TIME AND PLACE
2019. New York City. A banquet room (with numerous flashbacks).
SCENE 1 – Before the Banquet
Stage left: A rectangular “Board of Directors” table with a number of chairs around it. PLATO and three DIRECTORS enter. General greetings, shaking of hands, slaps on shoulders, etc., before they sit down – PLATO chairing the 2016 emergency Board meeting of the Modern Master Word Foundation.
PLATO
Friends … I know how busy you are. And I thank you. Especially this time of year.
And especially on such short notice.
A DIRECTOR
Piece of cake, Jack. Anything, for you.
PLATO
[strikes his gavel] Consider this, the 2016 emergency meeting called to order.
As we know, America is developing a serious truth and alibi problem.
Too serious to ignore any longer.
So serious, in fact, I fear it’s becoming life threatening.
A DIRECTOR
[skeptical] Life threatening? Jack, please…. Be at least a little bit serious.
PLATO
I am being serious. Brutally serious.
Dissemination of Untruth inevitably will lead people to take fatal action.
Misguided, fatal action.
And in my view, the clowns who invent the lies are fifth degree murderers.
A DIRECTOR
And there’s something we can do about it?
PLATO
We are guardians of the English word in America.
And we have it within our ability to curb the spread of verbal mendacity.
How?
By attacking the pathology of verbal mendacity at its source.
Which is fear. And the hatred it spawns.
Remember, friends, haters, everyone, are insecure people in search of a word.
And that’s where we come in.
A DIRECTOR
Does it always have to be some language thing with you, Jack?
PLATO
It does.
It does for me. And it does for us.
It’s in our mission statement.
It’s in the very charter of the Modern Master Word Foundation.
That we believe in the soul of speech. Its healing power. And its explosive power.
It’s what we believe in. And that’s what we are here to guard.
A DIRECTOR
No argument, Jack. No argument there. That’s what the Foundation’s all about.
PLATO
And we betray its whole meaning if we don’t broadcast what we believe, bluntly.
A DIRECTOR
Trust me, Jack, I’m on all fours with you.
But, can things really be all that bad?
PLATO
The hatred’s not fake, even if so much of the network news is. The fear’s not fake.
And we’re the ones who have the responsibility to get things back on track.
To get Americans to believe again in being the verbally honest people we are….
If we don’t do something, there could be another civil war on our hands.
A DIRECTOR
[beat] What are we supposed to do? And who’s going to let us?
PLATO
The question isn’t, who’s going to let us. The question is, who’s going to stop us.
And I could present you a list of those who might try.
The fundamental rights of Americans are our inalienable rights.
They must be protected. And we’re going to fight for them.
We’re not going to let them be brainwashed away.
We’re not going to let them be lost through demagoguery.
In the end, they represent the final answer to Lincoln’s final question:
Can a nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are
created equal, long endure?
A DIRECTOR
What are you proposing we do?
PLATO
I need a word with you. Actually, we need a word with one another.
A word that will wake our country up.
And a search for that word that will wake our country up.
A DIRECTOR
A word?
PLATO
I have no idea what the word is. Don’t ask me. Or where we’ll find it.
But I have faith in the idea that a single word can be the ground breaker.
A DIRECTOR
That one word will produce a seismic shift in American culture? Dream on.
A DIRECTOR
There are basically two ways we can choose to live:
One, as if nothing’s a miracle. And the other, as if everything is.
A DIRECTOR
Who said that? Joan of Arc? Or Lincoln? Or Robert Frost?
PLATO
Throughout history there have been disciples, like us, who have taken first steps.
Armed with nothing more than their vision and belief in miracles.
I have the utmost confidence in the inventiveness resting in this room.
I believe that just uttering that one word, when we find it, and we will, I promise.
That it will start a domino of events that will bring true back into truth, and civil back into civilization.
A DIRECTOR
[beat] I can picture it now.
In the beginning the word will be whispered, very softly about.
Then, it will spread…. And finally: The word of a generation.
A DIRECTOR
Let it be clothed in garlands, and anointed with oil.
Let it be carried in the pocket of Prince William to Buckingham Palace.
Let it be remembered by the Pope to God.
Let it be spoken in the face of ignorance and oppression everywhere.
Let it do itself proud.
A DIRECTOR
Are we in touch with reality here?