COMMENTARY: A night without networking

John Scoggin

The Signal

Twas the night before SOPA, when all through the world,
Not a Wiki was stirring: a panic unfurled.
The masses formed riots with no time to burn,
In hopes that the needed sites soon would return.

The children were crying, all sad and upset,
While visions of blank Googles rushed in their heads.
And mamma in her fury, and I in my rage,
Had just rattled our brains and kept refreshing the page.

When out on Facebook there arose such a clatter,
I rushed to the Walls to see what was the matter.
An act of Congress was threatening the sites,
The masses were clamoring at how much that bites.

The frowns on the faces of the enraged public.
Showed fear of the power of our democratic republic.
When what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a protest marking the end of a politician’s career.

With a sudden black out, so gloomy and sick,
I knew in a moment the activism would be quick.
More rapid than eagles the protests they came,
And they shouted and called out the victims by name!

“On Google, On Wiki, On Flikr and Craigslist.
On BoingBoing, On Raw Story, On Gawker and 4chan.
Go to the petitions! Go veto the act!”
Some politely objected. Some lacked such tact.

As fearing extinction of the act of downloading,
When they meet with an obstacle, quic start the hoarding.
So up to the hard drive the downloads they flew,
With the .rar full of ROMs, and audio files too.

And then, in a instant, I heard on the Net
The gasping and shouting that I won’t soon forget.
As I read in my head, and was skimming around,
Returning to us, our sites came with a bound.

The outcry was so fierce that the politicians could see,
That they must rethink the act, quick as can be.
A rabble of “nays” they had said at the poll,
And it looked like the bad wording had taken its toll.

I’ve only written poetry a handful of times.
I’d rather write fan fics since I’m out of rhymes.
Naming the unknown author seems like a chore.
Was it Henry Livingston, Jr. or Clement Clarke Moore?