Across The Great Divide

Last Saturday, I was fortunate enough to have a tech from Xfinity come into my home and run a check on why my connection to Al Gore's Internet was dropping out. This connection is extremely important given all the ways I am currently involved in online communication. This blog, though it is extremely therapeutic, shows up way down the list of reasons for why I need a steady link to cyberspace. Maybe you've heard about the global pandemic and how it's forced so many people to move their business online. My business is teaching, and business is not so good.
The reason I suggested earlier that I was fortunate to have a human being come into my home is obvious if you have spent any time on hold with the cable provider known as Xfinity. Or Comcast. Or "the cable company." They will tell you, or rather a pre-recorded voice will repeat to you over and over about the safety of all concerned and how that safety is being carefully weighed with each transaction. It took me several hours to break through the phone barrier just to speak directly to a human agent to discuss my problem as it was happening. After a few very well considered attempts at doing things their way, I was at last allowed to go step by step through the challenges I was having with my connection. After exhausting the scripted restarts and resets for the umpteenth time, I was granted an appointment with someone who I was assured could fix the problem. But I was first admonished that the technician would only be able to give me limited help with my problem, given that there is this global pandemic and all.
When Saturday morning came and I was alerted that my tech had arrived, I put on my mask and met him on the stairs coming up to my front door. He wore his mask and neither of us flinched as he entered my house and went straight to the modem to try and figure out why I was having trouble staying connected. He asked a few questions, checked a few things, made a few calls, and eventually made a correction that seemed to fix the problem. I was happy that when he left, there was a strong, steady signal coming into my home.
I could continue my stated mission of supporting distance learning with the three hundred kids at my school.
Which was awesome.
However, I know for a fact that this kind of service is not available to everyone. Specifically, it is not available to those who cannot afford it. I pay a couple hundred dollars a month to have someone come out and make sure that I still have something for which I can continue to pay a couple hundred dollars each month. There are dozens upon dozens of families I teach who do not have this option. And yet, the only way we can currently offer them my services is through Al Gore's Internet.
And it occurred to me, as I watched my tech go about his business, that wi-fi should be a public utility. It should be free or nearly that for all who want or need to use it. In the twenty-first century when we can order toilet paper from distant lands via online shopping, we should be able to offer those in need a hand - or a way to get one. Not just for a generously donated month or two, but moving forward and not just for a limited time. This is now the way we transact not just the dollars and cents but the A,B,Cs and the 1,2,3s. This link to the world outside, down the street and across the globe will remain a priority well after this virus has been ameliorated. The families of the kids I teach and those who need a way to connect shouldn't have to beg, borrow and steal Al Gore's Internet. They should have someone as clever and competent as I had come into their house to get them set up. Or at the very least, they should be offered a signal to which they can latch onto in order to live in the world with everyone else.
This is one of the lessons I have learned over the past two months.
That and how to wash my hands really well.
Don't they both seem like common sense?