Here’s an initial part of Doug McPheters’s “Stepping on Fingers,” where Lea Holderness is sent to a Russian penal colony by a US religious court for disagreeing with new laws restricting traditional Americans freedoms:
“But I didn’t do anything wrong! We have the God-given freedom of speech. I was supposed to teach my students the truth and…”
“You are unrepentant!” the judge interrupted, silencing her with the rap, rap, rapping of her gavel. “You have shown no remorse for stirring up the still pool of the closely-held beliefs of the Government. You also have contempt for the Government’s health mandates. You have plainly not asked God to absolve you of your sins or to take these heresies from you. In face of the utter lack of any mitigating factors, pursuant to the powers delegated to this Court by the provisions of the No Hate Speech Act, I hereby sentence you to immediate transportation to Penal Colony 627 without possibility of pardon, parole or redemption. Courtroom deacon, push your mask up over your nose and deliver the prisoner to the custody of the Guardians, for transportation to the transit prison and thence to Penal Colony 627 without further delay!”
After what seemed like ages, the wooden chair beside me creaked and scraped on the floor. The young man yanked my shackled wrists and dragged me toward the shrilly whistling door. Giving me an annoyed glance, he shook his head. The vacuum in the corridor outside seemed to be gently pulling me out of that stifling courtroom, toward whatever lay ahead for me.
“Let’s go, Miss! Like, ya got an appointment in a place that’ll, like, ya know, make this here North Country seem like, ya know, Ft. Laudeedale. Like, I mean, lucky one of them there Mooslim courts didn’t get their teeth into ya. I mean, like, them there Mooslims take particler offense at uppity bitches such as yerself.”
The judge stood up from her seat behind the bench, clattered down the steps toward the whistling door and tried with all her might to pull it open.
“Wait! What about my little girl? Who’ll take care of my Clara if I’m sent away?”
@www.franklincountyny.gov, www.mcphetersbooks.com
#repression, #hatespeech, #conspiracytheory, #religiouscourts, #dissention
