a Play by Jack Bowman ©

SCENE: This is Coffee-house theater and takes place in a coffee house. The open room with a small stage area is best. A Coffee-house where poetry readings have existed is the type needed. Performers will be planted in the audience. Can also be performed in theater.

CHARACTERS:

1. Revolutionary Poet(male)(pretentious )

2. Waitress(female)(is going to give up her child so

she can join the army-her parents are on Social Security )

3. Old Teacher (retired)(male) (comedian / insane)

4. Manager of McDonalds (male)(WASP - Capitalist)

5. Audience (audience participates with coffee and

(strike - raise fist sequence at end)

6. Extras (are planted in the audience to initiate

audience participation in strike sequence)

CHARACTER LINES:

WAITRESS

Welcome to the Coffeehouse Poetry reading. I am Anna. I will be serving you coffee tonight. This is my last night to serve you. I gave up custody of my child so I could join the Army. I cannot, at minimum wage, make enough to support my child and myself. I had to give up my child because the military would not let me join with a dependent.

The military is a good place for you. The poor always fight the battles for the wealthy. The wealthy can always get out of the service by paying off a doctor or other government officials.

But I have to give up my child.

The poor shouldn't have so many children. Well yes they should. We need a lot of people to do the work.

Lets get on with the reading. I am the one that was watching as America decayed. I will tell you the things that I saw. I am the watcher and the teller of the last tale. The last tale before the new millennium.

WITHOUT COMMENT THE WAITRESS SPILLS COFFEE ON THE MCDONALDS EXECUTIVE. HE DOES NOT COMMENT EITHER

The poor are always living on the edge of survival. They are always tense. They must interpret every action as a matter of life and death. Social security went up only 2.9% this year. Yet,the stock market went up 26%. This means that either the government cheated the social security recipients or the people with the money made a 23% profit over the rest of us and definitely over the social security dependents. I have Kentucky Hillbilly friends and relatives that cannot get adequate government assistance. But then who does? They grow marijuana for a living. Why should an Oakwood banker make $300,000 a year and let his daughter buy marijuana from a deprived Kentucky hillbilly making 3,000 a year off his crop. The banker will then support the laws that imprison the poor. Where is the justice. The wealthy are in control of making the laws and they then hire a mercenary police force to enforce them. A policeman is a mercenary hired by the wealthy to suppress the poor. A policeman has always been a mercenary hired by the wealthy to suppress the poor. A policeman always will be a mercenary hired by the wealthy to suppress the poor. When a policeman arrests a bank robber, he is a mercenary hired by the wealthy to suppress the poor. When a policeman is arresting a shoplifter, he is a mercenary hired by the wealthy to suppress the poor. When a policeman gives you a parking ticket he is a mercenary hired by the wealthy to suppress the poor. When a NATO soldier is used in a police action. He is a mercenary hired by the wealthy to suppress the poor. Policeman are mercenaries hired by the wealthy to suppress the poor. They always have been They always will be mercenaries hired by the wealthy to suppress the poor.

DEATH, Death, we must all seek death. IF YOU SEEK DEATH -COURAGE COMES Education. Filling you with lies...Preparing you for economic slavery..Filling you with food...Sucking out your feelings...Can't fight back....to young... Working for the man...Food for the children....Sucking out your dreams...Can't fight back...Family to feed...Beaten down...Dreams gone....Children slaves....Nothing to live....Nothing to dream....You seek death...Courage comes...The battle begins.

The laws are made for the bad guys. The good guys will survive without them. They are made to protect you, The McDonalds executive,(pointing at the McDonalds Executive) the bad guy. If you abuse me I cannot fight back. I had rather put a 12 gauge in your mouth and splatter your brains all over the wall and we would be finished with a bad guy, but the law protects you. It allows you to continue to economically abuse me and takes away my means to fight back. It takes away my guns. I will support any politician or religious movement that will give the people back their guns. Because then the people will take care of the rest of it. I would support the devil if he ran for president if he would guarantee the THE SECOND AMENDMENT. The Constitution is only useful as toilet paper. It has been raped. When the means of the people to extract justice has been removed it is no longer of any use. In a state of anarchy good and evil define themselves. It does not have to be written. the good and the good only will survive.

My aging parents are on Social Security. They worked their entire lives away and together they never made a total of a quarter million. They would not and still do not , get welfare or food stamps. They worked for the man and survived while he prospered. They never owned a new car. They are on social security collecting less than $200 a week combined. 10% of their social security goes for health insurance yet they still have to pay 10% of their medical bills. Another 10% of their social security goes for auto insurance. So out of this 200 a week they are still having to give $40 so the wealthy can continue to be wealthy. This is total absurd and I am extremely angry. We must give the money back to the people that do the work.

And this was not an economical quirk. The stock market has had at least a 10% gain for each of the past six years. (LAUGHS HYSTERICALLY) During this time we have had to beg and STRIKE to get a meager one and a half to three percent per year. The Social Security recipients even did better than us.

You, You the teacher. You got the benefits of industrial culture. You don't draw a meager social security check.

For a hundred years. Since the turn of the century, Politicians and business leaders saw public education as the place to socially engineer the people for the Industrial age. For economic slavery. Prior to that the families and churches conditioned the children and schools only taught.

You both are losers. Go back to church. You are going to get your reward after you die. You don't have to have wealth now because you will have it for eternity for your peaceably ways.

I gave up my baby. I , I am the scab that fell off the open sore of the Industrial Culture that you sucked dry. You, McDonalds executive, are a pig. A capitalistic pig.

I know that Mercantilism is evil. If you buy something for less than it is worth to sell to someone for what it is worth you cheated the person you bought it from. If you buy something for what it is worth and sell it for more than it is worth you cheat or deceive the person you sold it to. In either case you are deceitful The profit you supposedly earn is evil.

You agree. You agree. Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha

But you can't destroy civilization. and if you destroy mercantilism you will destroy civilization. We feed you. Look, I control the money.(TAKES OUT A LARGE QUANTITY OF MONEY) I give you money so you can buy stuff. Food. You can buy food at the front counter with this dollar. Here it is yours. You will support me for money won't you. Here Here.(GIVES MONEY TO AUDIENCE MEMBERS) Instead of being my economic slave you can be my economic mercenary.(GIVES A ROLL OF PENNIES TO TEACHER) Be a teacher of capitalism.

The first word ever spoken by man was RUN. Run has more definitions than any other word. It has 47. RUN was a good word. It warned you to leave a hostile environment. The second most defined word was STRIKE, with 33 definitions. It also is a good word. If you are unable to leave your environment you must strike out and change it. But the third most defined word. The third, the third was a word of evil "SIT". It was the word that civilization came from. With it you could be ordered to stay without striking out. With it came leaders that control you. Strike down this evil command.

WAITRESS WALKS OVER TO FALLEN MCDONALDS MANAGER AND

Strike against corporate suppression.

Strike against Capitalist banks.

Strike against Propaganda Schools.

Strike against the Mercenary Police.

Strike against economic slavery.

Let me hear your anger.

Let me see your power

(RAISE FIST)(REPEAT WITH AN INCREASING YELL)(RAISE FIST WITH EACH "STRIKE")

Strike

Strike

Strike

Strike

Strike

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