Today was pretty busy too, but not as busy as yesterday. I managed to find time to have a couple Thoughts.

Thought One: I don’t understand why so many conservatives are upset about the government’s TV converter coupon program. Honestly.

When I went to broadcast school, one of the first things we learned—indeed one of the Eternal Tenets of Marconiland—was that The Radio Frequency Bands Belong to the Public.

“The broadcast bands belong to the people,” our instructors would say again and again. “The government holds them in trust for the American public. Which is why we have free radio and TV in this country, and why we have FCC regulations and broadcast codes.”

OK. As I understand it, in taking away the analog television broadcast frequencies from free television, the government confiscated our (the people’s) property. The government’s FAQ on the changeover says:

An important benefit of the switch to all-digital broadcasting is that it will free up parts of the valuable broadcast spectrum for public safety communications (such as police, fire departments, and rescue squads). Also, some of the spectrum will be auctioned to companies that will be able to provide consumers with more advanced wireless services (such as wireless broadband). (Emphasis mine. ljw)

So the government is taking part of the people’s broadcast frequency bands and selling them to private corporations. For money.

If the government takes my house away under Eminent Domain, I expect to be paid for it. I don’t see why it’s unreasonable for the government to repay the public for the broadcast frequencies it has seized from them and is now selling.

Reimbursing those of us who (like me) can’t afford a fancy new TV right now seems like the least they can do.

OK. Second Thought: I’m still mulling over the Charles Schulz biography. And there’s another thing I think we can learn from what I see as the man’s tragedy.

Sometimes the worst thing that can happen to a person is success.

My personality is frighteningly like Schulz’. I have the same impulse to wall myself off from my fellow man, to keep to safe things, that he had.

But I’m not very successful. I have to do things like go to work, shop for groceries, and try to get along with my neighbors and co-workers.

I’m not able to withdraw the way he did, because I’d starve.

Schulz was unlucky enough to work himself into a position where he didn’t have to accommodate other people. He could neglect them, ignore them, or snub them (which he didn’t always do; he wasn’t a monster), and he knew they’d just come back. Because they needed him more than he needed them.

His success gave him power. And power corrupted him, as it is wont to do. He was able to construct his world according to his own specifications. And that made him a prisoner, just as if he’d been behind bars.

It may be that my low level of success has been one of God’s great blessings to me.

Update: This, by the way, is my definition of Hell. I suspect (I can’t prove it) that Hell is a place where people get just what they want (as opposed to what God wants), and it brings ever-increasing eternal death.