"William W Johnstone - Ashes 22 - Chaos in the Ashes (txt)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Johnstone William W)

all the rights of others, regardless of race or religion or creed.

Ben Raines figured, and calculated correctly, that only two or three out
of every ten Americans who survived the Great War could prosper and
enjoy life in a free society. It was a radical change from the old form
of government, where the government was constantly interfering in
everybody's business, with new rules and regulations and complicated
paperwork.

In the Tri-States, crime was virtually non-existent. The

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main reason being, it just wasn't tolerated. In the Tri-States, not only
was carrying weapons allowed, each citizen was required to have weapons,
for everyone of age was a part of the Rebel Army. Once the government
outside the Tri-States crawled to its knees and again started screwing
around in the lives of its citizens, the press called the Tri-States a
gun-powder society. As in so many cases, the press was only half right.
The people who chose to live in the Tri-States did so willingly and
happily. They were people who did not have to lock the doors to their
homes at night or take the keys out of their car or live in fear of
being mugged or assaulted. Any street in any town in the Tri-States was
safe to walk upon any time of the day or night. There were no slums, no
gangs, no drive-by shootings. There was full employment. In the
Tri-States, everybody who was able worked. Or got out. There were no
free rides. The old and the young and the infirm were cared for with the
utmost compassion. Values and respect and morals were taught in school.
In the Tri-States, morality was once more in vogue. Teenage pregnancies
were rare and it wasn't due to schools handing out condoms to young
people. That came about by like-minded parents and educators teaching
children values and self-respect, beginning at a very early age. Reading
was emphasized in the Tri-States.

Civil liberties types were appalled at what was going on in the
Tri-States. It was such a quiet and happy place. Something must be wrong
with a society where everybody is contented. Life isn't supposed to be
that way. You're supposed to have discontent and dissent and troubles
and woes and personal analysts and psychiatrists and head manipulators
and so forth. Something must be

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William W. Johnstone

drastically wrong with a society that wasn't wallowing in a plethora of
misery.

Why are these people smiling?