This started out being a comment in a post on Facebook, but I decided it was both too long and it was taking a different direction than the original post, so here it is…
Background: A post in the Parks on the Air (POTA) Facebook group started out with the usual POTA is the greatest thing to come along since sliced bread theme.
But some comments turned to how it was good that POTA was training people for quick deployment of radios in case of an Emergency. This turned into a debate over whether Ham Radio was really still relevant as an EMCOMM service.
This was my response:

We are given use of a public resource, the airwaves, and the possibility of providing emergency communications was one of (but not the only) reasons for it’s justification. Using that resource as a hobby – recreation – is also a valid reason and we should not feel any shame in using it that way, or feel pressure to earn the right to use that resource by providing some nebulous outdated public service.

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