Oct. 16, 2015
Today’s Mobile Citizen story features Minnesota’s Neighbors. Only 21 days left to stop the shutdown. Sign our petition.
Having Internet access is like having food. Everyone needs and deserves it, even if they cannot afford it. Thanks to nonprofit organizations like Minnesota’s Neighbors Inc., people living below the poverty line are getting both.
The work Neighbors is doing today, with the help of unlimited Internet is allowing their constituents get access to healthcare, housing, education and jobs. Rick Birmingham, Neighbors’ director of development, will be the first to tell you that work Minnesota’s Neighbors is doing requires bandwidth. “I know there are programs that give the poorest residents in our communities some access, but that is simply not enough. I have a problem with an industry that thinks that those living below the poverty line deserve less bandwidth than their peers simply because they cannot afford to pay for it. It is unacceptable to think poor people would or should use it any differently than those that can afford to pay for the services needed to advance in life and work.”
If you agree with Rick that those least fortunate should not be relegated to the slow lane sign our petition.