by Stephen Gray
Everybody in Rightsland was excited.... their new ruler, a Philosopher King, was creating
a new constitution. It was to be called �The Charter of Rights and Freedoms,� and every
person was going to be equal.
A few negative persons said it would not work, that it had been tried before in a place
called �Animal Farm.� It was pointed out to these persons that �Animal Farm� had only
been a story but what Rightsland had planned was going to be for real, and it would be a
success!
It was nearly 20 years later since Rightsland had adopted its Charter of Rights and
Freedoms (which was decided without the people voting on it). Rightsland was now a
hive of activity and rights had become an industry. Rightsland even had a motto which
said, All wrongs become rights. . . It�s possible: two wrongs DO make a right.
Every day new rights were created. . . pedophiles had rights; perverts had rights;
pornographers had rights; alternative lifestyles were a right. Marriage was now being
claimed as a right between men and men or women and women, or any other
combination that could be claimed as a right.
The judiciary no longer relied on interpretation of the law, but was now �reading in�
rights to the Charter of Rights. This was called imaginative or hallucinatory justice and
its possibilities were endless.
The politicians had also given power to political appointees. These were called Human
Rights Commissars and their job was to search and find rights wherever they could.
They were doing this at a record pace, putting a lie to the statement that government was
unproductive. Wrong persons were hauled before these commissars because their views
were not right. These people were told they had to be re-educated. Anyone questioning
the validity of wrongs that had become rights was accused of hate crimes, being bigoted,
extremist, homophobic, anti-choice, mean spirited, intolerant, or just plain wrong. After
all, the new Rightsland was for rights and questioning rights was a wrong.
The present ruler of Rightsland was a former henchperson of the original Philosopher
King. He had assisted in bringing �The Charter of Rights and Freedoms� to Rightsland.
He was a distinct individual; lots of people didn�t know what he said but everybody
agreed with him. After all, how could he be wrong? This was Rightsland.
At his political party�s convention his righteous followers had chanted �four more years;�
as they wanted his rule to continue. He wanted to show how right he was by winning 3
election terms. Some people in Rightsland, however, thought of him as a little dictator.
He told everyone that the next election would be fought on �values.� Some persons
hearing this said they didn�t think there were any real values left in Rightsland. But these
were considered to be negative people.
Rightsland had a unique system of government. It had language police in one part of the
country to ensure that only the right language was used.
It had human rights police to ensure that all rights were enforced and no wrongs
tolerated.
It had wheat board police to ensure that no free enterprise in grain was allowed. In fact,
one farmer who had tried to sell his own grain was taken to a Rightsland Jail in chains.
He had committed a wrong against Rightsland and that went against the grain.
It had GAG laws to prevent anyone seriously challenging the three main political parties
during an election. Some people called those three parties �The Three Stooges.� Their
names were Gliberal, New Deviations Party, and The Progressive Cons Party. All three
had one thing in common, they all agreed that Rightsland was for Rights and no wrongs
should be tolerated.
Rightsland even had files on all its citizenry. The reason given was that these files
helped to ensure that everyone was getting their rights. Some wrong people objected to
these files and said personal freedom was in danger. They said it smacked of Big Brother
and �1984.� It was pointed out to them that �1984� had only been a story and that in
Rightsland everyone had equal rights.
The politicians and police in Rightsland liked to attend and march in some parades. One
of their favourite parades was called the Pleasant Pride Parade. This was where all the
alternative lifestyles took to the streets, dressed up in various costumes. It was hard to
tell which gender was which; however, some did display their bodily appendages. And
some made lewd gestures. At one time in Rightsland when the country was sane, this
behaviour would have been called obscene, an insult to law and order. But this was
Rightsland and nothing was wrong anymore. And wasn�t that the Police Chief leading
the Pleasant Pride Parade? Therefore, nobody better call this law and disorder.
Life in Rightsland was about choice. Before the �Charter of Rights and Freedoms� a
pregnant woman was known to be carrying a baby. But the womyn�s rights movement
had decided this was no longer a life, but a choice. New words were invented to take
away the stigma of this killing by choice. Words like �product of conception,� �potential
life,� and �freedom of choice� were used when the baby or �choice� was not wanted.
This language was called �choicespeak� and was similar to �Reading in� that the
judiciary used. Language could mean anything you wanted it to mean. Rightsland was a
Wonderland and Alice was right at home there.
It was also decided that Rightsland had to be made safe. Therefore, all guns had to be
registered. This would make it easier to confiscate them. It would also ensure that only
criminals would have guns. It was also proposed by a Rightsland politician that the
police should be allowed to break the law. Some negative people said that would make
the police criminals and thus questioned how it could be lawful.
Rightsland also had a system of giving money to special favoured groups. These were
people who wanted more rights, or to create new rights, so they received Rightsland
grants. The only criteria for receiving Rightsland grants was that it must be a right and
only wrong people were refused.
Wrong people in Rightsland were known as law abiding, family oriented, tax paying
traditionalists. These people had been the backbone of the country before the imposition
of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. They did not qualify for Rightsland grants
because somebody had to pay the taxes for the grants; this of course, fell on their
shoulders.
But now it appeared that the wrong people were starting to rebel . They complained they
had no rights, that they were paying over 50% of their income in taxes, that crime was
out of control, that criminals had rights, that their children were being indoctrinated into
unsafe lifestyles and that their freedoms were being taken away.
But Philosopher King Jr. had an answer for all these wrong people: leave the country.
Some of them did. Those who stayed believed a new day was coming and hoped that
freedom, sanity, and real rights could be restored to Rightsland.