THE DAY EVERYONE TORE UP THEIR MONEY

CHAPTER 1: The First Serious Job

One day the SEE-WHAT-IT-WOULD-BE-LIKE Club met as usual in Golden Gate Park.  The members were Synthia, Roxanne, & Joanne. Once they were settled down Roxanne said "I've been thinking & I wonder what it would be like if everyone tore up their money."  Well, it seemed like a perfectly interesting idea so right there & then the club members had their first serious job.

CHAPTER 2: A Complaint About Money

The first thing the girls decided to do was to picket. That Saturday the three could could be seen marching around with protest signs in Golden Gate Park. Joanne carried one that said MONEY SUCKS! Synthia carried one that said SEE WHAT IT WOULD BE LIKE! And Roxanne? She carried the best one of all. It read: RIP UP YOUR MONEY, DUDE!

CHAPTER 3: The First Miracle

By the end of the day, the girls were tired & worn out.  They sat down on a bench & shared a chocolate bar.  That's when the first miracle happened. A boy, about 17 years old, walked up to Joanne.  "Can I borrow that sign for a minute? " he asked.  Joanne handed him the sign. The boy carried the sign over to the nearest trash can. Then, to all the girls' amazement, he took a one hundred dollar bill out of his pocket, ripped it in half, & threw it in the trash can.

CHAPTER 4: The Second Miracle

The boy walked back to the girls. "Hey," he said, "I think what you're doing is really cool & I'd like to help." "Help?!" Synthia said. If a new club member joined, (especially one older than them) they would have alot more luck. "Sure!" the boy said. "My name is Gabriel". So, with alot of help from the new member Gabriel, the club organized a protest march.

CHAPTER 5: The Third Miracle

The next Saturday, the club members gathered their signs & got ready for the protest march to City Hall. Gabriel's sign said: DON'T BE AFRAID TO GO AGAINST LAW! Soon, many, many people stood by the side of the road watching the four kids march up to City Hall. People came running out of the building. When they saw the signs their faces got red with anger. But in spite of that, the children were being talked about on the TV news & were in the paper three times, one time in the San Francisco Post.

CHAPTER 6: San Francisco Goes Poor

Then, one day, a few months later, it happened. Everybody in San Francisco started to destroy their money in some way. Most children dug deep deep deep holes and buried their money in it. It had been heard that some people during weddings had ripped up every bit of paper money & thrown it in the air as confetti. Other people sent it to recycling centers with a note to be sure to make the dollars into thank you cards. People with fireplaces had a special celebration to throw all the money into the fire. Of course coins could not be disposed of so easily. Many people of San Francisco, young & old, came to Golden Gate Park with all their coins in their pockets. Then they made a huge fire & threw all of the money in.

CHAPTER 7: A Problem

Of course, there was still one problem: people in San Francisco were going to have to figure out how to get around without one cent o' money. Some children in schools made a whole effort to join in some way with the club, and with the help from those children the club started making new protest signs, such as : GO AHEAD AND TRADE! & WHAT DID PEOPLE USED TO DO!?! & YOU'RE GONNA HAVE TO TRADE! & TRADING'S REALLY GONNA HAVE TO WORK! And soon most people were trading so it looked like a whole bunch of Native Americans in Native American time.

CHAPTER 8: Trading What For What

Now you're probably itching to hear what was traded for what. Well, I'll tell you. Such as: instead of getting paid for work, the bosses named an amount of money. Then the worker would name things that used to add up to just that amount of money. Then the bosses would order the things from the store, (for everybody still kept their jobs.) And in exchange for those things, the bosses would give the people from the stores stuff that they wanted that cost just the amount of money that the thing he was buying, & so on. Also, rich & poor people were for once even. Poor people, people who had once been poor, had some kind of talent that before all this had happened nobody had cared for it. Now, with no money around, people could trade the things that they cared about. The money cycle was definitely changed, but was still a cycle.

CHAPTER 9: Getting Bigger

Of course, the club was overjoyed. Their plan had worked! But that was just for San Francisco. They needed to get bigger. They had been on TV & people not from San Francisco might have seen that but still, they had to have a better influence. They wrote letters to people from out of the city. Then they traded a beautiful china dove statue ot have an article about them put in the US News & World Report. After months & months of still working, more & more people were destroying their money. It seemed to them every day they were getting more & more famous. Then one day, on the anniversary of the whole idea, which was June 13, 1999, they got news that the whole United States had ruined their money.

CHAPTER 10: The Day Everyone Tore Up Their Money.

They continued working for years. More & more countries were destroying money. Then, before they knew it, the whole continent for God's sakes, was poor! But still, news kept growing. The world is a big place. Then, one day, the club members had a meeting. Suddenly, Joanne said : "Roxanne, what did you mean when you said you wondered what it would be like if everyone tore up their money?" "I meant the whole world" replied Roxanne. And one day, August 11, 2004, it happened.

By Siena