“It’s Not Easy Being Pro-Palestine”
Sarah Moon, Roger Williams University
Lights up on a swampy pond. A toad muppet sits on a log with a banjo. A young CASSIDY enters. She sits down next to him.
CASSIDY
Hey Hermit.
HERMIT
What are you doing here?
CASSIDY
I wanted to put my feet in the water and think for a while.
HERMIT
But aren’t you supposed to be graduating today?
CASSIDY
Yeah.
HERMIT
So?!
CASSIDY
I’m not going.
HERMIT
Why not?
CASSIDY
I’m ashamed.
HERMIT
Of what?
CASSIDY
That the people handing me that diploma don’t stand for anything more than a brand name.
HERMIT
What’s going on?
CASSIDY
Well you know about the encampment?
HERMIT
Yes, you told me you wouldn’t be visiting as much because of it. But what is it about?
CASSIDY
We’re asking the university to divest from Israel, like take investments they have in Israeli companies and move them.
HERMIT
Okay…so not like abandon their money or something?
CASSIDY
No, just…move it. Dollars are votes, you know?
HERMIT
I don’t use money, but I get the concept.
CASSIDY
So that’s what we’re asking and why we’re occupying.
HERMIT
So what do they say?
CASSIDY
No.
HERMIT
Just no?
CASSIDY
I mean, a lot of other words too, but—
HERMIT
So you need to get them to budge a little.
CASSIDY
A lot. But I’m losing hope.
HERMIT
Have they listened to you?
CASSIDY
No. They treat us like an ugly skin condition they need to clear up before prom.
HERMIT
Are you sure it’s that bad?
CASSIDY
If you only could have seen the looks on their faces when we met with them—
HERMIT
But I know you. You’re smart and good!
CASSIDY
That doesn’t matter. It’s maintaining their appearance that matters. Looking like the kind of place you send your kids to be groomed into good imperialists who ignore the suffering we cause the many populations we exploit. And the suffering of toads. You’re not unaffected by this.
HERMIT
Oh I know. I have cousins on the brink of extinction.
CASSIDY
I’m sorry.
HERMIT
But that’s old news. What you’re dealing with is right now and you said that the media is paying attention, right?
CASSIDY
They are. And maybe there’s some hope in that. Though you never know how they’ll spin it. I could be foolish, but shouldn’t it make you the good guys to be standing up against killing civilians?
HERMIT
I’ve found people’s hearts are very, very compartmentalized. Almost no one is actually heartless, but many are heart-selective.
CASSIDY
Heart-selective. That’s good, Hermit.
HERMIT
Thanks. But certainly your university claims to value empathy. It’s on their website.
CASSIDY
I remember the day I got my acceptance letter. I felt like I was attached to a kite. And now…
HERMIT
Like you’re tied to a rock?
CASSIDY
Nodding
You think they’re giving you wings, but they’re actually tying you down. They come off as desperate, you know? Like they actually stand for nothing because they can’t afford to. I had pride in my school.
HERMIT
How as desperate?
CASSIDY
They state values. Like empathy, diversity, tolerance. And they repeat them a lot. But they ignore them when they need to. Everyone’s okay with the values of course. They sound good. But when you try to point out the discrepancy between them and specific behaviors and actions, that makes them angry.
Beat. They both stare out.
HERMIT
Ohhh crap hat.
CASSIDY
Crap hat?
HERMIT
That’s what I say when something really stinks but you have to live with it. Like you have to wear a hat made of crap.
CASSIDY
Yes, that’s….Ha…. Hey, did you ever watch that show The Good Place?
HERMIT
About the dead people who think they made it into heaven—
CASSIDY
But it’s really hell?
HERMIT
Yes! A few episodes, I think.
CASSIDY
Ted Danson.
HERMIT
Love him.
CASSIDY
Same. Anyway at one point they get data about the percentages of people who’ve gone to each place throughout history and they find out that since like 1981, NO ONE has gotten into the good place. Because just by living what we’d consider normal lives, everyone is complicit in evil.
HERMIT
That’s really…bleak.
CASSIDY
Yeah! And when I’m watching this, I’m like, wow, I can’t believe this is on network TV. But after that amazing moment, they just kind of leave it and basically say, hey, this isn’t fair to us folks who have no say over the evil things the overlords are doing. Look how cute Kristen Bell is.
HERMIT
Well, we don’t, do we?
CASSIDY
Hermit.
HERMIT
I believe in having an easy mind, even when it’s not easy.
CASSIDY
Well, you’re a toad.
HERMIT
Come on. Sit down. Play the banjo.
He hands it to her. She takes it for a moment then hands it back.
CASSIDY
No thanks. Not now.
He looks down at the banjo forlornly.
HERMIT
But you used to always—
CASSIDY
I know.
She stands up.
I’ll come back, when I’m old. Right now, I have to face this.
Hermit strums a cord, then sings:
HERMIT
"Someday we’ll find it—"
CASSIDY
Putting her hands out.
Stop!
Pause.
We won’t find it, Hermit.
Tossing aside his banjo and standing up, irate.
HERMIT
How dare you?! How dare you! How dare you stop believing? You – you’re intolerant! Maybe they’re right not to listen to you all. You’re setting impossible expectations! You’re being…militant! You’re making a mess on their property! I bet you actually hate toads!
CASSIDY
No! No! And no! Hermit, please. You know that’s not true. Don’t be like them.
Pause.
HERMIT
It just…really hurts that you won’t sing my song with me.
CASSIDY
I know. Listen, I have loved that song. But hearing it now, I realize something that I can’t ignore. It…romanticizes the sad beauty of believing against all odds that peace for humankind will one day just…happen, despite, despite, despite. It’s the damned pathetic-ness of that hope, knowing what we know, that makes us cry when we sing that song.
Pause.
I’m tired of singing and crying.
She stands up.
HERMIT
But we need hope.
CASSIDY
If all you have is hope…if all you do is hope and pray and then hope some more, you’re a fool. Andy Warhol once said, “They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.”
HERMIT
Like the way Warhol changed the face of art?
CASSIDY, discouraged, turns to go.
Wait! Where are you going now?
CASSIDY
I don’t know exactly.
A young man, JOSIAH, enters.
JOSIAH
Cass, thank God, you’re here! I’ve been texting you every two minutes!
CASSIDY
What is it?
JOSIAH
NBC’s at the camp. They’re interviewing people. You’ve gotta get on camera, you’re our spokeswoman!
CASSIDY
You think they’ll still be there?
JOSIAH
Yes, but hurry.
JOSIAH grabs her hand and CASSIDY starts to go.
HERMIT
Calling after them.
Oh I get it now.
CASSIDY
Turning, to him, impatient.
What?
HERMIT
You just want to go viral.
CASSIDY
You think that’s all I want?
HERMIT
Provocatively.
There’s a romance in being the next Che Guevara.
CASSIDY
The world really makes it next to impossible, don’t they? “Stand up for what you believe!” But only if it’s culturally approved and when you do, we’ll probably accuse you of just wanting attention. You know what, I don’t care. I will not stop. Because I don’t cry at hopelessness anymore and I don’t care about being judged for being on camera. Everyone in this world is so damned afraid all the time! My university. My professors. My peers. I’m not.
HERMIT and the CASSIDY just look at each other.
JOSIAH
Come on!
CASSIDY
Goodbye, Hermit.
HERMIT
Wait—
CASSIDY
What?
HERMIT
I’m coming with you.
CASSIDY
Why?
HERMIT
I want to see if I can put a word in about my cousins.
JOSIAH
His cousins?
CASSIDY
Next pond over – facing extinction.
JOSIAH
Hell yeah, we’ll get you on camera. Let’s go!
They each take a flipper of HERMIT’s. HERMIT grins.
HERMIT
This feels pretty good. Maybe I’ll write a new song.
Lights out as the trio exits.
END OF PLAY
Sarah Moon is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Professional and Public Writing at Roger Williams University in Bristol, Rhode Island. Also a playwright, she was the 2023 Artist-in-Residence with Eastern Connecticut Center for History, Art and Performance where she developed her full-length drama about 18th Century abolitionist Benjamin Lay and modern-day American history teachers facing anti-CRT legislation, Apostates, PA. Her scholarly work has been published in Pedagogy, Community Literacy Journal, and Literacy in Composition Studies. She lives in Coventry, CT with her husband and three children.
