[News] Total Revolution or Nuthin'
Anti-Imperialist News
news at freedomarchives.org
Tue Oct 20 10:27:24 EDT 2009
TOTAL REVOLUTION OR NUTHIN
(Darkened stage. Jaunty whistling and cell-phone
texting is heard, along with the footsteps of
Converse sneakers on a dusty, small-town road.
Suddenly, the screech of heavy tires, then a
sickening thud and a groan. Lights up on the
original American Gothic couple, sitting on the
porch of their dilapidated house, up the hill
from the road. Pa is snoozing in his rocker; Ma
puts down her knitting and looks out, in the direction of the noise.)
Ma: Hey, Pa.
Pa: Yeah, Ma?
Ma: Theres a big ol anarchist lying in the middle of the road.
Pa: I believe I heard that one before, Ma.
Ma: This aint no joke, Pa. A cement truck
done come outta nowhere and knocked that anarchist feller down.
Pa: How you know hes an anarchist, Ma?
Ma: Black jeans. Black t-shirt. Cell phone.
Lack of personal hygiene. A woman knows these things, Pa.
Pa: He aint one a them hothead terrorists
what got arrested at the G-20 protest in
Pittsburgh? (Gasps.) Ma! You think hes the very
one whose house the police raided?
Ma: Maybe. (Pause. Ma goes back to her
knitting. Pa, now fully awake, seems troubled.)
Pa: Hey, Ma.
Ma: Yeah, Pa?
Pa: I feel kinda bad, sittin here on the
porch in total comfort, while that
anarcho-terrorists lying down there without his
books, his computer, his notes, and all his
personal belongings. You know, them police done
took everything in that raid. Maybe I ought to
throw myself down next to the anarchist in solidarity.
Ma: Now, Pa. Dont you go actin like one a
them guilt-crazed, grass-roots socialists. You
just sit right here and wait for them corporate
organizers to come by and turn you into
astroturf. I swear, ever since the bank took our
farm, you just aint been yourself.
Pa: (Pas hands go to either side of his
head; his eyes open wide; he begins to rock back
and forth agitatedly.) The bank, Ma! The bank!
Ma: Oh, lord I knew I shouldnt a brought that up again
Pa: Lookee here, Ma. The bank owned our farm, right?
Ma: Right, Pa.
Pa: And the bank told us what to do, right?
Ma: Right, Pa.
Pa: And the bank owns that cement company, right?
Ma: Probably, Pa. But
Pa: You know, Ma, Im beginnin to see a
pattern, here
(Suddenly rises and declaims.)
It is organized violence on top which creates
individual violence at the bottom. Thats Emma Goldman, Ma.
Ma: Pa, youre not feelin well. Let me make you some hot
Pa: (Throws down his cane in exhilaration.)
Hallelujah, Ma! I done had me a revelation! The
same societal forces what took our farm also
knocked down that poor little anarcho-terrorist
feller. We have all been trampled under the
wheels of a corrupt, white supremacist,
imperialist oligarchy, writhing in the insidious
throes of late-capitalist, male-dominated,
police-state surveillance. Glory be, Ma! Im a-speakin in tongues!
Ma: Why dont we just help the poor little terrorist up, Pa?
Pa: (Begins to march around the porch,
chanting.) Gay/straight; Black/White; Together We
Struggle; Together We Fight! We gotta form
coalitions with other oppressed groups, Ma. ¡La Lucha Continua!
Ma: Now you listen here, Pa. Either you start
talking sense, or Im leavin you.
Pa: I think what you mean, Ma, is that A
Woman Without a Man is Like a Fish Without a
Bicycle. Oh praise Mikhail Bakunin! He done put them holy words into my mouth!
Ma: Pa! Dont you know Obama wants you to talk like that?
Pa: Au contraire, Ma. This is what democracy
looks like! That anarcho-terrorist down yonder is
making a, what you call, protest. Hes sayin
that, although we may be knocked down by the
Cement Truck of History all our worldly goods
repossessed and raided there is still hope if
we but have the courage to lie there and (Ma is
peering out at the intersection.)
Ma: Uh, Pa, honey?
Pa: Yeah, comrade Ma?
Ma: He aint there no more.
Pa: Hows that?
Ma: The anarcho-terrorist done got up by
himself and limped away. (Long pause, during
which Pa sits back in his rocker. He looks shaken
and hurt. Finally, he regroups.)
Pa: Oh well. Anarchist dude has other towns
to go to, other cement trucks to meet.
Ma: I reckon. (Pause.)
Pa: You know, Ma. Maybe we should do
something nice for the little terrorist. Sort of say, Thanks for lying there?
Ma: Like what, Pa?
Pa: Hold one of them anarchist raves.
Ma: I give up. Go ahead, Pa, if itll make you happy.
Pa: Hot diggity! Im gonna telephone the boys
down at the V.F.W. to help me get the balloons all blowed up.
Ma: Maybe if you asked real polite, Pa, Id
sew you some nice FIGHT THE POWER banners.
Pa: And I bet we could blast the sound system
all over town from that cement truck!
Ma: What? Work within the system for social
change? Are you crazy, Pa? This has got to be
total Revolution or nuthin
(They continue
fomenting peaceably, rocking back and forth, as the lights fade.)
© Susie Day, 2009
Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863-9977
www.Freedomarchives.org
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