TREVOR ALFORD, SOC MA IN POLITICAL COMMUNICATION (APPLICANT 2)
President Kerwin, faculty members, board of trustees, distinguished guests, ladies,
gentlemen and wonks.
I stand before you today, to honor and congratulate American University’s graduating
class of 2013.
Nearly one hundred years ago this university began studying policy and history. It has
expanded since then. At the second commencement, it only awarded three degrees.
Today hundreds will be.
These students studied policy. They studied prose. They studied people. Those awarded
degrees on this day will take what they have learned and spread it across our great
country, and across our planet.
They face challenges, unique to our changing and turbulent times. Never before have so
many cultures, so many ideas, and so many people been connected by the products of
the information age.
The Americans who developed the internet couldn’t have imagined how it has united us.
International tragedies no longer stay within their sovereign borders.
In Pakistan, terrorists shot a young girl because she sought to learn. And the world wept.
As she recovered in Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, the world prayed for her
recovery.
The world first learned of Malala through her own words. She shared her desire for an
education with the world. And the world heard her. America heard her.
Not every American can travel to other countries. Not every American can experience
other cultures. But data in cables and signals from satellites can cross the Pacific in
seconds.
This graduating class understands this resource. This graduating class knows the power
of the internet.
We have the ability to seize on more information now than any people who have come
before us. It is all at our fingertips.
But for many, the internet is not accessible.
I am not speaking of those across the globe who labor to meet their own basic needs. I
am not speaking of the citizens of oppressive regimes who control information, so they
might control their people.
I speak of people here. In America, the birthplace of this system. Our engineers, our
military, and our resources created the internet. But many of our people cannot connect.
Only one in five people are able to use this resource in their homes. Our country has a
digital divide.
People can’t connect because of their income. Because of their location. A sluggish
economy crippled our public libraries when they should be providing these services to
our people. This at a time when our children’s education is so heavily dependent on the
internet as a resource.
In Citronelle, the oil capital of Alabama, young students turn to McDonald’s, simply to
complete their homework.
In Piconning Michigan, a school district could not afford the rates set by Sprint to make
the internet available to all its students.
In New Mexico. In Arkansas. In Mississippi, one out of every three households doesn’t
have access.
Those who can pay are gouged.
In Hong Kong, a high speed fiber connection costs 25 dollars per month. In New York
City, it costs eight times that.
An unlimited wireless package in Europe costs 30 dollars a month. Verizon charges
three times that.
The poor are left behind. The rest are excessively fined. But our country faced problems
like these before.
At the start of the 20th century, electricity was not widely available. Cities were bright
with electric light, but rural families still burnt candles to keep the night at bay.
Our 32nd president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, decided that all Americans should live in
dignity. They should live with electric light.
It didn’t matter whether they lived in the majestic plains, deserts and forests of our
countryside or under towering skylines of our great cities.
He realized that electricity was a utility that Americans deserved. And that working to
improve it would aid our beleaguered economy.
It is time we recognize the internet as another utility. One we must regulate, to ensure
fair access. And one we must expand, to ensure complete access.
Our current infrastructure is not up to the task. The companies that control it do not
compete. They aggressively lobby to prevent towns and cities from creating their own
networks. Even when the people support doing it.
As the world moves toward fiber optics, we are left with copper wire. Private industry
doesn’t want to fix this.
Testifying before Congress, Verizon's General Counsel Randal Milch said Verizon's fiber
optic network had “always been intended to reach a relatively small portion of the
country.”
It only extends to a select few cities. The American people deserve more.
If the private sector will not bring Americans into the 21st century, than 21st century
Americans should not rely on the private sector alone. The government can help. It is
time to finish the National Broadband Plan.
This plan, when fully implemented, will better inform consumers. It will increase
competition by regulating industry. And it will bring more Americans online, by ensuring
fair pricing.
Small businesses and startup companies could use reliable, reasonably priced
connections to grow our economy. Creating these connections would provide good jobs.
More of our schoolchildren could have access to the research and the opportunities that
will open up their world.
We must expand internet access in rural communities - where it will increase the quality
of life. In this age of budget slashing, and in the wake of sequestration, government
funds are tight. But we must protect the funding to the Department of Agriculture’s
Community Connect program, which provides grants to help rural communities access
the internet.
We must also increase competition amongst internet service providers. The free market
would be an excellent solution to this problem. But in recent years, power has solidified
in the hands of a few companies, which chose not to compete with each other.
If the private sector will not step up, then it is time to meet this public problem with the
public’s representatives. Our government must investigate these competition-stifling
practices. It must act if it finds the telecom companies lacking.
I know the internet is not only full of hope and promise. Extremists of all walks seek to
send their messages of hate, and raise up new generations of intolerance. On
messaging forums, bickering and insult drowns out good-natured debate. Skilled
manipulators use the internet to destroy the lives of the vulnerable.
So while we work to increase access across our country, I also call on each of us to
elevate our conduct online. The internet mimics the human experience, and while there
is darkness in it, there is also so much good.
Ask the widow Elsie Smith. Last month her husband of 46 years died. She had to sell
everything she owned for her late husband’s dying wish – a proper funeral. The KOMO
news network reported the story on a Friday. Over the weekend, it went viral.
ABCnews.com, Yahoo.com, HuffingtonPost.com. They all picked up the story. Elsie
needed three thousand dollars to bury her husband. On Friday, people learned of Elsie.
By Sunday, people across the country had donated twelve thousand dollars. People
offered burial plots. A reverend volunteered his services.
The internet isn’t a system of tubes. It’s a system of people. And the more Americans
who can access this system the stronger it will become.
Every computer in this country is a window to the entire world. And every American who
logs on, an ambassador to other lands. And a potential friend and savior to the living
breathing human beings on the other side of their computer.
Our children must learn the technologies of this new era to be competitive. So we must
destroy the digital divide.
Our rural brothers and sisters must have the connection that others in our country take
for granted. So we must destroy the digital divide.
Our families who struggle to put food on the table must have the tools to better
themselves. So we must destroy the digital divide.
Our people, already plugged in, are stuck with old connections at outrageous prices. So
we must destroy the digital divide.
America created this technology. Our tax dollars paid for its birth.
Our people opened up this new frontier. And our all of people should explore it. All of our
people should create with it. And all of our people should experience it.
We must replace the digital divide with a digital revive.