I ran across this article on "How To Write A Monologue" by legendary producer and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin. He includes an excerpt from his new HBO series The Newsroom to illustrate his technique.
In the scene, news anchor Will McAvoy is frustrated by a discussion of whether the United States is the "greatest country in the world" or not. After abiding a predictable, inane back-and-forth, McAvoy snaps and takes the "con" side of the argument. The denouement resonates with me and, I hope, with others:
MCAVOY: [Greatest country in the world?] We sure used to be. We stood up for what was right! We fought for moral reasons, we passed and struck down laws for moral reasons. We waged wars on poverty, not poor people. We sacrificed, we cared about our neighbors, we put our money where our mouths were, and we never beat our chest. We built great big things, made ungodly technological advances, explored the universe, cured diseases, and cultivated the world's greatest artists and the world's greatest economy. We reached for the stars, and we acted like men. We aspired to intelligence; we didn't belittle it; it didn't make us feel inferior. We didn't identify ourselves by who we voted for in the last election, and we didn't scare so easy. And we were able to be all these things and do all these things because we were informed... The first step in solving any problem is recognizing there is one—America is not the greatest country in the world anymore. -- Aaron Sorkin
I remember that America. I grew up believing in it. Conservatives demonize The Sixties as a time of drift, turmoil, and decay. I remember the time differently. I remember it as a time when anything was possible... landing on the moon, sustaining our planet, ending poverty, eradicating disease, making great music and art, bringing peace and brotherhood to a world we had helped save from tyranny...
Martin Luther King, Jr. was not just a national holiday. John Kennedy was not a myth. Fannie Lou Hamer was not a trivia question. We had the best schools money could buy. Our industrial might was second-to-none. It was the country where a couple of college dropouts could start what would become the most valuable brand in the world. It was the country where anything was possible.
It still is. Or, rather, it still would be were it not for those selfish few who believe that our generosity and our curiosity and our insistence on fairness and justice are weaknesses rather than strengths. It still would be were it not for the selfish and mean-spirited few who consider this richest of countries nothing more than a cash cow to be milked dry and left spent and despoiled when they're done with it. It would be a greater country if we honored and cherished our young people enough to not send them off to die or be wounded in the service of the interests of that selfish few.
Who could have imagined a day in America when teachers and police officers and firefighters would be characterized as the enemy because they expect us to hold up our end of the bargain we made with them for their service and sacrifice? Because they dare to organize?
Who could have imagined a day in America when the needless suffering of hundreds of millions of people would be justified and even lauded because it was fueled by the pathological drive for wealth of a selfish few?
Who could have imagined a day in America when its highest court would supplant government of, by, and for its people with the prerogatives of its corporations by declaring that corporations are the people?
We didn't vote for this. We didn't choose this. Our legacy isn't supposed to be poverty, ignorance, hopelessness, and fear. Some of us still remember what America was on its way to becoming when that selfish few set us off on this detour. We don't need a new constitution. We don't need to scrap the basic principles on which this country was founded. We need to put this country back where it belongs: In the hands of its people.
Will that make us "the greatest country in the world?" Who cares? We would be "us" again. That would be enough for me.