Don’t let them kill, 1-800 SUICIDE!
Should a government agency be allowed to take 800 SUICIDE away from a suicide prevention organization?
You may remember the 1-800 RED CROSS case, and thought that it was a unique case and situation. I heard the slippery slope argument but didn’t honestly think that it would open the flood gates. After all, the Red Cross is the name of a specific organization with a unique roll in disaster support around the world. However in light of the way a government agency is trying to use the courts to take 800 & 888 SUICIDE away from a well respected and highly decorated nationwide suicide prevention organization is not only appalling but it clearly undermines the entire toll free system.
The Kristin Brooks Hope Center has handled over 2 million calls (about 650 per day) on these numbers and maintains round the clock staff utilizing a nationwide network of trained local crisis workers. They have received numerous awards and honors. Yet the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration which formerly provided some of the funding to KBHC, sought to take the 1-800 SUICIDE numbers away from this suicide prevention organization, and got a temporary order based mainly on allegations that KBHC, the rightful end customer of the number is or may be unable to continue it’s operations.
KBHC has more than demonstrated their viability if it was ever truly in question, but if there’s one thing that would actually destroy it, that would be taking the phone number out of the hotline. And if they can take 1-800 SUICIDE from a suicide prevention organization, who couldn’t they take a number away from?
I think this is atrocious not just because of what it would do to this suicide prevention organization, but what it does to the entire toll free industry. It’s not like they weren’t using it or that it would be somehow better for society. It’s not like KBHC was using a trademarked name, or misleading or harming the callers or doing anything at all wrong. A federal agency which used to support them simply decided that they were somehow a more appropriate use for the number, even though they ultimately intended to do the same thing.
Is this eminent domain for toll free numbers?
This kind of eminent domain IS clearly detrimental to the entire toll free industry. Toll free numbers were around for almost 30 years but didn’t take off and become what they are today until portability began in the early 90s. That’s because businesses couldn’t invest literally billions of dollars in advertising if they weren’t totally sure that they would be able to continue to use and have the ultimate control over the numbers. How many numbers do you think it will take the government to steal from the rightful owners before they will lose that confidence? Let me put it a little stronger and ask, “How many people would a serial killer have to kill before the rest of the people got scared and lost their confidence in the system.”
Is it acceptable for a powerful corporation or the federal government to kill just a couple people, that weren’t doing anything wrong? I have this vision of “big business and the government” as men in a giant office like the Capital One commercial. Except instead of asking for a loan, the tiny business owner is asking for his toll free number back as the giants flick him off the desk.
Don’t let the FCC think it’s alright to let the government or big businesses start “flicking” a few holes in the boat we’re all in. And with all of the new technologies emerging and changing, it won’t take too many holes for whole industry to lose it’s direction, lose confidence and start sinking.
Make your voice heard…
There is a point to this story and something you can do if you care about stopping the government from taking numbers from little guys and turning them over to bigger more powerful organizations. The attorneys for the Kristin Brooks Hope Center are asking anyone concerned about vanity number owner’s rights to simply write some comments to the upcoming hearing. Make your voice heard and let them know what you think about this.
Several of the original documents of the Kristin Brooks Hope Center filing are linked below if you’d like to read more directly from the case. But more importantly, there is a link to write some comments:
http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/prod/ecfs/upload_v2.cgi
Type 07-271 for the proceeding number.
You can also post some comments about this right here as well. I obviously feel very strongly that this is wrong, but it’s going to take a lot of voices to make this get heard. I don’t push for comments on most of my articles, but I really want to hear how you feel on this one.
http://www.tollfreenumbers.com/12.10.2007-FCC-comments.pdf
http://www.tollfreenumbers.com/Suicide-Prevention-Hotline-Permanent-Transfer.pdf
http://www.tollfreenumbers.com/Response-to-the-FCC-order-to-take-800-SUICIDE.pdf
http://www.tollfreenumbers.com/Comments-of-KBHC.pdf
http://www.tollfreenumbers.com/letter1-20.1.pdf
http://www.tollfreenumbers.com/letter1-20.2.pdf
http://www.tollfreenumbers.com/letter1-20.3.pdf
http://www.tollfreenumbers.com/letter1-20.4.pdf
http://www.tollfreenumbers.com/letter1-20.pdf
Don’t let the Federal Government take 1-800 SUICIDE from the people that have used it for years to help people who need it the most. And don’t let them kill this suicide prevention program just to give more power to the Federal Government.
(6 votes, average: 2.67 out of 5)
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Rudy Giovanni (1 comments.) says:
December 13, 2007 at 12:15 am
Hosting the Revolution on Tollfreenumbers.com!
Good point Bill - government IS stealing isn’t it. Interesting how you referred to it as ‘THE’ government, not “OUR” government. Like it’s against us. Interesting analogy - “Serial Killer/FCC” I totally understand now that you’ve put it that way you’ve completely converted my thoughts on big business. DOWN TO THIEVES!!!!
Bill Quimby (346 comments.) says:
December 13, 2007 at 8:56 am
Let me clarify this a little. It is the Substance Abuse administration, SAMHSA that seems to be stealing the number from the suicide prevention organization that has been using it.
The FCC is NOT stealing it, nor was I trying to compare the FCC to anything like a serial killer. NO NO NO. This was my concern about putting this up.
Unfortnately the government is a broad term and the plaintiff (SAMHSA) and the judge (FCC) are both branches of the government and it does get confusing.
I’m only suggesting that the FCC has to realize how important it is not to undermine the value and usability of all toll free numbers by allowing ANY organization even the government to simply TAKE numbers they want. That hurts everyone.
Reese Butler (1 comments.) says:
December 25, 2007 at 12:21 pm
Good news. Thanks to your support and others like you Bill, the FCC has granted the Kristin Brooks Hope Center a 90 day extension to review our claim of the “taking” of 1-800-SUICIDE.
This does not mean we have won but the fact they even granted an extension is proof the system can work.
Now we have 90 days to prove we are viable, and the “taking” of our number is wrong.
It is also another month for comments to be filed.
The FCC has refreshed the record so previous comments will not count.
I am certain the SAMHSA will gin up their contractors to write letters of support so we will need folks in the toll free industry to come to our aid. Us today and possibly your toll free tomorrow.
The non profit that started the poison control hotline had its toll free number taken as well. They did nothing wrong but it became so successful the feds decided they could run it better. 800-222-1222
How many others are at risk. 1-800-RUNAWAY is a number the feds have tried to claim they own even though they do not. Yet they have funded it virtually 100% since 1971.
United together we can stop this violation of the 5th amendment to the US Constitution.
Our lawyers, key national leaders in the mental health community and our respected Board members have tried to get meetings with the SAMHSA to work out an arrangement for the good of all the parties.
Instead of meeting with us they instead filed behind our backs two days before Thanksgiving without a courtesy notice to our lawyers hoping the filings would go unopposed and get approved.
Thanks to our vigilant lawyers they spotted the FCC filing and responded.
Not every organization has the legal support we do or the will to stand up to two federal agencies and AT&T to defend itself.
If they succeed here it will serve as a precedent and a reminder to anyone who dares to stand up for their Constitutional rights.
I thank Bill Quimby for having the guts to stand with us in this fight and all of those who sent in comments. For the record there were 348 comments filed in 72 hours. 341 for our organization keeping 1-800-SUICIDE and 7 against.
The 7 were all contractors for the SAMHSA or have received financial support from them. No disclosure was made to this connection.
Not one of our 341 have received a penny from our organization and most were consumers who had been helped by the line in the past. Most had donated money to help support our organization (average $10).
They could only muster 7 comments with all the millions they spend to unfairly compete with us. That is how wrong and blatant this effort to crush our organization and take its prime asset is.
I urge you all to file comments before January 22nd 2008. The site is:
http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/prod/ecfs/upload_v2.cgi
Type 95-155 for the proceeding number.
Please note that the proceeding number has changed so all comments filed before will not count towards this refreshed comment period.
Best always,
Reese Butler
President and Founder
Kristin Brooks Hope Center
National Hopeline Network 1-800-SUICIDE 784-2433
202-536-3200
202-536-3206 fax
615 7th Street NE
Washington, D.C. 20002
www.hopeline.com
reese@hopeline.com
Bill Quimby (346 comments.) says:
April 2, 2008 at 2:20 pm
Nick,
Your comment was removed because it looked like it might be comment spam and clearly didn’t add anything or sound like you had any understanding about the situation.
If you want to repost anything, please try to write something that contributes more rather than just saying they should do what helps the most people. If it helped more people to take your home and make it into a homeless shelter, should they do that?
Bill Quimby