My scene for the Red White and Improv show
Scene, a side room in Independence Hall in Philadelphia.
Adams: Mr. Jefferson, I think you should add something like, “Governments are instituted among men who are able to take responsibility for their own actions.”
Jefferson: Surely not, Mr. Adams. It’s a given that adults will take responsibility for their own actions.
Adams: I know it is now, but one never knows what kinds of ideas might be in fashion in the future. People might, oh, I don’t know, expect their government to feed them if their business fails.
Jefferson: That’s what the Church is for, Mr. Adams. Whether I believe in God as you do or not, I can attest to the great efficiency with which the Church takes care of the indigent poor.
Franklin: (enters stage left) What are we talking about?
Jefferson: (scoffing) Adams, here, thinks we should include a phrase in our declaration indicating that governments are meant for men who can be responsible for their own actions.
Franklin: What other kind of men are there?
Adams: Three are all kinds of men, Franklin. I don’t presume to know what makes them all tick. Who would have thought our own countrymen would try to usurp our rights as they have?
Franklin: But that’s different, Adams. You know as well as I do how much power corrupts.
Adams: Well, suppose at some time in the future some corrupt government official decides to try to buy votes by promising money to the people.
Jefferson: Now you’re imagining people who can’t do simple math. Where would they propose the money comes from?
Adams: I don’t imagine government officials who insist on having facts to back up their promises.
Franklin: Well, we’d have to count on people to not elect such corrupt and ridiculous people as that to office. I suppose next you’ll be imagining people who would demand government take care of the babies they didn’t expect to have.
Jefferson: There are Churches.
Adams: I just fret that sometime in the future we’ll have people who won’t want to take responsibility for their actions. And we should make it clear that such people are not intended to be governed by our ideals.
Franklin: I don’t think we can try to cover every odd type of person you can imagine in our Declaration, Adams. It would become unreadable. We’ll have to trust that men will never become so silly as to think that government exists to act as their personal nanny.
Adams: If the two of you insist, then I will defer, but I think that one day this nation will be sorry we weren’t more clear.
Jefferson: Well, first we need to have a nation, so let’s get on with the writing, shall we?
On second thought, that’s not really that funny.
Yikes! (Well done.)
I remember in 1976, the musical “1776” was performed nightly (six nights a week, I think) at the pavilion across the street from Independence Hall at no charge. I must have seen it ten times.