Postal Service to Charge for E-Mail

Read the following and pass it on to everyone you know:

Dear Internet Subscriber:

Please read the following carefully if you intend to
stay online and continue using email: The last few
months have revealed an alarming trend in the
Government of the United States attempting to quietly
push through legislation that will affect your use of
the Internet. Under proposed legislation the U.S.
Postal Service will be attempting to bilk email users
out of "alternate postage fees". Bill 602P will permit
the Federal Govt to charge a 5 cent surcharge on
every email delivered, by billing Internet Service
Providers at source. The consumer would then be
billed in turn by the ISP. Washington D.C. lawyer
Richard Stepp is working without pay to prevent this 
legislation from becoming law. The U.S. Postal Service 
is claiming that lost revenue due to the proliferation 
of email is costing nearly $230,000,000 in revenue per 
year. You may have noticed their recent ad campaign "There 
is nothing like a letter". Since the average citizen
received about 10 pieces of email per day in 1998, the
cost to the typical individual would be an additional
50 cents per day, or over $180 dollars per year, above
and beyond their regular Internet costs. Note that
this would be money paid directly to the U.S. Postal
Service for a service they do not even provide. The
whole point of the Internet is democracy and
non-interference. If the federal government is
permitted to tamper with our liberties by adding a surcharge 
to email, who knows where it will end. You are already paying 
an exorbitant price for snail mail because of bureacratic
efficiency. It currently takes up to 6 days for a letter 
to be delivered from New York to Buffalo. If the U.S. Postal
Service is allowed to tinker with email, it will mark
the end of the "free" Internet in the United States.
One congressman, Tony Schnell (R) has even suggested a
"twenty to forty dollar per month surcharge on all
Internet service" above and beyond the government's
proposed email charges. Note that most of the major
newspapers have ignored the story, the only exception
being the Washingtonian which called the idea of email
surcharge "a useful concept who's time has come"
March 6th 1999 Editorial) Don't sit by and watch your
freedoms erode away!

Send this email to all Americans on your list and tell
your friends and relatives to write to their
congressman and say "No!" to Bill 602P. Kate Turner
Assistant to Richard Stepp, Berger, Stepp and Gorman
Attorneys at Law 216 Concorde Street, Vienna, Va.