116 lines
4.9 KiB
Plaintext
116 lines
4.9 KiB
Plaintext
History Lesson
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A story by The Slipped Disk a/k/a The Messenger.
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Diana crumpled up the piece of paper if front of her and threw it in the
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wastepaper basket. She noticed the paper was overflowing out of it and gave as
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best a sigh that she could. Throwing the pencil on the floor, she walked out of
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her room to get some water.
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"Dad", Diana said as she entered the living room, "I need help."
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Her father put down his newspaper and said,"With what, dear?"
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"My history report."
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"What's it about?"
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She rolled up her eyes toward the ceiling and then looked at him. "The
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government." ,she said, exhausted.
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He lifted one eyebrow. "That's a pretty big subject for an 11-year old."
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"I'm starting to find that out.",she said."Especially about the early years.My
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history books only tell of it as `The time before the revolution'. My Report
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can't be one line. Can you help me?"
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"Well, I was only a child when my great-grandfather told me about it. But I suppose I could tell you a fair bit of it."
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"Good",she said, Pulling out a pad and pencil, "Go ahead, dad."
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He gave a slight smile and started. "Well, the government of america that we
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have today wasn't here when the country was started. Long ago, around the 19th
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century, there was what we call a democratic government."
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"Democratic?",she said, looking up,"What does that mean?"
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"Um, by the old dictionary, to be by the people, for the people, and run by
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the people."
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Diana's eyes opened wide. "Oh? How could that have ever worked?"
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He smiled. "Some used to say it didn't. Anyway, It was like this for about 250
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years. Not too bad for such a government. Remember, though, the people could do
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a lot more than what they can do now. But around the year 1998 the revolution
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happened."
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"Just like that?"
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"Not exactly. You see, there was supposedly a large corporation called AT&T
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that existed long before the revolution. They were in the buisiness of
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communication. They were very good at it and eventually they were one of the
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largest corporations in the U.S."
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"Corporations? Dad, I'm losing you again."
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"Oh. Sorry. A corporation was a large group of companies. Interestingly, it was run by a group of regular people."
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"Not the government? How strange. Dad, it seems to me that this society couldn't have worked for as long as it did."
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"Well, it did. So in AT&T's beginning they didn't do much. People would call,
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and they would connect them to who they were calling. But slowly, they started
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adding more services like 800 numbers for free calling, and having more people
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at once talking to each other. And they started to take away rights of people.
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They started to listen in to phone calls. and they were able to record the conversations and use them against the people."
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"And nobody did anything about it?"
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"Um, there are rumors that once there was a secret society of people called
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`Phone Phreaks' That vailiantly tried to stop AT&T, or ma bell as it was also called. They would filch money in large amounts and try to make ma bell go bankrupt."
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"And did they succeed?"
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"No. AT&T let out propaganda that the phone phreaks were responsible for
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all the listening in that they were doing. So the people didn't think twice about it when AT&T started doing more and more to take away rights."
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"What about the government? didn't they do anything?"
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"That was why the revolution happened. It was rumored that AT&T recorded
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certain high officials in the government making illegal buisiness. They
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supposedly bribed the government into spreading the news that the United States
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had gone bankrupt and was going up for bidding. Of course since AT&T was the
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biggest corporation they bought it up immediately. Of course, some people spoke
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openly about how this couldn't be constitutional. They were later found dead
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under strange curcumstances. People got the message. Soon after the government
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decided that a dictatorship would help the state of America. "
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"A dictatorship?"
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"That's when the people have no control over the government. The government
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is in charge over everything. Newspapers, Magazines, TV, everything."
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"But's what wrong with that? That means we don't have to worry about all those
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things that the people must've had to worry about before!"
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"Yes, but now we have no power over what the government does. They can raise our taxes, stop us from publicly speaking, and hold down our creativity."
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Diana thought about this for a second, and shuddered. "I guess we don't live
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as well as I thought."
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"Yes. But there's nothing we can do about it now."
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"I suppose so. Well, thanks anyway, dad."
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"Anytime, dear."
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That night, Diana lay in bed looking at the ceiling. I guess this country
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isn't good as I believed, she thought. Those phone phreaks must have been
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really brave to fight when the odds were against them.
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`With knowledge comes power, with power comes corruption'
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-The Slipped Disk
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