More than 1.1 million people signed a petition circulated by Common Cause and our allies asking the Federal Communications Commission to restore net neutrality protections and preserve the open Internet. If you’re one of them, thank you!

Today, we tried to deliver your messages to the FCC, only to find that they wouldn’t extend us — or you — the courtesy of a meeting. Instead, after waiting outside in the cold, we had to leave our petitions at the front desk.

As if that weren’t enough, our group of 10 or so advocates peacefully expressing their right to protest was apparently a grave enough threat to homeland security that by the time we left, we were outnumbered by the police officers called to keep an eye on us.

Public agencies are just that — public. Our tax dollars pay for them, we all agree to abide by their decisions they make. They work for us.

So it’s appalling that nobody at the FCC could spare just a few minutes to listen to over a million Americans. We’ve noticed that they always seem to find time for the telecom executives whose companies are fighting for the right to price gouge customers even further.

The fact is that the FCC could, right now, reinstate the open Internet protections that internet users, activists, and business owners rely on. All they’d have to do is reclassify broadband internet as a telecommunications service — but they haven’t found time to do that either.

When the voices of a million Americans are ignored, or worse, treated as a threat, you can’t help but wonder — if they’re not listening to us, who’s really calling the shots in our democracy?

Here’s a video of our statement in front of the FCC today: