The Social Porcupine

  (somewhat of) a satire It might be old news, but women are frustrated . Unfortunately, they can’t blame men anymore. They tried, they won, and now their rights are safeguarded by nuclear threat, and by the brains of nerdy, effeminate men willing to bring home the paycheck and change the newborn’s diapers. There just isn’t time anymore to open the car door or pay attention to which side of the street she is walking on. His picks up his dirty underwear now, but he also won't share a sock drawer anymore. And she feels slighted.  Who licked the icing off the cake? Women have lost their sense of identity, and it all started because they didn’t want men to spend so much time at the bars. Actually, they didn’t want their men to drink at all. Hence the reformation among Presbyterian and Methodist preachers to put down the bottle and ordain a few  women pastors. Hence the temperance movement. Hence the end of moonshine and the beginning of World Wars, pantyhose, and pink razors....

Liz Catlin opened her door to a state trooper late one winter night. The four youngest of her fourteen children stood around her. She asked if she could call someone to stay with them.  “That boy looks old enough to watch them,” he said and dragged her roughly, barefoot and without a coat, out into the snow. She asked for clothes, and the state trooper allowed one of the young daughters to pass her a pair of snow boots.  Liz waited in the snow, surveying the scene around here. “Thirty years ago,”  she thought. “I’d be out here in handcuffs because of homeschooling, and they’d be taking the children away, too." They didn't seem to care that the children were underaged. They left them and brought Liz catlin to jail where they chained her to a wall until a warrant could be processed and issued for her arrest.  She spent a day in jail that first time. Her community rallied together and raised enough money for bond, but just a month later she was arrested agai...