Eight Hundred Words to the Nattering Nabobs Of Negativism

To all the persistently negative and noisy broadband fiber network naysayers, I want to follow up on my previous article on the deployment of a fiber broadband Internet infrastructure.

I continue to hear the whining about fiber being too expensive and deployment too rural and remote, and just not practical. They say we should settle for something easier, like satellite or wireless, despite being technically and financially inadequate, and in the long term even more expensive, as well as not being future proof.

They say that you can’t get people to temporarily work and live in these remote areas to build this network. But let me ask this: 

1.       What does the military do? What do firefighters do? What do construction crews do? What do miners do? What do tree loggers do?

2.       What did the rural electrification or highway workers do when there was no Motel Six, with heated pool and bar, nearby? 

They built work camps, like when I was playing Army war games in the woods of North Carolina or doing erosion control in the mountains of South Korea.

We put up tents for sleeping, serving food, entertainment, and for showers.

I drove the trucks that delivered the culverts and gravel and helped put in the roads in the woods.

I ran the generators to provide tent and security lights off of a mountain road (and power for a refrigerator full of PX beer).

Stop the whining and complaining already. I am sick and hired of hearing it!

My Great Grandfather's generation built the railroad and telegraph infrastructures. Many of these were Irish, German, and Chinese immigrants.

Have you seen the Deadwood HBO series aired from 2004 to 2007?

How about Hell on Wheels aired on AMC from 2011 to 2016?

My Grandfather's generation built the rural electrification grid, and the telephone network with the help of the first generation of immigrants.

Manufacturing companies setup immigrant labor camps during the early and mid-20th century to house and provide for immigrants who came to work for these companies. These companies needed a large labor force to support operations and facilitated the settlement of immigrants, offering them employment, language assistance, basic necessities, and housing in company-provided facilities.

My Father’s generation build the interstate highway system, and other things with the help of immigrants and minorities.

The Civilian Conservation Corps work camps were located in rural and wilderness areas, where they worked on projects such as building roads, planting trees, preventing soil erosion, improving national parks, and constructing flood control systems, providing food, shelter, and education.

My generation has built cellphone networks, personal computer networks and the Internet data highway system. Many of the engineers were Asian, European, and other immigrants. We have also allow it to devolve into what it is now, but I have written extensively about some solutions to this.

Leaving aside the logistics, as to fiber expense, as I indicated previously many of the pathways already exist for aerial deployment. Don’t be sold on the idea that this is all about drilling through rock.

Those off the electrical grid, have already chosen generators, wind turbines, and solar power. They should not ask for or be provided fiber deployment and should use something else like satellite. Everyone else deserves fiber and to not become second class citizens, to their neighbors.

Before I end this, much of the hype around the ridiculous cost numbers is just plain gouging, price discrimination, and profiteering.

Many of these companies are the unscrupulous, with a distant relationship with ethics, and those without a moral compass trying to take advantage of a trough full of Federal monies. There is an appropriate old adage here that pigs get fed and hogs get slaughtered.

Perhaps the lesson here, or moral to this story, is that we should not be discriminating against and deporting immigrants due to our own ignorance, intolerance, and fear.

This current broadband legislation and focus is a once is a generation opportunity, so we can all step up and do the work, or we can miss this rare opportunity and be shamed by it.

What are the current generations willing to do to contribute to the betterment of society at large?

Your social networks seem to provide you entertainment at the cost of social cohesion. You need to ask yourselves, what exactly are your generational responsibilities?

We are all standing on the shoulders of giants, so the view is very clear at least to me. This view has been bought and paid for, by our ancestors.

If I weren’t a partially disabled, senior citizen veteran, I would be happy to manage the minds and kick the butts necessary, as I have done before, and to handle this for you people. But it is your turn.

Now get off my lawn!

Michael Pitsch is a veteran of the U.S. Army U.N. peace-keeping force in South Korea, a former Peace Corps volunteer in West Africa and former Illinois high school and Community College teacher. He holds a B.S. in Education degree from the University of Illinois Urbana/Champaign. Pitsch was the President and CEO of a Tri-County business, where he involved in the manufacture, sale and support of custom business computer systems. He was also the Executive Director and Board President of Tech Corps Wisconsin, Inc., a statewide non profit volunteer group dedicated to helping provide children with computer and Internet technology access. This Expert Opinion was originally published on Medium, and is reprinted with permission.

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