get to go
where you
want, how
you want, on
the Internet
Compounding the cruelty
is the fact that Ajit Pai, the
Trump-appointed chairman
of the Federal Communica-
tions Commission, was wrong
when he forecast that the
death of net neutrality would
Ron Wyden
U.S. Senator
(D-OR)
unleash a wave of capital in-
vestment by Big Cable in its
broadband network.
In fact, reports reveal that
Comcast, Charter and Veri-
zon all reduced capital expen-
ditures in 2018.
Pai’s poor prediction only
adds to the significant col-
lateral damage wrought by
Trump’s scheme to kill net
neutrality, which provid-
ed pillars of protection for
Americans on the internet.
Net neutrality is the prin-
ciple that once you’ve paid
your bill, you get to go where
you want, how you want, on
the Internet. In other words,
your phone or cable company
should not get the power to
favor which Internet content
a person can get access to by
creating paid fast lanes on-
line.
The ripples from this rever-
sal are broad.
Children in poorer schools
in Oregon, and nationwide,
lose out when their libraries
do not have the same internet
speeds as libraries in wealth-
ier schools. A start-up small
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“
Children
in poorer
schools in
Oregon, and
nationwide,
lose out when
their libraries
do not have
the same in-
ternet speeds
as libraries
in wealthier
schools
It didn’t have to be this way
for net neutrality. And it
doesn’t need to stay this way
either.
The Senate last year passed
a bipartisan resolution to
overturn Trump’s anti-net
neutrality rule. But that bit
of common-sense consum-
er protection died in the
then-Republican House.
Now that my fellow Dem-
ocrats are controlling the
House, net neutrality advo-
cates are in a much better po-
sition to correct the imbalanc-
es and pass good national net
neutrality laws. (Happily, Or-
egonians and our represen-
tatives in Salem have already
blazed that trail at the state
level by enacting strong net
neutrality protections into
state law.)
As the first senator who in-
troduced net neutrality leg-
islation in the Senate more
than a decade ago, I am proud
to stand on the front lines of
this year’s national fight for
a solution that puts real en-
forceable net neutrality rules
back on the books.
Everybody
understands
consumers must pay a fee to
get access to the internet. But
Big Cable shouldn’t get to rig
the internet for the benefit
only of those who can afford
to pay more.
Instead, the question at the
heart of the upcoming debate
is, once consumers pay that
fee, should they be allowed to
go on the internet where they
want, when they want, and
how they want?
I believe the answer to that
question is “Yes.”
There’s An Uprising Going on in the Sudan!
O
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business in Portland may lack
the resources to afford the
top-notch Internet speeds it
needs to grow its operation.
And families can now be
charged more for their Net-
flix and Hulu subscriptions,
music services on Spotify,
and video game downloads
on Steam, Xbox and Playsta-
tion.
ver the last fifteen years,
what we have mainly
heard about the Sudan
— what had been the
largest nation-state in Africa
— revolved around the seces-
sionist movement in what is
now known as the South Su-
dan, and the genocide being
carried out by the Sudanese
government against the peo-
ple of the Darfur region in
the western part of the coun-
try. We have heard stories of
horror and murder, refugees,
and systematic repression.
Now we hear of revolution.
The Sudan was created
by British colonialism as an
amalgamation of regions that
had had little to do with one
another. After independence,
the government—based in
Khartoum—tended to be
dominated by Arabizedtrib-
al groups from the northern
part of the country. I use the
term “Arabized” because their
original ethnicity ranged, but
over time they came to adopt
the language and culture of
Arabs.
Regional resentment ex-
ploded in two major wars
in the southern part of the
country, which ultimately led
to the split-off of the South
Bill
Fletcher Jr.
The Global
African
Sudan. Separately, a combina-
tion of desert expansion and
political opportunism drove
the genocidal activities sup-
ported and orchestrated by
the Khartoum government
“
The Sudan
was created
by British
colonialism
as an amal-
gamation of
regions that
had had little
to do with one
another
against the people of the Dar-
fur region.
Despite the fact that the peo-
ple of Darfur are mainly Mus-
lim, the Khartoum govern-
ment and their allies in the
region have treated them as
aliens and waged something
that is equivalent to a race
war against the population,
something highly ironic since
both populations are African.
In the midst of all of this, a
deteriorating economic situ-
ation led to peaceful, popular
protests against the Khar-
toum government, a govern-
ment led by Omar Al-Bashir.
Al-Bashir gained power
through a coup and has been
solidly in control, despite
international pressure, war-
rants for his arrest, and con-
tinuous turbulence in the
country. He has received out-
side support, including from
several Arab states but also
economic arrangements from
other countries. His hold on
the Sudanese military has re-
mained strong.
Yet the people revolted and
their numbers increased over
time. And these revolts, which
began as protests against eco-
nomic conditions and the
rising price of fuel, exploded
into larger demands against
the government and, ulti-
mately, demands for the res-
ignation of Al-Bashir (and the
dismantling of his dictator-
ship).
Al-Bashir has indicated lit-
tle interest in living out his
life in exiled retirement and
has, instead, repressed the
protests. The government has
killed some protesters while
others have been arrested
and tortured. Yet the protests
continued and grew. Labor
unions have played a signif-
icant role and professional
associations have taken the
lead.
One of the most noteworthy
features of this moment has
been the fact that Al-Bashir’s
efforts to play the Sudanese
“race card” have failed mis-
erably, at least so far. He sug-
gested that if his government
fell, the Darfurians would
take over, a less than subtle
appeal to Arab bias against
the people of that region. In-
terestingly, that appears to
have had little impact. Instead
the protesters have replied to
Al-Bashir: “We are all from
Darfur!”
Bill Fletcher, Jr. is the former
president of TransAfrica Fo-
rum. Follow him on Twitter,
Facebook and www.billfletch-
erjr.com. He is the author of the
new mystery The Man Who
Fell From the Sky.
nt •
lo c a l n e w s •
eve