We'd better check this out!!!!!!

[Bette Lamore <woa@stormnet.com>]

Just got this! If it is true it is going to severely impact most of us.
We'd better get on the stick!

CNN has reported that within the next two weeks Congress is going to
vote on 
allowing telephone companies to CHARGE A TOLL FEE for Internet
access. 

Translation: Every time we send a long distance e-mail we will receive a
long distance charge. This will get costly. Please visit the following
web
site and file a complaint to your Congressperson. We can't allow this to
pass! The following address will allow you to send an e-mail on this
subject DIRECTLY to your Congressperson. 
http://www.house.gov/writerep 

Pass this on to your friends. It is urgent! I hope all of you will pass
this
on to all your friends and family. We should ALL have a voice in this
one. 

WAIT, THERE'S MORE! IN ADDITION, The last few months have
revealed an alarming trend in the Government of the United States
attempting to quietly push through legislation that will affect your use
of the Internet. Under proposed legislation the U.S. Postal Service will
be
attempting to bill email users out of "alternate postage fees". Bill
602P
will permit the Federal Govt. to charge a 5 cent surcharge on every
email
delivered, by billing Internet Service Providers at source. The consumer
would then be billed in turn by the ISP. Washington D.C. lawyer Richard
Stepp is working without pay to prevent this legislation from becoming 
law. 

The U.S. Postal Service is claiming that lost revenue due to the
proliferation of e-mail costing nearly $230,000,000 in revenue per year.
(Oh, isn't that too bad?) You may have noticed their recent ad campaign
"There is nothing like a letter". Since the average citizen received
about
10 pieces of email per day in 1998, the cost to the typical individual
would be an additional 50 cents per day, or over $180 dollars per year,
above and beyond their regular Internet costs.  Note that this would be
money paid directly to the U.S. Postal Service for a service they do not
even provide. 

The whole point of the Internet is democracy and non-interference. If
the
federal government is permitted to tamper with our liberties by adding a
surcharge to email, who knows where it will end. You are already paying
an exorbitant price for snail mail because of bureaucratic inefficiency.
It
currently takes up to 6 days for a letter to be delivered from New York
to Buffalo. If the U.S Postal Service is allowed to tinker with email,
it will
mark the end of the "free" Internet in the United States. 

One congressman, Tony Schnell ® has even suggested a "twenty to forty
dollars per month surcharge on all Internet service" above and beyond
the government's proposed email charges. Note that most of the major
newspapers have ignored the story, the only exception being the
Washingtonian which called the idea of email surcharge "a useful
concept whose time has come" (March 6th, 1999 Editorial). 

Don't sit by and watch your freedoms erode away! Send this e-mail to
EVERYONE on your list, and tell all your friends and relatives to write
to
their Congressman and say "No!" to Bill 602P. It will only take a few
moments of your time, and could very well be instrumental in killing a
bill we don't want. 

PASS THIS ON TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW WHO USES EMAIL REMEMBER
THESE ARE TWO SEPARATE ISSUES THAT EFFECT ALL OF US ONLINE
LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD NOW, NOT AFTER. 
  
  
  
  

-- 
Bette Lamore
Whispering Oaks Arabians, Home of TLA Halynov
http://www.stormnet.com/~woa
I've learned that life is like a roll of toilet paper, the closer it
gets to the end, the faster it goes. Smell the roses!