[RTC List] The Rob & Cherie Arkley Fiberoptic Cable

[Arkley, Rob]

Dear All,
     Let's all get on a call and try to map out a strategy to resolve
this once and for all.  I would love for everybody to join.  Let's get
this done.
     Shirley, let's get a call in conference call scheduled for this
week.  Please ask if Gregg Foster will lead it.  He has done far more
work on this that anybody else. 
     Folks, let's put philosophy aside and resolve this.  I am convinced
that we can get this done.  



                                     Vty,



                                     Rob
      

-----Original Message-----
From: list-bounces at redwoodtech.org [mailto:list-bounces at redwoodtech.org]
On Behalf Of William Van Hefner
Sent: Friday, October 12, 2007 12:19 PM
To: list at redwoodtech.org
Subject: Re: [RTC List] The Rob & Cherie Arkley Fiberoptic Cable

Michael,

Benefits private industry?!!? I don't know what planet you are living
on, but down here on Earth I spent the entire day without any phone
service.
My Sprint Wireless service didn't allow me to make any local or long
distance calls or even reach an operator. God only knows what would have
happened, had I needed to dial 9-1-1. This issue is not about how to
benefit "private industry", it is about serving the needs of the average
Humboldt County citizen, which is what our public officials are
supposedly elected to do. If it's important to me, then it should be
important to them. The last time I checked, representing the voters was
their job, not just something they did in their spare time.

For that matter "private industry", consists of businesses owned and
worked at by real human beings. The "public sector" is made up of those
whose job it is to serve the public who pays their salaries. Our
government was created to serve the people and protect their rights, not
the other way around.

As for your concern in regards to Mr. Arkley, I'd say that he has just
as much right to demand that our public officials represent our
interests as taxpayers as any other citizen. If our public officials do
not have time to listen to the concerns of their constituents, then they
should be promptly impeached or voted out of office as quickly as the
law will allow.

And as for your insistence that fiber redundancy would only benefit the
"few", and your inference that the rich would benefit more than the
poor, you might want to get out into our community a little more often
in order to see how directly this affects all aspects of people's lives.
For starters, the trend these days is that not everyone can afford both
a landline and a wireless phone. Those with low incomes generally have
to choose between one or the other, and the price drop in wireless
phones has made them the more acceptable of the two. What happens to
their ability to communicate with their families when they have no phone
service? For that matter, what happens to those families who are going
through hard times and can't afford to put dinner on the table without
using a credit card?
How long should they have to go without groceries while AT&T patches
cables back together? What about the elderly who depend on home
monitoring services, most of which dial numbers outside of the area?
What about the public buildings that rely upon reliable phone service
for their (fire) alarm systems (mine dials a 1-800 number)? What if a
child got sick and his parents could not reach the poison control
hotline, or someone who was mentally ill couldn't reach a suicide
hotline? Perhaps you could explain to their families that these services
weren't really important, because only rich people or private businesses
stood much to gain by having a reliable and inexpensive way for 99%+ of
the public to communicate with the outside world?

Anyone putting 30 seconds or more of thought into this knows how vital
it is to public safety that we do not allow this situation to continue.
Wealthy businesspeople can obviously afford to get around the problem.
The average Humboldt County citizen can't. Mr. Arkley has nothing to
personally gain in any of this. His company can afford to bring in their
own wireless system if they want to. It seems to me to be in poor taste
to mock him when he is going out of his way to help support the rest of
us.

-- 

William Van Hefner
President

Vantek Communications, Inc.
3144 Broadway, Ste 3
Eureka, CA 95501-3838
707.476.0833 ph
800.331.4638 fx
e-mail: vantek at sonic.net

> It's not the Supes job to do this. This benefits private industry, and

> private industry should cover it.
> What a perfect application for your huge amount of wealth. You could 
> even name it The Arkley Cable.



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