Rounding the corner behind the Hyatt Cinemas in Burlingame on my morning run, I hit a slick metal plate and took a spill. I got up, and continued running with a nasty pavement uppercut, and bruises to my knees, hands and left shoulder. And there, ahead of me, a brilliant rainbow lit by the early morning sun made me forget the pain I was in.
As I ran on, I thought of John Chamber’s comments published yesterday on GigaOm. Chambers is calling for funding for broadband in the US bail-out package. He, as many others have, compares national broadband to the interstate highway system. Positioning broadband as a national infrastructure priority, he sees it as a key ingredient in the US economic recovery.
The US economy has taken an unexpected and nasty spill, just as I did this morning. Unlike my situation, however, it’s a little more difficult for the economy to pick itself up and run ahead toward the rainbow. And unfortunately, there aren’t easy answers like broadband. If I was a US congressman, I might question whether an investment in broadband might provide the same economic impetus as an investment in education or healthcare. I might take the position that building a strong, educated and healthy workforce should be first priority.
But I’m not a US congressman. I’m just a bruised runner, limping toward a rainbow.
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