Sherman Austin is a very smart "18 going on 19" year old who lives in Los Angeles with his mother. He connected 12 computers together to make himself a server and with it he hosted his website RaisetheFist.com. On his website were nothing but words. No guns, bullets, missiles, bombs or any of the physical stuff that governments and their hired police use to hurt and kill people. Neither did Sherman yell FIRE! in a crowded theater. But in this decreasingly democratic society where rights are now a dispensation of a non-elected government, on January 24, 2002 between 25 and 30 armed agents of the state surrounded Sherman's house, forcibly entered and removed all his computer equipment, backup disks, and printed political material. In removing his computers they also removed his means of livelihood, since he's also a free-lance programmer. The surly agents of the state, LA PD, Sheriff's Dept., FBI, etc., told him, "You'll probably never see this stuff again, kid."
A few days later Sherman was interviewed by Indy Media and I was amazed at his calm, sane answers to a lot of questions and also his courage. "Don't give up," he said. But there was one other thing he said which, because of its icy, incisive simplicity, has to be passed on verbatim.
Indy media: Sherman, what do you think the future holds?Sherman: Nothing but a barcode.
Think about it.