Delay Digital Disaster

Some conservative commentators make conspicuous efforts to appear to lack a social conscience. With the federally-mandated digital conversion creeping ever closer, the time is long since passed for conservatives to put their foot down and impede this foolishness. Stations have already demonstrated that they have the ability to transmit in both the analog and digital formats simultaneously. Most major stations are doing that right now, and it seems to be no great strain on them. With the foreclosure crisis and recession America is facing, to impose even a $9 burden on families or particularly the fixed income elderly, may be too much to ask. It may mean the difference between eating for a day, or with $4 prescriptions per month some pharmacies offer, this new expense could even mean missing two vital medicines. The elderly and infirm who still live independently may not be able to physically manipulate their large, old console televisions to attach the wiring, nor may they have relatives nearby to help them, and in this time of economic dislocation, they certainly can not hire an electrician or technician to assist them. The government has imposed an unnecessary burden at the worst possible moment, but it is not too late to block this idiotic mandate. I long ago attempted to contact both the AARP and the Gray Panthers to thwart this nonsense, but I received no response. True conservatives don't want the government telling them what to watch or what medium to watch it on; this will hurt the poorest the most at the worst time imaginable. I also don't want bureaucrats and politicians telling me what type of light bulb to use. I would like to tell them just where they can screw it in.