I don't speak my mind on things very often, but this suject bugs the hell out of me.
We're letting a bunch of stockbrokers ruin the Bell System that we all worked on. They're making billions by trading away the Bell System's reputation for reliability and fairness, one disappointed customer and missed appointment and outright lie at a time.
We've all heard the stories, and seen the articles: double-speak from paid-by-the-sale hucksters who don't know the different between a wire-spring and a relay race. Executives good only at looking good, while underlings come up with mealy-mouthed excuses for every broken promise, for each mystery charge on our exorbitant bills, and for the way they're trying to force everyone to buy a cellphone and pay by the minute and the "feature" and this year's "new" gadget.
I have seen too much. I have been at this too long. I'm proud of what I built with my own two hands, just the way my father did, just the way my uncles did. I worked hard only to watch some thieves steal my pension and then toss me aside like yesterday's paper.
I know that the Bell System was something special. We are all letting it be stolen from us.
I'm not going to sign this: I can't have my own name on my email, because the only way I can afford my medicines is to work for one of the companies that's doing the stealing.
An old lineman