MSNTV

Offer your feedback and comments at Rogi's Kitchen Table.

I go without some basics in order to be online with my MSNTV. If someone hadn't thrown out ten, brand-new pairs of sweat pants in the dumpster down the alley from my place, for instance, I wouldn't have any sweatpants to wear right now. I dumpster dive, to keep from needing to buy stuff.

I paid for my MSNTV by selling loot I dived from the dumpster.

My neighbors in the "War Zone" throw away small fortunes, renting movies, getting drunk, paying for cable and otherwise trying to entertain themselves, to relieve the monotonous depression of being trapped in poverty.

It's hard for me to get to libraries, concerts, lectures, etc. on the bus. It's hard for me to get to the local Flea Market, to sell my arts and crafts.

So, I do these things on the 'net.

People ask me, all the time, "if you're so poor, how come you're online?"

Because I need to research stuff, like medical care, repairs, legal info, consumer info, etc. Because I need to participate in life, not be held hostage by my poverty and forced into the solitary confinement of being a shut in in a slum.

How can I afford NOT to be online???
It's one of the main reasons I'm frustrated by MSNTV's indifference to its own product and subscribers.

If my neighbors all knew about MSNTV, maybe their kids would have options besides drug and alcohol abuse for amusement, teen pregnancy, violence and criminal behavior. Maybe some of them could make it to college!

People act like MSNTV is a toy. Well, for me, it's a lifeline.