OMG! It’s My Fifth Blogaversary On 8/7/10!

(10 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

Today I posted m 814th post at The Dream Antilles.  Sadly, it was meta: it said that 8/7/10 was the Fifth Blogaversary of the blog.

I have been plugging away, writing this blog, The Dream Antilles for five years.  That’s 35 woozle years.  It’s 30 pootie years.  And in the life of the Internet, it’s about 3 nanoseconds.  I’ve probably outlived about 10,000,000 other blogs, all of which you can still read.  If you want to.  And yet, I haven’t achieved fame, wealth, or any of the other benefits you might imagine.  There is no new Porsche in  my driveway.  I haven’t been on Rachel.

Why, you might ask, am I posting this here?  What’s the point?  

There is a point.  And it’s important.  You can easily read everything I have written in the past five years at this moment.  You can click this link and immediately and without delay be transported to The Dream Antilles.  You can read my poetry.  You can read my politics.  You can read about books.  And literature.  My ranting.  My raging.  My analysis.  My ideas.  Everything I posted in the past five years.

You might not like it.  But you can get there and you can draw your own opinion about what I’ve written.  And you can leave lots of comments.  I will permit them to post unless I dislike your politics, or your attitude, or you insult me and say bad things about me or slander me.  And you can give money on the blog.  In truth, I’ve received less than $50 to support my writing since I began.  But that’s not the point.

I’m aware that my blog adventure, The Dream Antilles,  is only possible because of Net Neutrality.  It’s possible only because the Net is free.  And you can go where you want.  When you want. And my blog and a million others will load when you click.  And you can access it because you type the address or hit this link.  It’s simple.  You just call it up, and, poof, there it is.

If Net Neutrality fails, you might not be able to see my posts.  Or you’ll wait a long time for them to come up.  Or you’ll have to pay to see them.  Or you’ll think you still have dial up and a 14.4k modem.  That might not be so bad, especially if you don’t like what I’m saying.  Or if you don’t care whether you can read me or not. Or you stick to what will be the middle ground of Internet sites.  On the other hand, what you click today, what you read right now, that’s your choice.  You, rather than comcast or verizon or google or yahoo or the government or somebody else should be the one to decide whether you can see my posts and  how long it will take to load.  If there’s no Net Neutrality, all of that is out the window.

Please remember that.  Please be aware that this chaotic, screaming, arguing, blistering, anarchic exchange of ideas, this vital exercise in the First Amendment, is possible only because of Net Neutrality.

And now I return you to your surfing.  Thanks for thinking of my Blogaversary.

cross posted at dailyKos and docuDharma