BREAKING NEWS: The Internet shuts down

image by codiceinternet

No, the Internet is still up and running as I write, but Congress is working to pass a bill that would give the President the option of shutting down civilian online access.  That shut-down could last for months according the the currently written bill.   As with everything Congress does, this bill is up to its ears in politics, and I have to question the sanity of the individuals who wrote this bill and are promoting it.

Since when is any emergency or disaster made better with less information?  In a crisis, whether it’s the health of a family member or a natural disaster, everyone involved wants a steady stream of accurate and current information.  It scares me to think that our nation’s leaders want the option of shutting down our single most important source of news and that they think it’s a good idea!

One must conclude that the only news that would be allowable in an extreme crisis, as defined by the President, would come from officially sanctioned sources.  That is hardly comforting.

So how does this apply to our community of SurvivalMoms and Dads? At a practical, survival level, consider how such an event would impact your life and plan accordingly.  Do you have hard copies of important documents stored on your computer?  Do you have some cash on hand in case online banking becomes inaccessible?  Do you have a printed copy of important telephone numbers?  I discovered that all mine are stored on my cell phone or my computer. For a while, I didn’t even have a phone book in the house!

In what other ways would a loss of the Internet impact your life?  Over the next week or two pay attention to your dependence on the World Wide Web and think about what you can do now if our President should ever decide that some crisis or another calls for him to hit the cut-off switch.

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