Gavin Newsom: WiFi access is a "civil rights issue"
Posted Tue, Oct 4, 2005 at 3:25 am
Bearing in mind that Gavin Newsom was the "moderate" choice for mayor of San Francisco, let's peer through the viewing window at "S.F. mayor sees wireless service as basic right":
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who became internationally known for his campaign a year ago to legalize gay marriage, on Monday said he considered wireless Internet access a fundamental right of all citizens...
"This is inevitable -- Wi-Fi. It is long overdue," Newsom told a news conference at San Francisco's City Hall. "It is to me a fundamental right to have access universally to information," he said...
But the mayor also singled out the power of Wi-Fi as an alternative network to provide emergency information to all citizens in the event a natural disaster such as an earthquake were to strike the city and knock out other communications.
Thus, wireless access can be seen a basic right that should be available not just to business professionals but also lower-income citizens. "This is a civil rights issue as much as anything else," Newsom said...
Comments
John S Bolton (not verified)
Tue, 10/04/2005 - 23:25
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If the poor have a civil right to free wifi, so that they don't have to steal access from their neighbors, or the people who live too close to the local main street; why would they have a special right to steal from the net taxpayer? There seems to be a contradiction in terms here. Apparently the official doesn't realize that anyone would ever bring up the rights of the net taxpayer.