Appalachian Nightmare

Ballet in 8 Scenes for Ani

Narrator:

Under a rock, a blade of grass unaware of the stone,

meeting the sunshine, emerged.

Scene I

Narrator: John Applethorpe was welcomed into the Cumberland Plateau by the sound of his father being murdered. His grandmother hearing her son’s death agony, said “shut up and die like a man.”

Scene II John as a promising young man

Scene III John’s Demons

Scene IV Embodiment of Evil: Silver Spoon, Golden Entitlement

Scene V Heroes

Scene VI The Eye of the Hurricane

Scene VII Monsters Emerge

Scene VIII Silent Spring, dawn.

Family and friends, in awe of the great beauty of nature find renewed hope.

Backstory

Scene I

John Applethorpe was welcomed into the Cumberland Plateau by the sound of his father being murdered. His grandmother hearing her son’s death agony, said “shut up and die like a man.”

John’s mother died in childbirth. The grandmother thought briefly of heaving baby John into the yard for the dogs.

In a rare moment of humanity, she swaddled him in an old dirty blanket and took him to the church where by extraordinary coincidence Maryfaith Moynihan was crying her eyes out over the death of her only son who was killed that morning in the crossfire of rival clans.

Maryfaith and her husband, Billy Bob worked for the county. They had grown up in town- if you could call it that. Good students both had gone away to college- escaped they thought. They were so alone when they got to their freshman dorms. Then they discovered each other on the Commons. Four years, a marriage and two miscarriages later, they realized they had something to offer their old Village.

So baby John was lucky.

Maryfaith had a Native American grandmother. Billy Bob’s Great Great Great grandmother had been an escaped slave. Both were interested and a little proud of their ancestry but were careful about with whom they shared it. Of course in a little town, everyone knew everything.

Although Maryfaith’s and Billy Bob’s parents all worked for the coal company they did not know each other well. Might have been a race thing. Each group looking down on others.

Maryfaith and Billy Bob adopted other kids as well- the ones no one wanted, seven in all. Those were also the lucky ones growing up in a loving- tough lovingly strict and structured home with continual mutual support and chores- and inspiration. The family was deeply interested in each other, their dreams, hopes, aspirations. They listened... and they heard.

Baby John was also lucky that he was not killed in crossfire.

Scene II

He was popular, an interesting mix of physical power, a quiet, gentle humility and intense rage. He was brilliant but since he was a football star the kids did not ostracize him.

College In another state, two years in the peace Corps in the jungles of Central America, law school while working as an EMS driver, clerkship at the Supreme Court, and his most challenging situation: not being bought off by the powers that be.

Scene III

For years John had been secretly ashamed of his anger. Mostly it was self directed, causing intense and blessedly brief bouts of self hatred and depression. He learned coping skills. It wasn’t until he realized he could harness his aggression for the good of others that he stopped trying to be something he was not. He still was afraid of the intensity of his anger and frustration- neither of which made much sense to him given how genuinely appreciative he was of the good things in his life- especially his good fortune.

Then it dawned on him. He was not only rage-full because of his growing up surrounded by violence, he was furious because of all the rot which humanity perpetrated on itself and on our planet. He had seen this every day of his childhood with the polluted countryside poisoned by runoff from the coal mines and the dilapidated, burned out stores and homes no one cared to cleanup or rebuild.

He felt even if he dedicated every waking moment to helping, he wouldn’t make a dent in the rottenness. He also was no perfect specimen himself. Sure on the surface he had a great resume, but he had lots of unsavory experiences with women. He had never hurt any of them but was often so up in his head he was grossly insensitive and when he was younger wasn’t honest about it either. In this regard he had matured recently.

John wondered if he could learn the lessons then drop the guilt and move on. He knew his attachment to all the lousy things he had done kept him in a state of guilt which was both a copout and a self defeating mechanism to keep feeding his addiction to anger. It certainly served no good purpose.

****

Scene IV

Born on the other side of the tracks in a rich home in Staten Island, Joe McBump ate from silver spoons, had a gold potty, six nannies- you name it. Encouraged to feel entitled would have been a good name for his biography. He was also a big guy, not the toned, self disciplined conditioned that was John, just big, slightly fat and too stupid to see his own selfishness. His father delighted in Joe’s greed as it feed the old racist’s unstable and devouring ego. Joe bought kids’ friendship. When he couldn’t do that, he bullied them mercilessly, relentlessly causing more than one suicide. He delighted in his sadism. His father was thrilled at the monster he was raising.

*****

Scene V

Maryann was a boxer, a triathlete, a Rhodes scholar. If she had a soul or a personality that would be news.

****

Frank McGill was a reader- an occasional writer too. His students feared and occasionally were engaged by him. A few even blossomed in his presence.

*****

Colin Fergusson, grandson of the first African descended MD in Jamaica, never missed an opportunity to sing- barber shop quartets, church choir, ringer on High Holidays at the synagogue. Collin was chief of police in Kingston. His twin sons were in the states finishing up their medical residencies. His daughter was a congresswoman from Virginia, coincidentally, that was her name- Virginia.

****

Scene VI

Peacetime for some and endless skirmishes throughout the world. The lessons of WW II were never learned- what if Germany had been helped not punished after the first war to end all wars? Too much punishment makes the offender either dead, debilitated or incredibly strong, angry, resentful, vengeful and psychopathically hostile. Put the screws on too tight on North Korea and...

****

Scene VII

Russia learned from terrorists: use a nation’s resources against itself. Cyber-terrorism, install leaders who will be divisive and destroy Russia’s enemies from within. McBump was “elected” because his election was abetted by fake Facebook and other social media posts. True he tapped into an irrational, anti-intellectual viciousness- a hatred so base and profoundly dishonest that it appealed to the disenfranchised even though his goal was to steal from them to enrich himself, his family and friends through treason. But he was too self dealing to care- and he delighted in his sadism. His allies moved the country toward fascism, holocaust denial... little children were heard to torment immigrants justifying themselves by saying McBump is president now. The country moved towards lawlessness.

Investigation into his treasonous election was thwarted while the rivers and sky were polluted. Hey McBump could drink bottled water and beer. Did he really believe he could win a nuclear war with North Korea? Russian leaders were laughing their heads off with McBump’s destruction of the US - more than that, they were salivating imperialistically amassing huge troop formations on the boarders of NATO countries, knowing McBump would not help Europe. Even if McBump were thrown out, by the time North Korea attacked the US, a new American administration would be too weak to help Europe. China waited with greed. It would be a feeding frenzy on what was left of the US. China would sell its US bonds, the American economy would collapse, Russia would hack the US transportation and electric grid, North Korea would set off a thermonuclear explosion high in the atmosphere destroying all US communications systems.

Then Russia and China with its proxy, North Korea could either rule parts of the world or attack each other.

Was this plan articulated exactly this way? Who knows?

What was known was that good orderly, compassionate direction was lacking.

Scene VIII

People of good virtue draw inspiration from the good orderly direction of nature. The world is awash in hope.