Lakeside 2008 and the switch to digital TV

There are groups worrying about Spanish language viewers and their old TVs, but not older Americans who speak English and have old TVs all over the house and at Lakeside. Our itsy-bitsy Lakeside TV was purchased, I think, in 1987. It works fine and is hooked up to an antenna on the roof that the previous owner installed. (It's caught in the tree limbs so we might be able to get more stations if it would move.) We get a ton of stations--ABC, NBC, CBS, two different Fox, public TV from Toledo and Canada, some that are shopping or religious which appear or disappear depending on the time of day. Really, it's more TV than any vacationer really needs. But because of the age of the set (it's old enough to vote, drink and join the military), I don't think we can even connect to cable, and the converter box probably isn't a possibility either due to only one thingy (my all-purpose tech word) on the back which currently connects to the antenna.

“Lawmakers have expressed concern that switching to digital technology may negatively affect people who live near the Mexican border. Because Mexican broadcasters are not required to switch off their analog signals, some Hispanic residents of southern Texas or California may opt to rely on Mexican analog programming instead of upgrading their TVs to receive digital signals from U.S. stations. As a result, they would not be able to receive important public-safety warnings and emergency notices broadcast within the United States.”

In Columbus, I think we have 6 TVs; I know it's silly since I claim to not use much TV, but I'm sure we're not the only older Americans who think our reception is just fine. Has anyone in Congress worried or even asked about the environment? Calculate the landfill problem when households like mine dump all our 1970 and 1980s TV sets. They work fine--yes, it's not the clarity of HDTV, but then no one looks short and fat with bad skin flaws like they do on the newer widescreen flat digital TVs either.