"The great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do."
-- found in a random Chinese fortune cookie
"Independence is my happiness, and I view things as they are, without regard to place or person; my country is the world, and my religion is to do good."
-- Thomas Paine, from the Rights Of Man
The author of the Kill Your Television Home Page is Ron Kaufman, a journalist and teacher. I write creatively, play guitar (Gibson SG electric and Fender acoustic), listen to music (Grateful Dead, Pink Floyd, Iron Maiden and more), camp and hike, shop, play games, draw, do computer stuff, build things, take care of plants (bonsai), ride my bike, lift weights, take karate (Tang Soo Do), read, drink good coffee, travel, talk to friends, and do lots of other things . . . but don't watch TV.
After graduating from the University of Delaware in 1992 with a degree in psychology, I worked as a journalist in Philadelphia and Washington D.C. covering scientific news. I left journalism after a few years, unhappy with its lack of upward mobility and high level of corporate control. I moved to Austin, Texas and spent two years doing odd jobs and teaching myself computer programs. I worked as a carpenter's apprentice, a Cajun seafood cook, a doorman at a Grateful Dead bar, a plumber's apprentice, a standardized test grader, a furniture mover and a bunch of temporary jobs.
I moved back home to Philadelphia during the summer of 1996 and began a career as a computer teacher. I started teaching at the Henry H. Houston Elementary School and am now the instructional technology coordinator at the Bodine High School For International Affairs, both in the School District of Philadelphia. I love to teach and am happy it is now my career.
The Kill Your Television page was created to try and get people to think about the amount of television they watch. I receive a lot of e-mail from the page, and most of it is wonderful. Many are glad the site exists and confirms their own ideas about the effects of tube watching. Not everyone agrees, however. But the idea is to, if nothing else, drastically cut down on the amount of time spent in a vegetable-like state in front of the tube.
I hope you enjoyed the site. The Internet is a wonderful communications tool and I encourage everyone to get involved. Unlike network TV -- everyone has access!
