It is a dark day in America as Ajit Pai’s shadow looms over the American flag. It is with my deepest regret that I must inform you that the FCC has, in fact, voted to repeal Net Neutrality. Much like losing a family member, it will be difficult in the days, months, and years to come.

“But I’ll get over it, right?” you whimper.

Wrong. You’ll gaze upon the urn containing the ashes of Net Neutrality and weep, wondering where your money is going. All the while, those who benefit will simply sit back and laugh at your misfortune.

Now, we must pay for the decision of a mere three people. Yes, three out of five entire people decided something that will affect millions. And now we must pay.

Literally.

….or, maybe not. Yes, that’s right, all might not be lost. Within hours of the announcement, it was also revealed that a slew of states are to engage in a lawsuit against the FCC. The suit, being led by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, is set to challenge the decision and protect the liberties provided by the Net Neutrality rules. That is to say, the regulation of ISPs to prevent them from throttling your connection (slowing it down inconsistently) and restricting the use of specific services because they may be competitors (a timeline of specific examples of such abuse that occurred prior to 2015 can be found here).

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This whole situation seems unreal, all things considered. Three guys just voted to ruin the Internet, and yet, we as a collective refuse to back down, which is how it should be. Seeing as how we live in a democracy, being able to, as a people, have our voice heard and have it actually do something for us for once is more than gratifying. There are currently 18 states backing Schneiderman, and the number will hopefully continue to grow.

It’s always important to find the good in any situation, and while for a moment, anyone who actually cares about this may have been disheartened, the fact that there’s still a handful (or more!) of people actually listening to what the people want and are acting based on our interests is a little comforting. It means that someone is fighting for us, and that all of our cries of protest did not fall on deaf ears.

So, if there’s anything to take away from this, it’s to never lose hope and to never quit. Anything can change, for better or worse, and it’s up to us to decide which way the scale tips. Or at least, it’s up to the Attorney Generals to operate on our behalf. Hopefully issues like this get people to start paying attention to who actually holds the power in this country.