History Lesson
	   A story by The Slipped Disk a/k/a The Messenger.


  Diana crumpled up the piece of paper if front of her and threw it in the
wastepaper basket. She noticed the paper was overflowing out of it and gave as
best a sigh that she could. Throwing the pencil on the floor, she walked out of
her room to get some water.

 "Dad", Diana said as she entered the living room, "I need help."

 Her father put down his newspaper and said,"With what, dear?"

 "My history report."

 "What's it about?"

 She rolled up her eyes toward the ceiling and then looked at him. "The 
government." ,she said, exhausted.

 He lifted one eyebrow. "That's a pretty big subject for an 11-year old."

 "I'm starting to find that out.",she said."Especially about the early years.My
history books only tell of it as `The time before the revolution'. My Report 
can't be one line. Can you help me?"

 "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."

 "Good",she said, Pulling out a pad and pencil, "Go ahead, dad."

 He gave a slight smile and started. "Well, the government of america that we
have today wasn't here when the country was started. Long ago, around the 19th
century, there was what we call a democratic government."

 "Democratic?",she said, looking up,"What does that mean?"

 "Um, by the old dictionary, to be by the people, for the people, and run by
the people."

 Diana's eyes opened wide. "Oh? How could that have ever worked?"

 He smiled. "Some used to say it didn't. Anyway, It was like this for about 250
years. Not too bad for such a government. Remember, though, the people could do
a lot more than what they can do now. But around the year 1998 the revolution 
happened."

 "Just like that?"

 "Not exactly. You see, there was supposedly a large corporation called AT&T 
that existed long before the revolution. They were in the buisiness of 
communication. They were very good at it and eventually they were one of the
largest corporations in the U.S."

 "Corporations? Dad, I'm losing you again."

 "Oh. Sorry. A corporation was a large group of companies. Interestingly, it was run by a group of regular people."

 "Not the government? How strange. Dad, it seems to me that this society couldn't have worked for as long as it did."

  "Well, it did. So in AT&T's beginning they didn't do much. People would call,
and they would connect them to who they were calling. But slowly, they started
adding more services like 800 numbers for free calling, and having more people
at once talking to each other. And they started to take away rights of people.
They started to listen in to phone calls. and they were able to record the conversations and use them against the people."

 "And nobody did anything about it?"

 "Um, there are rumors that once there was a secret society of people called 
`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."

 "And did they succeed?"
 
 "No. AT&T let out propaganda that the phone phreaks were responsible for
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."

"What about the government? didn't they do anything?"

"That was why the revolution happened. It was rumored that AT&T recorded 
certain high officials in the government making illegal buisiness. They 
supposedly bribed the government into spreading the news that the United States
had gone bankrupt and was going up for bidding. Of course since AT&T was the 
biggest corporation they bought it up immediately. Of course, some people spoke
openly about how this couldn't be constitutional. They were later found dead 
under strange curcumstances. People got the message. Soon after the government
decided that a dictatorship would help the state of America. "

 "A dictatorship?"

 "That's when the people have no control over the government. The government 
is in charge over everything. Newspapers, Magazines, TV, everything."

 "But's what wrong with that? That means we don't have to worry about all those
things that the people must've had to worry about before!"

 "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."

 Diana thought about this for a second, and shuddered. "I guess we don't live 
as well as I thought."

 "Yes. But there's nothing we can do about it now."

 "I suppose so. Well, thanks anyway, dad."

 "Anytime, dear."

 That night, Diana lay in bed looking at the ceiling. I guess this country 
isn't good as I believed, she thought. Those phone phreaks must have been
really brave to fight when the odds were against them.



 `With knowledge comes power, with power comes corruption'

							   -The Slipped Disk

								
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