Act 3: Scene 1
INT. COLE’S CLASSROOM
LAWRENCE
When all is said and done, in the end, economics is the most critical aspect of social organization. The acquisition of wealth is necessary to build the institutions needed for society to flourish: hospitals, schools, fire departments, and of course banks. Additionally police and prisons are necessary to maintain order and keep good law abiding citizens safe from criminals who would prey upon them. The government needs to leave the business community alone so that they can do what they do best — acquire the wealth necessary to build a better society.
SARAH
While Lawrence’s position appears to be sound logically, it is flawed because it implies that the criminal element of society does not reside within the business community. It also implies that the business community is sensitive to the needs of the community and therefore will respond favorably to those needs. However, it is clear to me, and is easily demonstrated to anyone who wishes to see, that the business community functions solely from a position of self-interest. If their actions are beneficial to society as a whole, then it is so only as a coincidence to their achieved self-interest; and that self- interest is always increased profits, increased wealth and power. The business community is not altruistic. It is narcissistic to the core.
LAWRENCE
How do you explain philanthropists and foundations that pour vast amounts of money into projects that have nothing to do with their business and has everything to do with improving the lives of others who are otherwise struggling with the problem which is the focus of the given foundation or philanthropist?
SARAH
Lawrence, you know as well as I, that brand name is everything to a business’ bottom line. Businesses will go to any length to protect their brand name and, if it does get tarnished, it will expend whatever resources are necessary to reestablish its reputation as THE COMPANY to patronize. Charitable contributions are part of the public relations strategy of all companies who can afford such endeavors.
Successful businesses always do diligent research to determine how much money will be needed to accomplish the given commercial goal. In addition, it will assess the financial benefit from that enterprise. If the expenditure out weights the benefit, then the enterprise will be abandoned. I sincerely doubt that this same type of assessment is applied to philanthropic enterprises. What I mean is that an accurate assessment of how much resources are needed to solve the given problem needing philanthropic assistance is avoided. It is deliberately avoided because; if, in reality, a great deal of resources are needed, then the project would be minimized or abandoned altogether.
If the general public caught wind of such a deliberate, willful refusal to solve the given problem, once the solution was known, then the reputation of that company or companies would be at high risk. The end result is that no social issue is truly solved. Instead there is an appearance of heart-felt assistance being rendered.
LAWRENCE
You’re a cynic, Sarah. Do you expect a successful business to go bankrupt to fix a single social issue? You prove my point for me. When all of the businesses go bankrupt solving the needs of society, then where will that society be without any commerce. Look around the world. See what life is like in countries whose economies have collapsed. Is that what you are proposing today?
TEACHER Yes, Charles, did you want to offer something?
CHUCK [CHARLES]
I don’t know much about what Sarah and Lawrence are talking about, but I was remembering eating Maryland Blue crabs. I tried it both ways. My brother would crack a crab and pile the meat up in a little mound. He’d get another and do the same thing. His mound grew and grew. I cracked a crab and ate the meat as I went. If you’ve ever cracked crabs, you’d know it’s a lot of work. Except the claws. If you did the claws right, you’d pull out the whole claw meat, firm and luscious, in one move.
VOICE OF MARLO
Chuck may not know much about what Sarah and Lawrence were saying, but he sure knows how to eat a Maryland Blue crab. See his practiced proficiency at swiftly removing the succulent meat with one swift movement.
CHUCK [CHARLES]
Well, I started thinking about my brother. When he ate his mountain of crab meat, I though of how small and tiny my crab bites were. I wanted to taste a mountain of crab meat instead of a tidbit of crab meat. So I built my own mountain and ate it. It was fantastic. I decided to do it again. While I was building my mountain and it was growing in size, something distracted me for just a moment. When I returned to my crab-meat-mountain I saw that it had vanished. My brother had wolfed-it-down. I went back to my old ways. Maryland Blue Crab is my favorite meat. But it’s a lot of work. I really wanted to beat the tar out of my brother but he always beat the tar out of me. I was so angry.
TEACHER Thanks for that input, Charles. Anyone else? Sarah?
SARAH
Here’s a concrete example of what I’m talking about. Humans now have a cure for leprosy. Let me be more clear. We have the knowledge and the means to eradicate leprosy from the planet, but it still hangs around causing harm to body and soul of many humans. Paucibacillary leprosy can be cured with dapsone and rifampicin after a six month treatment plan. Multibacillary leprosy can be cured in a twelve month treatment plan using rifampicin, dapsone, and clofazimine. This means that we have the ability to irradiate a hideous decease that has plagued human kind since before biblical times. But we have not aggressively terminated this decease because …why? Profits and apathy.
The most cases of leprosy occur in India, Brazil and Indonesia. Not our problem, not a problem for US citizens, but there are about 200 new cases in the US per year. I googled the cost range of just one medicine, dapsone. In India a 1000 mg dose of this drug costs $312.69. In the US a 1000 mg dose costs from $250.00 to $767.50. Why such a wide range of cost? Why such a high cost to begin with — especially since we could make this decease disappear for good because it spreads by human contact? If no human has it, then it is gone and no human can be infected, ever.
LAWRENCE
Come on Sarah. You sound like an advocate of Communism and you see how that ended up. You don’t mean to say that a company, that is a group of individuals who must work to care for their families, should work hard, take risks to chase down a cure, and then give their cure away for free? Companies need to make a profit for their product. This profit is used to pay salaries for their employees that keep the company working. These people need to be taken care of just as well as those poor individuals who have leprosy. You’re a silly, naive girl who wants to ignore the hard realities of life. It has always been the truth of reality that the weak perish while the stronger individuals live longer and propagate more. That’s Darwinism. Do you doubt the science of Darwinism?
TEACHER Cole.
COLE
I think the point that Sarah is pointing towards could be expressed in the question: Is there some type of product development that should not be a for-profit-enterprise?
LAWRENCE
Cole, you’re kidding. What viable company would pursue any risk adventure without the possibility of gaining a decent profit? No company, no group of people would work for nothing. You’re both ignorant of the real world.
TEACHER
Lawrence, you know the rules. No interrupting. Cole has the floor. Cole continue.
COLE
I guess I don’t mind people making profits off of beauty products like hair dye, nail polish or cars or sports gear; but health care issues, the treatment and cure of disease, or returning the body back to a healthy state when it becomes sick, might be an area of endeavor that is not about making money, but about fixing a problem. Is the motivation behind work the solving of problems or the making of money? I think that’s the question to tackle. If we have gained the knowledge and understanding to solve a problem, but refuse to do so because we will not be given a great amount of money; then aren’t we quite ignorant in our understanding of things. When we allow individuals to die when we have the know-how to save them, to keep them healthy and alive, we are not abiding by that line in the Declaration of Independence that says that we have God given rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. By allowing people to die or remain sick because they can’t pay makes me question if those individuals have the right, the responsibility, to overthrow that government that has pledged to protect the god-given right to Life.
TEACHER Lawrence.
LAWRENCE
The purpose of work is to solve problems in order to make money. The purpose of risk taking in the world of work is to try to solve hard problems that no one else has been able to solve. Solving a problem that no one else can solve allows you to charge much more than solving problems which anyone can solve by themselves. That’s how we were able to make the great advances that we have made. That’s how our civilization is better than any other country’s.
SARAH
You’re a heartless, soulless, greedy, little man, Lawrence. Nobody will like you for who you are. They might pretend to like you but it’s your money and your things they want. Don’t think that women will love you for your looks. It will be for your money, always your money; and if you don’t have much money, then what will you have to offer? I feel sorry for you already.
TEACHER That’s enough Sarah. Let’s keep this civilized. Tanner.
TANNER
You know we’ve been hearing the president and other leaders touting that we are a country of Law as if that’s a badge of honor that puts us above, what? …dictators, thugs, despots, what? We have a system where we elect officials who propose laws and then those proposals are voted on and become the law of the land. Disputes are worked out in the court system up to the highest court, The Supreme Court, but how honorable is that system if the system gets highjacked and bad laws are passed that allows unjust behavior to become acceptable laws? We would be a land of laws, but we would be a land of bad laws. Take that court ruling in Chicago where a judge ruled that the people in bankrupted Chicago do not have a right to water. The dispute was over the city turning off the water supply to those who were behind on their water bill. The courts had to decide if those people who didn’t have money to pay for their water were entitled to water and the court said that access to water was not a right of the people. What I want to know is: If The Declaration of Independence, which is the document that started the birth of our nation, says that all individuals have the god-given right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, then how is it possible that those individuals, who lack the necessary money, do not have the right to our water supply. We die if we don’t get water. Water is critical to life. Without it life dies, but a judge said that individuals do not have the right to water. That is a bad, unjust ruling. In my opinion that is grounds for that other part of The Declaration that states that it is the right, the responsibility, for the people to overthrow that government that does not protect our god-given right to life and liberty. So, I agree with Lawrence. The issue is not what comes out of the mouths of pontificators, it’s about who has the power to exert one’s will whether that be a individual or a group of individuals exerting their collective will. Sarah’s heart is good but the reality is that good does not always triumph over bad. That notion is in the vein of The Easter Bunny and Santa Clause.
VOICE OF MARLO
As it has happened many times before, a bell rings just as things were getting interesting. It is lunch time and students snap out of their learned deference to authority as they revel in their permitted freedom of reduced supervision which is the hallmark of their lunch break.
Act 3: Scene 2
INT. CAFITERIA
VOICE OF MARLO
As you can see, Lawrence possesses an average build of average height. There is nothing remarkable about his physical appearance, but his mind is sharp. Being a keen debater, he is the current captain of the high school debate team. Secretly he harbors a great passion for chains. When he was a young boy he enjoyed playing with a moderately heavy chain used to wrap around items to be dragged or lifted by heavy equipment. While he would never own a motorcycle because it would not present the image he is cultivating, he longs to ware the black leather and chains of the motorcyclist. He likes the outlaw look though he dislikes everything about the lifestyle. Sarah is the self appointed guardian of the watershed that feeds the river, Smooth Journeys. Fly fishing gives her great joy and she loves camping by the river or stream where she fishes. Lawrence does not like to loose . . .at anything, but he especially does not like to be humiliated by a female. Lunch break with his cohorts should be interesting. Two of his buddies are in the lunch line now.
LAWRENCE’S COHORT ONE
Hey Craig, lend me seventy-five cents. I want to get a couple of chocolate-chip cookies. …I only need 75 cents not a dollar.
CRAIG
I’d rather get a dollar from you instead of three quarters, three different times. Pay me back next week or I’ll start charging interest.
LAWRENCE’S COHORT ONE
There’s Lawrence over there by the windows in the corner. Let’s see what’s up.
LAWRENCE’S COHORT TWO Wow, Sarah really got pissed, didn’t she?
LAWRENCE
Don’t worry about her. She’ll get hers in the end. She thinks she’s so smart. Couldn’t win the argument so she acts like a bitch.
CRAIG
You know Becky really hates Sarah. She’s always looking for an excuse to cause her grief.
LAWRENCE Hey Matt, you know Willis, right?
MATT Yea, why?
LAWRENCE
Can you get Willis to tell Becky that Sarah is telling people how Becky did a strip tease dance for a hundred bucks at Donavan’s party?
LAWRENCE COHORT TWO Did she really?
LAWRENCE COHORT ONE No, idiot. Lawrence’s just siccing Becky onto Sarah.
LAWRENCE
That should have the effect we want. Matt, finish up your lunch quick. Hook up with Willis in the Library. He’s having a study hall in the Library today because there’s a sub taking Ms. Lankey’s classes.
MATT No problem. This lunch isn’t very good anyway.
Act 3: Scene 3
INT. CLASSES CHANGING IN THE HALLS
BECKY Hey, shit head Sarah hold up. Get your prize for the day.
VOICE OF MARLO
It is amazing how precise and quick Becky’s movement is when she is so intently focused on a target. See how quickly she covers ground through a crowded hallway to be just behind Sarah at the precise moment that Sarah turns to see who called her. Then bam, Sarah is on the floor.
BECKY
That’s for spreading disgusting rumors about me. Stay the hell away from me and keep you shit head mouth shut.
VOICE OF MARLO
The speed with which Becky moved is rivaled only the two teachers that popped up on the scene. One takes the position between Becky and Sarah while the other helps Sarah to her feet. With the definitive gesture of pointing the way, the teacher staring at Becky directs her toward an all-to- familiar path. She’s been here before, but she knows the viciousness of the motivating rumor will soften the consequences of her attack — suspension, but not expulsion. Sarah’s just bewildered. Look now over there. Far enough out of the scene not to be easily noticed yet close enough to witness the event is another swirl of action ready to erupt. Chuck steps to block Lawrence.
CHUCK [CHARLES]
I know you set that up. Somehow you made this all happen. I’m here to pay you back.
COLE Chuck. It’s not worth it. You’re the one whose going to get the worst of it.
CHUCK [CHARLES]
Na, I’m going to hit him so hard, his head’s going to ache for a week. I’ll just get another suspension and risk expulsion. My rep is already trashed so what do I care. Hear that Lawrence? I don’t care what the authorities do to me. For all the aggravation they heap on me, I’m going to inflict that much physical pain on you.
MARLO
Most of us cannot see it, but Chuck can see it. Lawrence is standing straight and firm, determined not to show any fear or intimidation from Chuck, but Chuck sees into Lawrence’s eyes. Chuck knows he can do damage and he knows Lawrence knows it too.
MR. SWANSON Ok boys. Break it up. Get to classes, now. Go on.