KENNEDY What a beauty? TABITHA Sorr...

KENNEDY What a beauty?

TABITHA Sorry, Senator?

KENNEDY The building. I was just admiring the building. It’s marvelous.

TABITHA It was named after Georgetown President Patrick Francis Healy. Construction started in 1877 and finished 1879. However --

KENNEDY This auditorium wasn’t entirely complete for use until 1909.

TABITHA You’ve been here before?

KENNEDY No, this is a first for me. I just read a lot. I read about this place and how beautiful it is. Now that I am here, I can honestly tell you that I am moved. I’ve spent some years and this town and never set foot on this illustrious campus. I’m ashamed to even admit it.

TABITHA You’re here now. What a night to make amends.

KENNEDY I guess so. Between you and me I am a bit overwhelmed. I didn't even get your name outside.

TABITHA Don't worry about it. It’s Tabitha.

KENNEDY Let’s make it formal. Jack Kennedy.

TABITHA Nice to meet you, Senator.

KENNEDY Eh...

TABITHA Jack.

KENNEDY Much more like it.

TABITHA Would you like something to drink? You can help yourself.

KENNEDY Not just yet. I don’t want to engorge myself to soon. I want to stay sharp for the debate with Secretary Dellamore.

TABITHA This should be pretty exciting.

KENNEDY Do you know of Dellamore’s teachings?

TABITHA I do. I have attended his lectures in my undergraduate years.

KENNEDY My brother had also. What do you think of it?

TABITHA Interesting. To say the least. Not many agreed with his way of thinking, but we didn’t have anyone that was an intellectual like yourself.

KENNEDY Did you agree?

TABITHA There were some bright spots. I told my father about the stuff and he just -- I come from a military family.

KENNEDY Really? Who has served?

TABITHA My father served in the great war. My brother came back Busan a few years ago.

KENNEDY Korea, huh?

TABITHA My father was pretty big on our removal from the war. He supported President Eisenhower greatly.

KENNEDY The Democratic view of the removal differs.

TABITHA Which is why my father wasn't much of a fan of Adlai.

KENNEDY You and the whole country now, I suppose. Governor Adlai has an older way of looking at the world. As progressives goes, he is a man that is still living in the past.

TABITHA Do you think he would have done better than president Eisenhower?

KENNEDY I think President Eisenhower is an amazing leader. He truly wears his heart on his sleeve. A stern but gentle man, as a leader should be. I’ve always been a fan of Roosevelt's policies and Eisenhower seem to expand upon them, just not enough for my liking.

TABITHA Do you think you could do better?

KENNEDY Could I do better? You’re just as curious as everyone else. Enough about me.

TABITHA You’re one of the men of the hour.

KENNEDY Well we’ll have enough time for that tonight. You seem to have an eye for politics.

TABITHA Me? Not so much. I’m in my third year of law school.

KENNEDY How is it? It must be difficult.

TABITHA I’ve been through the worst it seems.

KENNEDY I always heard law school was hard though.

TABITHA No, it is. I’ve already made it through the hard part.

KENNEDY Is that so? Well, I guess. It is said that in the first year, they scare you to death, the second year they work you to death and in the third year, they bore you to death. Is there any validity to that?

TABITHA It must be because I am bored.

KENNEDY What do you plan on doing after school? Giving tours around Georgetown to tourists in business suits.

TABITHA My father owns a law firm in Pennsylvania.

KENNEDY Philadelphia?

TABITHA Bethlehem. He gave me an ultimatum that I didn’t agree with either proposition.

KENNEDY What that?

TABITHA Become a nurse or become a teacher. Other than that, become a measly shadow of what my mother is and marry a man like him.

KENNEDY You wanted to become a lawyer out of spite?

TABITHA Not really. I admire my father as a soldier, as a law man -- he became a lawyer later in his life. He has this great level of prestige about him, so dignified. I wonder what it only because he was a man. It wasn’t until I read about Cornelia Sorabji.

KENNEDY She was as dignified as they come.

TABITHA Did you know her?

KENNEDY I met her on my tour of Europe when I was a journalist.

TABITHA Really?

KENNEDY She was a remarkable woman. A remarkable person. I was not only moved by her courage but also amazed by her strength.

TABITHA I read her book Queen Mary -- My mother told me of a time were women were nothing more than the pavement that men walked on. To be honest, I questioned whether if time has really changed at all because it all seems the same. When I read her book, it gave me hope that change will come, though it seems so unimaginable.

KENNEDY All you have to do is believe. If you have to run about in the middle of nowhere, as your mouth has the capability of a loudspeaker, scream it at the top of your lungs so all the coyotes and Gila monsters can hear you. Speak it into existence. Say it so loud that it touches the hearts of many miles away as the feel, like the soft glimmer of hope that touches your own blood pumping organ. Scream so they can believe as you believe it. Once you believe that change is possible, you do whatever it takes to accomplish that. What you’re doing now. The pursuit you speak of is making way to that change young Tabitha.

TABITHA They say you speak nicely. It is a pleasure to hear it myself.

DELLAMORE (offstage) As we all my child.

FRANCIS DELLAMORE enters and joins the two.

DELLAMORE You are in the presence of a man that can touch the soul of through the power of a microphone like now other.

KENNEDY Secretary.

DELLAMORE Senator. I’ve been waiting for your arrival.

KENNEDY All night?

DELLAMORE More like all semester.

KENNEDY You’re a professor here now?

DELLAMORE Yes, Marco and Micro. Simple stuff, huh?

KENNEDY Simple for such a brilliant mind like yourself. A lot in common with my new friend, Tabitha, here.

TABITHA Hello, Secretary.

KENNEDY Tabitha is a young pupil who one day will be the finest litigators in all of Mid-Atlantic. For now, in her spare time, she is a liaison for old schmucks like you and me.

DELLAMORE Well, it is an honor to meet you, Tabitha.

KENNEDY She has observed you’re lectures, Secretary.

DELLAMORE Is that so.

TABITHA Yes, but I was in for your Industrial Organizations classes.

DELLAMORE I only taught it for a year and that was years ago. Were you an Economics major?

TABITHA Yes, I was.

DELLAMORE And now a law student?

TABITHA Yes, sir.

DELLAMORE As it should be. It’s troubling to know that some judiciaries and even legislators don’t know the money that is lined in their pockets are made.

KENNEDY It is troubling to hear your concerns.

DELLAMORE Don’t take offense to it, Jack. I believe you learned the meaning of a dollar far before you joined the senate. Before you even joined Congress, I should add. What more money is there left in the world for a Kennedy lineal descendant. No offense, Senator.

KENNEDY None taken. The world must be weary of men who have power and desire money.

DELLAMORE I hope you have no desire for which a throne at the head of the government awaits you.

KENNEDY What is it with all of you? I haven’t said a thing of my intentions for this upcoming election.

DELLAMORE I didn’t say a thing about the upcoming election. I just said the future.

KENNEDY Cheeky.

DELLAMORE So, when will you announce your intentions.?

KENNEDY For what?

DELLAMORE Play stupid, Kennedy. I’ve heard through the grapevine of your intentions to run for president.

KENNEDY My intentions? What about yours?

DELLAMORE Me? You must be taking a piss.

KENNEDY You are well qualified.

DELLAMORE I’m only an economist.

KENNEDY And somewhat of a philosopher. Isn’t he, Tabitha?

TABITHA I should go. Doctor Washington wants us to help before the event.

TABITHA EXITS

DELLAMORE A philosopher?

KENNEDY Yes, sir.

DELLAMORE I state what I believe. Nothing more than a man should. Any many that is adamant and serious as any man should be. My daddy was that kind of man. Said whatever came to his mine as long as it ran through coherently. At least him. But you could call him vulgar, ignorant, or just plain crazy but he said what just came to his mind. Anything he felt that was worth believing, he said it. A philosopher? No, I’m just my daddy’s son.

KENNEDY Joan. You know Joan, right? Ted’s wife?

DELLAMORE Of course.

KENNEDY Ted’s sister-in-law, Candace, was in one of your classes. A student of yours but not a fan.

DELLAMORE Is that so? I wonder why.

KENNEDY She talked about how you said capitalism has destroyed, not only destroyed our economy, but “Shifted our society to the brink of destruction. A philosopher? I would say yes. I don’t think I have to ask you.

DELLAMORE How is Candace?

KENNEDY Or maybe I have to?!

DELLAMORE I’ll tell you right now. No. No, I am not a communist. Though I don’t see the reason why people are so aghast at the suggestion.

KENNEDY Maybe because our country is fighting communism every day, Secretary.

DELLAMORE No, sir. I disagree. Communism, Marxism, Socialism -- Whatever you feel to box them as, those are all ideologies, Senator. You are fighting men who has corrupted the mind of their followers to fight their wars.

KENNEDY You’re saying it as if it’s right. Their way of thinking I mean or “idealistically” the way they think.

DELLAMORE I don’t expect you to understand, Senator. You’re just like all of those kids that have been told promises of prosperity and wealth. Not to state my age but I remember the days when young women would take their kids in lines with tens of people that stretched blocks in urban cities to wait to get at the head of the line to receive a loaf of bread and some rations for the weak, only to get rejected because nothing else was left and the tens of people behind her and her family went home also with closed callous hearts and empty bellies. I walked into her and I heard you talking to that young women of change. I call it hope. I don’t understand how do we expect the next generation of people to believe in themselves when the hopes we throw into the sky they can't even see themselves in that future. That is what capitalism has done to our society. If I speak a little louder hopefully Hoover will get the memo. I am not a communist, but I am a humanitarian.

KENNEDY I did not mean to offend you --

DELLAMORE You could never, Jack. You could never. That’s why I believe you are the future of this nation. You want to know how I know?

KENNEDY How?

DELLAMORE Just like myself, I see you as a patriot.

KENNEDY Okay.

DELLAMORE But do you think this country is great?

KENNEDY I do... but it can be greater.

DELLAMORE How do you expect us to do so when we walk in the footsteps of the ones that came before us and failed?

KENNEDY Failed?

DELLAMORE Yes, the men that have led this country has failed us.

KENNEDY I don’t agree with that.

DELLAMORE You don’t? Ask the Jews. Ask the blacks, the browns, the Indians, women -- I can write you a list, it would far more comprehensive. Time and time again, we have failed and the only two who seems to see prosperity, wealth, hope... the majority. There has been no change other than what God given rights that have been bestowed upon you, me, and everyone of this great nation.

KENNEDY I agree with you on that, Secretary, there is much to do. But I still disagree with your opinion socialism. I understand, A strong ideology can a great power in this world. I should know, I am a Catholic. But just like the great holy book that I read at sunrise and sunset, I understand that men have shaped scripture in ton a mold that coincides with their own self-interest. But I understand the words of that scripture. You may believe that since they have been written by men that they are flawed but I believe it has been written in the human soul. You can twist it and turn it and call it demented however you want but there is a strong raining shine the emits from those words that many calmly hold in themselves. That’s power. That power is scary and because so we should not be weary and or pretentious to idea. It is the reason why people feel that I am not fit to be president. I acknowledge it and understand that is a valid concern that has to be addressed.

DELLAMORE We can address it, Senator. We can have a conversation about these things. That is what I am here for.

KENNEDY To convert me?

DELLAMORE Inspire a generation to look in a direction that they have never looked before and advise a man who has ever intention to right by his people.

KENNEDY Secretary, you and I both know that you are treading on mighty thin ice. You do understand the magnitude of the attention you have garnished from your philosophy.

DELLAMORE I understand.

KENNEDY I’m not sure you do. There has never been someone that has worked in government, no one who has been an advisor to the head of government and head of an executive department has been so outspoken as you’ve been. That’s remarkable... so remarkable, it’s dangerous.

DELLAMORE I understand, Senator. It is a risk. Even if it is hoopla. However, it is a risk willing to take. After Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, a state legislator form New York said that being president is the most dangerous job in government. We can acknowledge how dangerous the job can be. Not every swinging dick and crazed lunatic is going to agree with everything that goes on in their life and for some reason, they’ll believe that the president is at fault for the s in their meaningless existence. We understand the danger walking out of the Oval office to be in the crosshair of the people you have taken an oath to serve and protect. But many have taken the oath going forward, seventeen to be exact to be the leader of this nation but they believe it is their duty. I get up evert morning to fulfil the duty that I have promised the American people. Ones like young Tabitha. You have a young child of your own as do I, not as young in age but maturity is all the same. But we take these oaths to make the world a better place for them. Whether it’s a bullet to the chest or bound in chains for the rest of my life, it’s a risk willing to take.

KENNEDY For a man that has no intention for running, you sure have a strong case for the office.

DELLAMORE I am just part of a machine, Jack. But I am not a leader. I see that as you.

KENNEDY Well, I guess that means you’re not going to take your time with me, I suppose.

DELLAMORE Of course not. Great man always needs to be challenged. However, just in case I step on a few toes, could I interest you in dinner after? It’s a thank you for this opportunity. I know this great place off of Pennsylvania. My dollar.

KENNEDY I promised Jackie I would phone her after as soon as I could.

DELLAMORE A dime for your troubles.

KENNEDY Well, I guess that solves. Why not. That is if we are in good graces after our debate.

DELLAMORE Of course.

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