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

["C Eyler" <eyler@mindspring.com>]

This is an urban legend.  I've been seeing this one on-and-off for months.
Not true!

Cindy Eyler

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bette Lamore [mailto:woa@stormnet.com]
> Sent: Sunday, January 23, 2000 2:52 AM
> To: ridecamp@endurance.net
> Subject: RC: We'd better check this out!!!!!!
>
>
> 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!
>
>
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