So I wake up today...

So I wake up today, late as usual. I go to make my coffee. While the pot was filling I looked out the window and see this bulldozer on my front lawn. I am a curious guy by nature so I go out side to see what the heck the guy is doing parking that yellow monster in my wife's daffodils.

"Excuse me, Sir" I say as I walk up to him. "Um... I hate to be one to complain but you know... You kind of parked your machine in my yard." He looks at me in my bathrobe and empty coffee cup and snorts, scratches himself as he leans over and spits. "Look Mac" he says to me "this aint your yard no more. It belongs to the city, they are gonna build a McBlockburgerbuster here cause you don't pay enough taxes"

"Not pay enough? I pay almost 30% and that is not counting property tax! You can't do this!" I reply to him. "Ed" he calls over his shoulder to the police men that I had not noticed before. "We got another one" I look up the street and see all my neighbors are all carting stuff out of their homes rapidly, filling their cars with what they can carry. Ed the cop looks at me and then reads a pre printed statement informing me that the court house has had plans for the annexation of this neighborhood for six months and I should have filed a compliant if I wanted to protest before now, but by not complaining I loose any legal recourse for claims against my lost property. He hands me a check it's for less than half of what I paid for the house. I'm informed that the city compensating me for the land, not the improvements (my house) on the land.

I'm allowed 15 minutes to clear out anything I want to take. I run in grab the wife and kids my laptop and a few other things. Looking back I wish I would have remembered the dog.

So we check into a motel and I call into work to let them know what is going on. My boss tells me that I have been re-assigned to the DMV. I am confused, "We make weed-eater string" I say, "How can you reassign me to the DMV?" Boss tells me the it was not him, the government called and said that he had to triple the taxes he paid, he told them that he couldn't afford that. They told him no problem because according to their records he has hired too many people for optimal performance for a firm his size and that they would reassign them.

I'm thinking to myself at this point that this is shaping up to be a lousy day.

So I go report to my new job. They gave me a manual and a window. In 5 minutes I'm helping people process applications. One problem. All the applicants are filling out voter registration cards as well as drivers licenses forms. Now I don't care you know, but I don't speak or even read one word of Spanish and the lady in the head scarf, she has blue eyes checked on the paper, but her eyes...they are clearly brown. So I call my new supervisor over. I give her the skinny on the whole eye thing and she looks at me her mouth open. Next thing I know I'm in the HR office being told that I'm rude and insensitive. She looks at me like I just killed her dog (damn I miss my dog) and shakes her blond head, while brushing off the lint from her blue pinstripe power suit and tells me that I have to go to a sensitivity training camp for 6 weeks because of my poor attitude. And then she tells me I can't work until I get my re-education certificate of completion of sensitivity training, oh yeah, unpaid leave of absence was a phrase she used in there somewhere.

So I have the rest of the afternoon to kill before I go home to tell my wife I'm going away to some summer camp for a few weeks without pay. Looking for a place to reflect on my situation and maybe find some inspiration I go to my church after all every time I have had trouble it was there for me. I get there and find it was torn down. A bar had built in it's place. What the heck I'm here. So I get a beer and a booth and sit down. I pull out my laptop and fire it up. I log on to make a post to my blog and find out that it has been shut down due to political commentary. I blog on turtles, what political commentary. I notice there is a link to click for more information. I click it.

According to CFR laws any blog that talks politics is in violation of the law so there for must be shut down. I then remember my big political comment I once said that Joe Lieberman talked as slow as a turtle walks. So I go to create a new blog and get a message that says I'm banned from the internet.

I walk out of the bar, distraught over all the bad things that have happened. I cross the street and get yelled at by my new friend Ed the cop. He runs over with his partner and they ask for my licence/party affiliation card because I was jay walking. I hand him my DL and he chuckles and runs it through the card reader. He looks at his partner who cuffs me. "Your going a way Pall, for along time. 3 Strikes and your out, no parole. And you got em all in one day!"


Think it can't happen to you? The above story is, of course, is absurd. No one would take all of your rights away at one time. First you would loose one then another one and another. People will reach a point when their anger will be motivating enough to get them interested to stand up for what are our GOd given rights. However the slower they take our rights away, the less likely we will notice because we are so wrapped up in finding out who is going to be voted off the island next or which celebrity is dumping who for whom.

At what point does your love of your rights overcome your apathy?