Page 146 of Nearly Roadkill
“Hey, Wally, good news,” Shelly says as she shows him the announcement on her screen. “Not only have the rights been reinstated, but apparently some civic-minded citizen of these United States found out about the memo and blew the whistle to the ACLU.”
“What?!” exclaims Budge. “How’d they find out so fast?”
“No idea, Wally,” Shelly says, perhaps a tad too quickly. “But it seems the ACLU has mounted a mass lawsuit, number of parties unlimited.”
END JABBA NARRATIVE ENTRY
GWYNYTH DIARY ENTRY
48 hours until Mercury goes retrograde.
All systems are up. Where is everybody? Could our young lovers have hit on the goof of the century?
END GWYNYTH DIARY ENTRY
To:Editor at They/Them magazine
From:D.I. Drew
Subject:… heard ’round the world
Hi Asa,
My high school civics teacher made us memorize the famous “How does this strike you?” email. Did yours? I remember being so inspired. And all the anthems that followed, tens of thousands. So here it is, now in context—
Drew
GWYNYTH DIARY ENTRY
To:All Our Friends
From:[email protected]
Subj:How does this strike you?
Hey, hello. We hope you’re well.
I’m writing for both Scratch and myself. Can’t make this too long because some people would rather we took up residence somewhere with no windows. The two of us have been blown away by all the letters we’ve been getting. We can’t answer them because of tracers. But we want to say thanks so much.
It’s been a really weird time for both of us, especially now with this charge of High Treason. After they get us, who are they going to target *next*? So, we came up with an idea:
We want to call a general strike, an online shutdown for 24 hours, to let the govt know they can’t get away with tracking us online, and Big Business can’t tell us what to buy. Obviously there’s a whole lot of support for this way of thinking, more than anyone realized, and we should let our helpful govt know that *our* eyes are on *them*.
The deal would be for everyone to sign off and shut down at once. Not forever, just a day. March 15, 1995. Beware the Ides of March, and all that jazz. Everyone goes to the website jumping_off dot com and posts their own version of a farewell, an anthem, or even just a fuck you. Everyone writes their own. You can sign it or not. More powerful if you do, but it’s up to you.
Every single user: no matter what you use to get online. The only ones left online will be the govt, and let’s see how much fun they have talking to themselves, without us to spy on.
We hear there’s a rally online tonight. Maybe you could talk about it there? Obviously Scratch and I won’t be able to be there, but maybe this is something to do?
{{{Netfriends}}}
—your everlovin’ Scratch and Winc
P.S. We were thinking 24 hours starting 8 a.m. Eastern time, March 15. That’s the day after tomorrow.
Romeo and Juliet are planning their strike for the precise moment Mercury goes retrograde. How wonderful!
END GWYNYTH DIARY ENTRY
