| Friend — For Free Press, today feels like the official anniversary of the pandemic in the United States. March 12, 2020 was the last time I saw any of my colleagues in person before we closed our office for what we thought would only be a few weeks.
Looking back, it seems only fitting that our organization entered the pandemic by calling on companies like AT&T, Comcast and Verizon to ensure that people could connect and communicate while so many of us were being asked to stay at home.
Since then, we’ve supported communities calling on Comcast to provide fast, free and accessible service and worked tirelessly with our allies in Congress to chip away at the digital divide — work that’s involved shaping the strong universal-broadband provisions included in the December COVID-19 relief bill.
But we won’t rest until every person in our country has access to essential information. Will you make your first donation to our movement today, when all gifts up to $12,500 will go TWICE as far? Thanks to support from people like you, we have made incredible progress this past year. Together, we helped pass the HEROES Act in the House, stopped Charter from instituting reckless data caps and made real progress against disinformation on social media — all while we still had a president who denied the threat of COVID-19 as he watched 500,000 people die.
Now we have majority-party allies in both houses of Congress — and a president who has called for ending the digital divide. We have an opportunity for truly historic change. But amid the multitude of competing demands for D.C.’s attention, we need your help to make sure this happens.
With dangerous virus variants spreading across the country, millions of people need to continue to learn and work at home for their own safety. We must do everything we can to close the digital divide — and nothing short of universally affordable broadband access is acceptable. We have to raise $12,500 by March 31 for it to be DOUBLED, becoming $25,000 to help us end the digital divide for good. Please donate now. We have a proven record of getting strong legislation passed, and we've got support in the White House and Congress for universal broadband. Given all of that, you’d think an end to the digital divide would be all but ensured.
But after Biden’s incredibly popular COVID-19 relief bill passed without even a single Republican vote, it is all too clear that driving meaningful change — change that holds the potential to save lives — will continue to be an uphill battle.
Don’t miss this chance for your first-ever gift to go TWICE as far toward making history. Donate now to double your impact on the fight for access to essential, lifesaving information for all — and help us raise $12,500 by March 31.
In solidarity,
Heather Franklin
Campaign Manager
Free Press
freepress.net
P.S. On Inauguration Day, Sen. Ron Wyden declared that “broadband access and deployment should be in every recovery package, in every infrastructure package.”1 Free Press Action worked with Rep. Marc Veasey, Sen. Wyden and Democratic leadership in both chambers of Congress to create the Emergency Broadband Benefit program through December’s relief bill. But we can’t stop until every person in the United States is able to afford access to essential, lifesaving information. Please make your first donation to Free Press now, while your gift will go TWICE as far toward ending the digital divide.
1. “Internet Regulation Takes on Greater Urgency as Pandemic Highlights the Digital Divide,” The Washington Post, Jan. 20, 2021  |
