Ignorance comes in a lot of forms and you see it everywhere; people not knowing what they don’t know, yet claim to know and end up doing something to harm themselves in the process. It happens in big cities and small, and when it shows up, it’s a bit astonishing. I’ve been ignorant at times myself. Shocking!

Here in Rogersville, someone posted on the local community Facebook page, which has since been taken down, about their attempt to block access to the company running fiber-optic cable conduit in eastern Green and western Webster counties over the legal right-of-way, claiming the conduit contractor has to prove they have an easement, or legal rights for their run, which I’m sure they do. The path is flagged before they run the conduit plow or lateral drill. I saw the survey maps for this development and they are all clearly marked. I’ve never heard of anything this obtuse, but yet this person felt the need to tell everyone on the Facebook page about how to slow down the installation of fiber by demanding that they prove rights to their installation path, something they don’t have to prove.

I know that the fiber conduit they ran last week was likely run on a section of my property but I was ready to throw them a party instead. All of us are getting very high speed fiber because of a $90 million dollar grant for this area. That $90 million came from taxes collected from utilities for this purpose of getting rural communities into this next century as they fall further behind. It’s part of an effort to get all of the US better fiber connectivity.

Privately, because of my long property line in this rural area, this would otherwise cost me and every home owner five figures to complete on our own. Just to my property line, I’d be looking at a cost of about $16,000 plus the shared cost of running it to the nearest junction point almost five miles away. There are 67 homes between that point and here, and as near as I can tell from Google Maps. Divide that 4.8 miles into 75 homes, assuming I can’t see a few houses, and add that to the cost at $27.00 a running foot, and you’re looking at an additional $10k per home owner, just to get to my property line. Then on top of this grant, add in the improved value to my property, not to mention the efficiency of the service, and what it will allow and when you total it all up, what a gift! Let the plowing begin!

Yet this ignorant land owner, sorry but there are no better words, wants to stop them in their tracks and raise an issue about an easement off a road because, well, they have nothing better to do. I’m trying for the life of me to understand the stupidity. I know the conduit is probably run on my property line because it was the easier way to run the plow, yet I don’t care. There isn’t a chance me or anyone else would ever build anything that close to a road anyway and I’m thrilled to get the service. This guy’s road easements would be no different. There is no way it’s crossing through the middle of his property or anywhere they don’t have proper rights.

I’m shocked by the mentality, and the lack of forethought, but then again, it was probably this same way of thinking that tried to stop telephone or electricity from reaching rural communities. They know nothing about the benefits, won’t take the time to understand what it means, and only think of themselves.

I don’t know how a rural community changes this way of thinking and I blame the lack of community leaders who should be teaching locals about technology and what it means for all of them. They don’t know any better because they don’t have the portal, outside of the local paper and they are not at all technologically savvy either. It’s a shame. The lack of information is what’s creating this level of ignorance and here this guy thought he was helping everyone by trying to stop it. Amazing!