I received an email today from an action group, saying they’d had an interview with Chairman Wheeler of the FCC and that he said that letters from individuals speaking about their personal situations would be given the most weight in their upcoming decision (to turn the Web into cable TV or not). So I put another comment up on their site and urge you to do the same (soon–deadline approaching fast).

Here’s mine:

Dear members of the FCC:

You hold my future in your hands.

I am a writer of novels. I publish and market my own books on the Internet through various sellers. I compete with huge conglomerates in the ebook market and was fortunate enough to have a book in the Top Forty in category in the US and Number One in category in the UK a few years ago. I did this on a shoestring budget with my own small business, something I never even contemplated in the past.

I am working feverishly on a new book which I hope will earn me a living wage as a writer. That would revolutionize my life. My marketing plans include video trailers and multimedia donated by talented friends. They’re crucial for attracting attention from an audience that has so many options.

But my hopes are only possible because the Internet is (for the moment) a level playing field.

The links on my homepage load at approximately the speed of any other website. My videos run as fast as those on Amazon, Simon & Schuster, Apple or the Defense Department. As soon as you allow a two-tier speed system, I become a second-tier player – not because of the quality of my content but because of the speed of its delivery.

There are hundreds of thousands out there like me, artists who’ve recently been given the opportunity to reach an audience on their own merit, without having to rely on the groupthink of Big Six Publishers, Big Three Music Companies, Hollywood studios, etc. There are countless entrepreneurs starting small businesses that might revolutionize our world. The Internet revolution is in its infancy but in forty years, it has already become the default for commerce, research, communications and entertainment. It’s even changed the English language – ‘default’ had a totally different meaning before.

The Internet is demonstrably and obviously a utility, a necessity of our way of life. Internet service must be declared a common carrier service. Any and all competitors who can pay a fair price must be allowed to use the existing wire to provide true competition in this marketplace.

This may not be the desire of the Verizon’s and the Comcast’s of this world (that merger must also be turned down–the fact that they don’t compete against each other is the strongest argument AGAINST the merger, not for it) – but it is crucial to the creation and development of a million new entrepreneurs like me around the world. And we, not them, are the future.