[Prev|Next|Index] Thu, Feb 22, 1996 Kev Hare

Future past

     By Kev Hare

     In a stroke of a pen, the fledgling country threw off the yoke of
     oppression and pledged it's support for a future of freedom from
     control and suppression. Born in the fires of revolution a
     confident nation threw the gauntlet in the face of bitter
     adversity and won it's place at the heart of democracy.

     Early Americane recognized the vital importance of freedom of
     speech, they knew that there are always forces who seek to gain
     control through the slow and insidious increase of the powers of
     government in day to day lives. A paper was written, given a
     place at the very founding of a nation, a single paper, a
     declaration of independence.

     In the paper certain truths were held as evident, yet it was only
     evident in the face of oppression, and in the years that followed
     the children of the writers of that glorious paper whittled away
     at the sentences contained therin, and slowly allowed it's
     protective powers to be eroded and erased.

     The country grew powerful, played it's part in the development of
     a world where information was freely available to all, where
     thought was allowed to glide across an electronic landscape
     peopled by human soul, free of the constraints of body, colour,
     race and creed. Yet even as the future promise took shape, the
     enemies of freewill slowly gained ground, wormed their ways into
     places of power and watched with cold eyes at the developing
     landscape.

     In a stroke of a pen, the country allowed the yoke of oppression
     to be placed upon it's shoulders, and pledged it's support for
     controls of speech and thought. The fires of revolution had died
     into faint embers. An overconfident nation watched as the enemies
     of free thought took up the gauntlet thrown down so many years
     before, and filed it away with a faint smile.The heart of
     democracy beat slowly, faint and unprotected.

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                     [Twenty-Four Hours of Democracy]