PETER: How do you know that Jefferson still treated her as a slave?
JOSH: He looked on her that way…
PETER: Why didn’t he give her freedom?
JOSH: I think if he gave her freedom he couldn’t control her and keep her in his house. Once the relationship with Sally begins, he is living in lie.
PETER: Write a book!
JOSH: Jefferson was also duplicitous. In fact he was a “dirty” politician.
PETER: Such a duplicitous President. It reminds me of FDR. Can we explain this type of person?
JOSH: What do you think?
PETER: I find it hard to think that he was just a hypocrite and liar….so then..
JOSH: Continue. “So then”..what….talk, talk.
PETER: You’re the history teacher! Don’t expect so much from me.
JOSH: What I find strange is that Jefferson’s oldest daughter Martha maintained that there was no relationship between her father and Sally. I don’t see how the relationship could not be known to the white members of his family.
PETER: Family secret!
JOSH: I don’t think so. A grandchild of Jefferson, Helen, wrotethat the relationship was impossible! The door to Sally’s room was very public all entering and exiting were in sight of the family.
PETER (
JOSH: He met with her in a secret corner. a corridor, or a storeroom..
PETER: Risky, less fun.
(
JOSH: Please try to straighten the rug.
PETER (
JOSH (
PETER (
JOSH: An easy visual aid. Despite the dangers the relationship continued. He had several children by Sally. I think he expended great effort to keep Sally near him. Who knows, maybe his secret gave rise for the Declaration’s words: “..all men…pursuit their… Happiness.” It’s self deluding and corrosive to excessively pursue happiness. Jefferson even modified his earlier progressive stand against slavery as he grew older and more jaundiced.
PETER: It’s really not important now why he wrote these words. It’s important that these words inspired millions of immigrants to work hard, live better, and make America NUMBER ONE in the world.
JOSH: Well, think, America is not entirely first. It is 49th in literacy, 37th in universal health care, and 41st in child mortality. So where is the American myth?
PETER: Fuck your statistics! He deceived us, and his ideas worked out well at first. But now, it has been carried too far when more efficiency, overtime, and moving families from place to place have become necessary.
JOSH: Your American dream is now riding on the backs of the poor bringing health, education, and riches to only a few. You all ignore a pervasive stink in America.
PETER: Are you “Green Party”?
JOSH: It’s not the worst of all parties in the world, but Lenin had high ideals too. Do you really still believe that if you pursue happiness you can become happy?
PETER: I believe..
JOSH: You will never get there. To pursue “happiness” is the wrong goal. Pursue work that you love, be kind, helpful, and reliable and unexpectedly happiness arrives.
PETER: You are a philosopher. You have time to sit and think of all possibilities. I don’t have time to think about all your fantasies and nobody else has the time..
JOSH: Yes, I have a lot of time. Now are discussions whether or not the “American Dream” is “erosing”. Already most Americans do not believe in the “American Dream” for the future. So I decided to try to analyze our situation and find something that must change. I started to write this tract…
(
PETER: Wrong, wrong! Why are you doing this?
JOSH: I confess that I was trying to raise a few doubts.
PETER: Doubts…?
JOSH: So I’ve seen the seeds of doubt!
PETER: You’re crazy! I was too shy to say at earlier. You were so insistent.
JOSH: So you don’t understand anything!
PETER: Why it’s so important to raise doubts
JOSH: From doubts we think…learn…and act. Columbus doubted that the world was flat.
PETER: Doubts then are your main problem.
