FCC Hearing Report from S Minneapolis

So, it's been ages since my last post. I'm not going to spend time apologizing for that.

Tonight I went to the FCC Hearing/community meeting on "saving the internet", the free and open internet, that is.

There was great public testimony from community organizers, librarians, business owners, unemployed folks, non-profit advocacy types, and others still. Walking into South High School in South Minneapolis with so many other people, talking to each other with conviction, exuding determination and really, most clearly, a readiness for civic engagement on this issue, was invigorating.

Working at the meta-level of the community organizing field (okay, fine; update: yes, I'm still at PTP, now I'm a full-time staff member with bennies and I even get to do trainings along with the grant-writing, event logistics, and data collection and analysis that's also part of my job!), I get to hear about inspiring ways that organizations are moving citizens to reclaim their own power and demand what's just all the time. And I can't help but experience impostor syndrome in my job. For full disclosure, I'm not a community organizer. I wish I could claim that experience, but I can't. So coming to a town hall meeting about net neutrality, "the first amendment issue of our time" is a step towards the higher degree of civic engagement I'd like to practice. (That link, by the way, is video taken during tonight's FCC meeting, and opens with Franken's comments about net neutrality, followed by a community panel, and Federal Communications Commissioners Mignon Clyburn's and Michael Copps' comments).

I would have liked to hear from more women and more people of color and more low-income people at the hearing. But we know why that didn't happen. Those 60-some community folks who did speak up spoke eloquently and represented a variety of interests, none of which included Googizon's or Comcast or AT&T's bottom line. So let's hear it for the people. And as I step towards a greater degree of civic engagement in my own life, including becoming a more active part of various community dialogues, I want to be aware of why this is starting now in my life, and what barriers there were to my willingness to participate more fully before now. Because that is an essential question. Why would someone who is privileged and educated withdraw from this kind of public engagement? And what has it taken to get me to a place where I'll inch back towards the town hall?