The Internet is a very unique gathering of individuals, in a very strange sort of place, and it should stay that way. However, the American government, with the support of conglomerates like Comcast, are looking to strangle the very essence that makes the Internet what it is. Collectively, cyber citizens need to rise up and fight for what we have nurtured, created, and love so dearly.

“Governments of the Industrial World, you weary giants of flesh and steel, I come from Cyberspace, the new home of Mind. On behalf of the future, I ask you of the past to leave us alone. You are not welcome among us. You have no sovereignty where we gather.”

So begins the Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace; authored by John Perry Barlow for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which I am a member, in the Febuary of 1996. This entire document was written almost a decade before social media was put into practice, or was even a developed idea. It amazing to me that almost 20 years later, these words have more of an impact, and are somewhat predifined, as a fateful recreation of the years to come.

SOPA, PIPA, Comcast, PRISM, the NSA, and countless others are searching for a way to infringe upon our privacy; take our liberties and enforce laws in a domain where no laws should exist. I’m an avid, and proud, supporter of a free web. The Internet needs to stay a place where people can express themselves in any way they see fit, a place where business can be conducted without too many hands trying to find there way into the pot, and a place that cutural and social difference don’t divide people, they unite them.