Move over buggy whips - Pay phones next?

Pay phones are disappearing from America's landscape, dropping from a high of 2.7 million in the mid-1990s to about 1.9 million now. Is that unfortunate?

Think of it like this: We don't have buggy whips or churn our own butter anymore either.

It's called progress. Buggies were replaced by motorized four-wheeled creations, and the people that make dairy products are now kind enough to produce all of our dairy products for us.

Likewise, pay phones are being replaced by cell phones. Most people carry cell phones now, and that is a trend that can only be expected to grow. At Southeast Missouri State University, there are just 20 pay phones, down from 75 two years ago.

Whether or not it's true, people believe they can't function well without access to instant communication. Phone companies don't consider pay phones profitable and are paring them back.

But there is one cause for concern. There are some people whose only access to a phone is a pay phone. That makes SBC's commitment to serving that element of society -- for now -- reassuring.

But we cannot blame phone companies for removing the pay phones. As Henry David Thoreau said: "Things do not change; we change."