The Apple Family. Richard Nelson

Me neither.

      BARBARA: Me too . . .

      MARIAN: I don’t need to see him emote.

      JANE: I think he has surrounded himself with the wrong people.

      TIM: I agree.

      JANE: That chief of staff? I hated all that giving the finger, macho stuff.

      BENJAMIN: What?

      JANE: Thank god he’s gone.

      RICHARD: He gives people the finger, the chief of staff. He shouts and screams and swears. That makes him tough? Why did he choose him?

      JANE: He’s back in our hometown.

      RICHARD (More names): Geithner. Summers. He’s going too. But it took too long.

       (The others agree.)

       You just always get this feeling that they are protecting something. Not us. What? A system they know and believe in? Maybe. (Shrugs) Their friends?

      TIM: “There’s no such thing as shovel-ready.”

      BENJAMIN: What?

      JANE: The stimulus, Uncle. What we were told. Maybe what he was told.

      BARBARA: Maybe it’s because this is the first president who has been younger than us. Maybe that’s our problem.

       (No response.)

      RICHARD: He’s been running this country like he’s the president of a university. Congress, they’re the deans. And I suppose—we’re the students . . . That’s not good. But it is what he knows . . . (Shrugs) He’s trying hard.

      JANE: And why does he seem so scared to ask anything from us? It’s all—“we’re going to give you things.” We know that doesn’t work. Why doesn’t he ask?

      RICHARD: Is a country led by its leaders, or its leaders by us?

      TIM: Before becoming a senator, what actually had he done?

      BARBARA: Part-time teacher. (Looks to Richard) Part-time lawyer. Part-time legislator. (To Jane) Writer . . . What did we know about him?

       But I don’t fault him. Not him . . .

      RICHARD: No.

      JANE: No.

      BENJAMIN: Why not?

       (Pause.)

      RICHARD: Maybe we voted for him to feel good about ourselves.

       (The others look at him.)

       To feel we were good people, people without prejudice.

       To have all that over and done with. And just feel good . . .

       (The lights fade.)