James Boyce-
Here's the truth.
In March 1999, Vice President Al Gore was doing an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer. In the course of that interview, he said:
"During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet."
And guess what? It's true.
Let's quite Vincent Cerf, a man often called The Father of the Internet,
"The Internet would not be where it is in the United States without the strong support given to it and related research areas by the Vice President in his current role and in his earlier role as Senator."
Marc Andreesen, Internet pioneer who actually received federal funding thanks to Al Gore, who while Senator wrote the High Performance Computing Act also credits Gore. Another Internet expert, Dave Ferber says that without Gore the Internet "would not be where it is today."
Multiple early web pioneers say that Gore was the first political leader to grasp and understand the Internet and its possibilities. They all say it was his vision and yes, initiative, that helped turn the Internet into what it is today.
Al Gore took an essentially internal government program and set it free to the marketplace.
This is something he should be proud of. But it's not just reason that is under assault in our modern world, it's accomplishment. If you're child grew up to be fluent in a foreign language, would you be proud or shamed? Proud of course, but John Kerry's ability to speak French was a huge negative in 2004.
Not only should Al Gore get credit for this work on the web, but here it is, eight years after he was misquoted, and this is what they will lead with in their attacks on him.
No comments:
Post a Comment