New Orleans        These days we are all so busy shaking our heads at the latest outrage, that we’re going to have neck problems for years.  I was hoping to go positive and discuss something like the value of solidarity because of recent attention the concept has gotten.  Instead, I’m once again riled up.  This time my head is shaking wildly back and forth about how too many ignore the value and power of radio and the degree this desire to impose ideology and personal preferences over reality fits a pattern of techno-ableism, as I’ve heard it called.

An elegantly written tribute to radio showed up on the Times’ op-ed page written by Serge Schmemann, a member of their editorial board and former correspondent in Russia during the Cold War.  He told one story after another from his experience of how valued the various channels operated under the Voice of America banner in Russia and Eastern Europe were.  His father had a show in Russian about religion and culture.  He once saw a jazz host, he didn’t know, mobbed in Russia because of the popularity and fame of his weekly show.  He noted the 425 million listeners and viewers, including the 360 million to the VOA in 50 different languages, all of which has now been shut down, unilaterally, and perhaps illegally, by the Trump administration.  A move enthusiastically applauded by Russian and Chinese propaganda outlets.  As one of them said, they didn’t have to do it, Trump did it for them.

Despite Elon Musk’s unsubstantiated claim that the VOA was a nest of “radical left crazy people,” actual personnel of the stations argued for the objectivity of their news and programming as essential in building their listenership.  This is more than the usual Musk tweet barrage, because Musk is of course an “internet is all and only” guy who owns both X-Twitter and Starlink, an internet service powered by his satellite system.  He doesn’t want competitors or other voices.  He doesn’t care that there are huge areas of the world where radio is the best available technology for news and more.

Add to all that the problem of what a colleague calls “techno-ableism,” which is discrimination against one and all who are not au current with the latest, which includes a huge number of lower income and working people in cities and rural areas in the good ol’ USA.  I’ll give you an example.  Building a radio station in Eudora, Arkansas, a town of less than 2000 people in the southeastern delta area of the state, our biggest supporter was the mayor.  The council voted unanimously to give us space for the studio and room on the water tower for an antenna, all gratis. Why?  They had once had a station in town, now long gone, and they knew how valuable it was for their population and to communicate with everyone.

Here’s another grassroots example of what happens when techno-ableists take over a function, ignoring their base with the huge population of New Orleans that is on the losing side of the digital divide.  A popular local politician was having a fundraiser with big plans to run for higher office.  The line to get in was huge.  Why?  They were trying to make everyone register with a QR code, very popular among many in younger and other demographics.  People didn’t have the app.  When they downloaded, they couldn’t make it work.  They also found it forced them to register on a lengthy form.  Several who tried to make a donation to the candidate were foiled and gave up, unable to make the whole thing work.

Some estimates on new requirements that Social Security beneficiaries and claimants would have to verify their identities on the internet recognize that this will mean more than 75,000 people per week who can’t do it.  They will have to go to the nearest field office, some of which are now being closed down, while workers are also being dismissed.  This is a strategy to deny benefits.  Arkansas used a similar internet only requirement to push tens of thousands off of Medicaid after its Affordable Care Act expansion.  All of this is on purpose.

I’m not railing against QR codes or the internet, but against the monolithic judgments, whether about the importance of radio in countries around the world and communities everywhere, as well as the ideological presumption that everyone is already connected and enabled.  These are mistakes, and once broken, it will be hard to put Humpty Dumpty back together again.