[RFI] BPL Protest Opportunity? Is it over? NO!

[Rob Atkinson, K5UJ]

At this point, I'm disappointed in the no. of comments filed in docket 
04-37.
The total as of a few minutes ago was 1012.   I'm disappointed in the 
apathy;
the resignation; the attitude that it's all over and that we are weak and 
powerless
against big business.  There are plenty of examples of the little guy 
winning in this
country.  What about the people who have won suits against the giant tobacco
industry?  There are lots and lots of examples of people successfully 
obstructing
the construction of expressways, gas lines, power lines, and a ton of other 
things
supposedly wanted by "big buisiness."  They won because they got off their 
butts
and organized, made a stink, kept up the heat, and/or went to court.   What
is the deal with hams?  What, are we all 90 year old men who just want to
go lie down and take a nap?  Are we all a bunch of guys with nothing in this 
hobby
who don't mind carving driftwood or catching a butterfly with a net if ham 
radio
crashes and burns?  Where's the passion?  I've been a ham since I was 15.
I can't imagine what my life would be like if I had not become a ham.
Empty and boring most likely.  I very much love this hobby and want to save 
it.
But out of hundreds of thousands, it seems there are only around 1000 who
feel the same way I do.  Apparently the thrill, the magic, the glow of 
tubes,
putting up a wire and making a friend a thousand miles away who could be out
on a boat in the Gulf of Mexico, or in a car, or at home on a farm on the 
world's
biggest party line, the HF bands, is all gone.

"It's not over until we say it is!"--Bluto in Animal House.

While the comment period ended yesterday, the deadline for REPLY comments
is June 1.  Anyone still on the fence has about 1 MONTH to file a REPLY 
comment.
You can find a pro-BPL statement in the FCC docket 04-37 on their website 
and file
your own anti-BPL comment as a RESPONSE.

Comments are important as a first step in building a body of statements that
may serve in part as a foundation for some other form of proceeding in the 
future
should one prove to be necessary.    Also, I promise you, if you just go 
toddle off
and have your nap, you WILL loose.  The BPL industry would love nothing 
better
than if we all took up wood carving or stamp collecting, or went off and 
took naps.

Rob Atkinson
K5UJ

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