San Francisco Mayor Discovers Another "Right"

Mayor Gavin Newsom, who decided on his own that gay marriage was a "right" and the law of the land in California before being slapped down by the courts, has discovered a new "right" that he plans to promote:

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who became internationally known for his campaign a year ago to legalize gay marriage, said on Monday he considered wireless Internet access a fundamental right of all citizens.

Newsom told a news conference that he was bracing for a battle with telephone and cable interests, along with state and U.S. regulators, whom he said were looking to derail a campaign by cities to offer free or low-cost municipal Wi-Fi services.

Wi-Fi is a short-range wireless technology that is now built into most laptop computers and is increasingly offered on handheld computers and certain mobile phones. Local officials are mulling plans to blanket every nook and cranny of this hilly city of 750,000 residents with Wi-Fi access.

"This is inevitable -- Wi-Fi. It is long overdue," Newsom told a news conference at San Francisco's City Hall. "It is to me a fundamental right to have access universally to information," he said.

[...]

Wireless access can be seen a basic right that should be available not just to business professionals but also lower-income citizens. "This is a civil rights issue as much as anything else," Newsom said.

Once again a lot of taxpayer funds will be spent defending a Newsom decision in the courts. I don't really care if they want to put free Wi-Fi in the Gay Bay - I just wish they wouldn't refer to everything as a "fundamental right". It really cheapens the whole concept of rights.

If free Wi-Fi is a "right", then the next "right" will have to be a wireless-enabled laptop. What good is a right to Wi-Fi without a device which can use it? And where does it end?

It may be a good idea to put free Wi-Fi in San Francisco, but knock off the "civil rights" crap. And by the way, it won't be free. The citizens may not pay for it directly, but you can be sure they'll pay for it indirectly through increased taxes and fees.