The Prisoner
By Dan Schneider
8/29/68, Chicago
We’re not in….
"….if I have broken a statute of Kansas, put me
in jail; if I am not a lawbreaker your mayor and
councilmen are. You must arrest one of us, for if
I am not a criminal, they are!"- Carry Nation, 1900
Mr. Chairman, my fellow Americans, my fellow Democrats- I proudly accept the nomination
of our party.
This moment- this moment is one of personal pride and gratification. Yet one cannot help
but reflect the deep sadness that we feel over the troubles and violence which have erupted,
regrettably and tragically, in the streets of this great city, and for the personal injuries
which have occurred.
Surely we have now learned the lesson that violence breeds counterviolence and it cannot
be condoned, whatever the source.
I know that every delegate to this convention shares tonight my sorrow and my distress
over these incidents. And for just one moment, in sober reflection and serious purpose, may
we just quietly and silently, each in our own way, pray for our country. And may we just
share for a moment a few of those immortal words of the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi,
words which I think may help heal the wounds, ease the pain, and lift our hearts….
2/20/62
"Godspeed, John Glenn!", was what was said. "We’ll be seeing
you, someday!", was what was thought. So young, in the mind,
was where we were, with thoughts of the future freeing
us from the Vermeerian still of the ’50’s,
Eisenhower’s vegetariat of the mind,
cancerous and deadly as the Dust Bowl ’30’s.
Then the young prince strode with a swagger and guile,
prodding us all to leave behind the last mile,
as we did the Apocalypse of the ’40’s,
to craft a new cosmos out of the power void-
so we did, and today the nation is buoyed.
"Godspeed, John Glenn!" May your memory have nine lives
through the eons that break and remake the present
into a myth that stilly turns before it drives
past all future reckons. Who will know what it means?
As you hunch in arrival, a metal that went
through years that never would have dreamt these simple scenes.
Yes, I accept your nomination in this spirit and I have spoken knowing that the months
and the years ahead will severely test our America. And might I say that as this America
is tested, that once again we give testament to America….
11/l/62
The chimes of Big Ben would be more appropriate
an end, than the ash of that fat Cuban’s cigar,
that has no escape, and seems to render its fate
with each and every audible inhalation.
Every flick to the floor seems to gather much more
importance to this pre-adolescent nation.
Perhaps it is in the strands of sleep which answer
dream, that Kennedy steels himself in the proper
gamesmanship; such requiring the privation
of the human things. Yet the nation, not sleeping,
engages its own anguish, grape-wrung and steeping.
Somewhere someone is jumping through the cigar smoke
hoops of their memory. Somewhere someone will find
that the lever is worn, and the inner spring broke,
in the melodious evermind sensation
that comforts us like Muzak, where we hope to bind
and recall this time merely by its striations.
"Life is intrinsically, * ROVER ME: "I knew of a physicist at the This week our
well, boring and danger- * University of Chicago who was rather crazy party has de-
ous at the same time. At * like some scientists, and the idea of the bated the great
any given moment the * insolidity, the instability of the physical issues before
floor may open up. Of * world, impressed him so much that he used America in this
course, it almost never * to go around in enormous padded slippers very hall, and
does; that’s what makes * for fear he should fall through the floor." had we….just
it so boring." * -Alan Watts papered over the
-Edward Gorey * differences of
#2: I see you’ve made a friend. You’ve got frank, hard de-
your invitation for the carnival tomorrow. It’s one of our little tradi- bate, we would
tions. Each year there’s a fancy dress and a ball in the evening. We’ve deserve the con-
promised a cabaret this year. You’ll come? tempt of our
PRISONER: I have a choice? fellow citizens
#2: You do as you want. and the condem-
PRISONER: As long as it’s what you want. nation of his-
#2: As long as it’s what the majority wants. We’re democratic. In some ways. tory….Democra-
cy affords debate,
discussion and dissent. But, my fellow Americans, it also requires decision. And we have decided
here, not by edict, but by vote; not by force, but by ballot.
Majority rule has prevailed but minority rights are preserved….
6/12/63
I met Medgar Evers in a dream, long ago,
resigned from temptations. He-told me so. I said,
"I miss Minnesota, but I don’t miss the snow."
Evers-said to me, "I’m out on the otherwise,
and playing the game between the living and dead."
Then I woke. It was Christmas. Or so I surmised.
Years passed. I grew up. Yet the game remained the same.
Then I met Medgar Evers, both in flesh and name.
He grabbed my hand, and pulling me closer cracked wise,
"I remember yo’ fat ass." And I knew he did.
But more than what he saidi to me, was what he hid;
such as thoughts of the ladies, and of diamond rings.
His eyes were a man’s, his desires a child’s,
but he soon drifted on. What remained were the things
of the game, in all of its violent ecstasies,
where I met Medgar Evers, then watched him unfold-
in the dream he was A, of the A, B, and C’s.
* "We live in secondhand civilizations." *
* -Karl Popper, Austrian philosopher *
In the space of but a week this convention has literally made the foundations of a new
Democratic party structure in America….
11/22/63
The melting gentleness of space ended right here,
in this news that can crowd out even football scores,
from the source of all knowing. How many will fear ROVER MYSELF: "It turns
that it’s over? How many will sense that this pall out that the answer is
will upend? Who will protect this nation’s mores? given on a different level
As I sit in my chair I fear a free-for-all from that on which the
question was formulated."
will ensue, in the American blood, -Martin Buber,
that shapes The Path Of Man
the world, and casts it in our own
fears and hopes, PRISONER: Let us suppose for argument’s
balanced between scalpel and butter- sake that what you say is true. That I
fly. It falls was planted here….
to the blurry amalgam we call self #2: By X04.
to lead PRISONER: X04?
us beyond the commonplace, beyond #2: Hmmm….
petty need’s PRISONER: Oh, very well then, by X04.
To check on Village security. To check
thin smile of victory. We must take on you.
a breath #2: You were.
and step back from the future that PRISONER: What would have been your
now flakes away, first duty as a loyal citizen? Not to
and embrace this strange derange- interfere. But you did interfere. You
ment of air with death, have admitted it yourself. There is a
and follow its footfalls down name for that- sabotage.
the non-spartan halls, #2: No.
that can be real, and not another PRISONER: Who are you working for, #2?
path that says #2: For us. For us!
what we want to hear, or do hear, PRISONER: That is not the way it is
or not at all. going to sound to X04.
#2: I swear to you….
PRISONER: You could be working for the enemy. Or you could be a blunderer who’s lost his
head. Either way you’ve failed. And they do not like failures here.
#2: You’ve destroyed me.
PRISONER: No. You’ve destroyed yourself. A character flaw…. Yes, my fellow Democrats,
you’re afraid of your masters. A weak link in the chain of we have recognized and in-
command, waiting to be broken. deed we must recognize the
#2: Don’t tell them. Don’t report me. end of an era and the begin-
PRISONER: I don’t intend to. You are going to report yourself. ning of a new day….
#2: I have to report a breakdown in control. #2 needs to be
replaced….Yes, this is #2 reporting…. * "I think that if I recall
* something, for example,
******************************************************************* if today I look back on
this morning, then I get
an image of what I saw this morning. But if tonight, I’m thinking back on this morning, then
what I’m really recalling is not the first image, but the first image in memory. So that every
time I recall something, I’m not recalling it really, I’m recalling the last time I recalled
it. I’m recalling my last memory of it. So that really, I have no memories whatever. I have
no images whatever about my childhood, about my youth."- Jorge Luis Borges
8/2/64
What is war? The inaudible unsaid to love,
or some synecdoche like heart? Who can truly know?
Two destroyers are attacked- and the schizoid man
not far behind in the boss’s brow. He squares
himself with death; turns not to his Cabinet, though
he keeps then around, in a soft parade, and dares
them to challenge his manhood. Like that he will win
the war with himself before it was to begin
a separate existence from his body. There
is his reason, for being and winning- no Gulf
of Tonkin is needed for him to be himself
fully. Lyndon Johnson knows the national press
will have its fangs in his hide. No need to decide
is needed. For him congenital selfishness
is as natural as Tricky Dick Nixon’s fear
to him. As I rise and prepare for the brief ride
to Blair House, I stroke my more quickly graying hair.
ROVER B: "When a dog runs at you, whistle for him."- Henry David Thoreau #113: Congratulations
#2: Come again. #113: Allow me to introduce myself. I am #113, and this is my photographic
colleague #113B. #113B: Smile. #113: We contribute to the local newspaper. The Tally Ho, you
know. PRISONER: Drive on…. #113: This is red hot stuff you know. Haven’t had a candidate
of your caliber for ages. PRISONER: Congratulations. #113: How are you going to handle your
campaign? PRISONER: No comment. #113: Intends to fight for freedom at all costs…. #113B:
Smile…. #113: How about internal policy? PRISONER: No comment. #113: Will tighten up on
village security. #113B: Smile…. #113: How about your external policy? PRISONER: No com-
ment. #113: Our exports will operate in every corner of the globe. How do you feel about life
and death? PRISONER: Mind your own business. #113: No comment….
Let me speak first, then, about Vietnam….
8/4/64
The General walks in with no knowledge of them-
the three boys who are missing in Mississippi.
As he sits down he charts out how we will begin
our descent into the jungles of Vietnam.
He is all mouth, no ears, and though his eyes can see,
he is strangely unnamed- or I feel that I am
in his presence. The President furrows his head
and glances at me, with a look somewhere near dread,
that my mind is elsewhere. And it is true- I am
redounding to the sounds of the boys’ names- Goodman,
Schwerner, and Chaney. As a lieutenant walks in
with briefings I feel no equipoise in the room,
as the rest are engaged, some ten thousand miles
away, yet I am drawn with a national gloom
that pervades all the way from Maine to Vietnam,
while skipping over this room. Not known for smiles
the General seems pleased, or at least isn’t glum.
May I remind you of the words of a truly great citizen of the world, Winston Churchill.
It was he who said- and we should heed his words well- "….those who use today and the
present to stand in judgment of the past may well lose the future."….
11/3/64
Goldwater and Miller never had a real chance
against us that year. It was as if we were not
touched by the smaller things. There was no relevance
to their running, as In your guts you know he’s nuts!
carried the day over heart. It gave us some cot
to know that we stood at the acme of what gets
at the American Psyche. And none too soon
their quicksilver selves faded to oblivions,
as if squashed by demand, not the drawing of lots.
"Many happy returns!" and "Congratulations!"
flooded our headquarters from many nations.
I turned round to a staffer, and wondered aloud
of the war’s direction; why were we there? And how
the mood would change quickly the first time that a crowd
saw body bags returning, instead of the neat
crewcut of a son, whom parents gladly give now,
to serve their country in victory- not defeat.
Now, let me ask you, do you remember these words at another time, in a different place?:
Peace and freedom do not come cheap….
1/20/65 “We all know the man whom children or dogs love
instinctively. It is a rare gift to be able to
A peace that thrives- alas, alas. inspire this affection.”- A.A. Milne ROVER A:
It is not near
this solemn dance of the dead. I "The task is to break the hypnotic spell, so that we
swear that I know become undeaf, unblind and multilingual, thereby letting
better ways to resolve things, but the world speak to us in new voices and write all its
say it not here possible meanings in the book of our existence. Be care-
for my President needs me- this is ful in your choice of hypnotists."- Sidney Jourard
clear. I taste
it in his dog-eyed expressions #2: I have taken his place. I am the new #2.
each day. It shows PRISONER: Get #1.
in retrospect. What becomes a #2: As far as you’re concerned I’m in charge….What
memory most? we do here has to be done. It’s the law of survival,
it’s either them or us.
As a right hand rises, I notice it PRISONER: You imprison people, steal their minds,
is mine destroy them….
that has made its way upward, and #2: It depends on whose side you’re on, doesn’t it?
out of the brine PRISONER: I’m on our side.
of times past, when we swam in the #2: Then we’ll have to find out where you sympathies
seas, and a test lie….
was evading the jaws of a shark, PRISONER: You know where they lie.
or a ray, #2: Subject shows great enthusiasm for his work. He is
and not guiding a bill to the end utterly devoted and loyal. Is this a man who suddenly
of its way. walks out?
PRISONER: I didn’t walk out. I resigned.
A few months earlier I sensed that #2: People change, exactly. So do loyalties.
a chasm PRISONER: Not mine.
was opening between us. Then the #2: All very commendable. But let’s be practical. I’m
President interested in facts. Your only chance to get out of
said: "Opinions are like cocks; here is to give them to me….and if you don’t give
every man has’em! them, I’ll take them. It’s up to you, think about it.
So keep yours to yourself- I like Good day, #6.
them kind the best!" PRISONER: # what?
So I folded my files, with a smile #2: 6. For official purposes. Everyone has a number.
went Yours is #6.
to my office, knowing nothing- PRISONER: I am not a #. I am a person.
save that I lost.
***************************************************
****************************************
"Suppose someone were to say, ‘Imagine this butterfly
exactly as it is, but ugly instead of beautiful."’- Ludwig Wittgenstein
But the search for peace is not for the timid or the weak, it must come from a nation of
high purpose- firm without being belligerent, resolute without being bellicose, strong without
being arrogant. And that’s the kind of America that will help build the peace of this world….
2/21/65
"Checkmate!" cried old Edgar, as he picked up the phone
and delighted to tell us, "That nigger is dead!
If only King would follow, or leave things alone,
this country would be back to the way it was- Right!"
The circle of sight returns- but sometimes, instead
of what was seen before, a death defines the light
that covers things. In the White House Hoover would say
how the President was better than JFK,
and how appropriate that murder set things right-
and how Johnson would wheedle him, as if to get
some sip of a secret before it was forgot.
Then he talked of Muhammad and young Louis X,
and how bloodhounds return, no matter how beaten
down, because that is a natural thing- like sex
or death- and how the old man would gleefully cite
many sources for his wisdom, and how smitten
he was with LBJ; but I never seemed right.
Now, our second reality is the necessity for peace at home….
ROVER MEDIUM: "Quit this world. Quit the next world. Quit quitting.”- Ram Dass
PRESIDENT: We have just witnessed the two forms of revolt. The first, uncoordinated youth
rebelling against nothing it can define. The second, an established, successful, secure
member of the Estab-
lishment turning upon 3/21/65
and biting the hand
that feeds him. Well, Bull Connor could not have done it any better-
these attitudes are smash the hammer into anvil, excite the crowds,
dangerous, they con- and the indifferent masses- it is the latter
tribute nothing to our that is key. They are the silent majority
culture and they must who do not register with words, but rather deeds,
be stamped out. and now they are rapt, watching Cronkite on t.v.
At the other end of
the scale we are honored report on these crimes, the march on Selma, itself,
to have with us a revo- and the unity of race relating to wealth.
lutionary of a different Each policeman who wavers to hostility
caliber. He has revolted. only makes King stronger; just as each hose that sprays
Resisted. Fought. Held the marchers, here or there, just adds to the malaise.
fast. Maintained. Des-
troyed resistance. Over- It was Salustius that said: "Myths are the things
come coercion. The right which never happened but always are." In the past
to be Person, Someone, I believe he was right, but today that point stings
or Individual. We applaud as much as the flicker on the t.v. screen supplies
his private war and con- to the average American who isn’t lost
cede that despite materi- to what this country insists, and likewise denies.
alistic efforts he has
survived intact and secure. All that remains is, recognition of a man. A man of steel….A
man magnificently equipped
to lead us, lead us or The simple solution of the frustrated and the frightened to
go….In this connection our complex urban problems is to lash out against society. But
we have a prize. You will we know- and they must know- that this is no answer.
see that your home is being
made ready. Above and beyond this we have the means for you to desert us and go anywhere.
Key to your house. Traveler’s
checks- a million. Passport. ROVER C: "’Your end which is endless is as a snowflake dis-
Valid for anywhere. And, er- solving in the pure air.’- Bassui, Zen monk. The snowflake,
petty cash. You are free to which was once very much of a discernable subsystem of the
go. universe, now dissolves into the larger system which once
PRISONER: Free to go? held it. Though it is no longer present as a distinct subsystem,
PRESIDENT: Anywhere. its essence is somehow present, and will remain so. It floats
PRISONER: Why? in Tumbolia, along with hiccups that are not being hiccuped
PRESIDENT: You have been and characters in stories that are not being read."
such an example to us. -Douglas Hofstader
PRISONER: Why?
PRESIDENT: You have con- COLONEL: What are the facts behind the Town Hall? Town Hall?
vinced us of our mistakes. PRISONER: That’s right.
PRISONER: Why? COLONEL: Town Council?
PRESIDENT: You are pure. PRISONER: That’s correct.
You know the way. Show us. COLONEL: Were you a member?
PRISONER: Why? PRISONER: I could have been. It’s democratically elected once
PRESIDENT: Your revolt is a year.
good and honest. You are COLONEL: Democratically?
the only individual. We PRISONER: That’s what they claim.
need you. COLONEL: And they’re all #s? No names. No names at all?
PRISONER: I see. PRISONER: Just #s.
PRESIDENT: You do. You see COLONEL: I see.
all. PRISONER: #s in a village that’s a complete unit of our own
PRISONER: I’m an individual? society. A place to put people who can’t be left around. People
PRESIDENT: You are on your who know too much or too little. A place with many ways of
your own. breaking a man….They have their own cinema, their own newspaper,
PRISONER: I fail to see. their own television station. A credit card system, and if you’re
PRESIDENT: All about you is a good boy and cough up the secrets you are gracefully retired
yours. We concede. We offer. to the old people’s home.
We plead for you to lead us. COLONEL: But no escape?
PRISONER: Or go? PRISONER: They also have a very impressive graveyard.
PRESIDENT: Go if you wish.
PRISONER: But I….I don’t know…. * Perhaps my life is nothing but an image of
* this kind: perhaps I am doomed to retrace my
8/11-16/65 * steps under the illusion that I am exploring,
* doomed to try and learn what I should simply
L.A. is burning! It’s your funeral and * recognize, learning a mere fraction of what
home! * I have forgotten."- Andre Breton
The President is sipping a draft beer,
alone,
and flicking his thumb, as if a flicker could come,
set him on fire, so he could release a shriek,
and tell the world to screw itself. But it has done
that already- so he just slouches as he speaks
of nothing in particular. The news from ‘Nam
is not much better- reports laden with aplomb
and civility, which cover what numbers lack,
but add nothing to the day, save tinder and heat,
enough of which is coming from L.A.’s defeat
of itself. For the first time I wonder and pull
myself from excuses. They turn over a car
with a family in it. What kind of ungrateful
monsters are breeding? The President takes a leak,
and comes back, then turns to me: "Now they’ve gone too far!
They’ve fucked’emselves good!" And I see into his smirk.
I put it very bluntly- rioting, burning, sniping, mugging, traffic in narcotics, and
disregard for law are the advance guard of anarchy, and they must and they will be stopped….
11/9-10/65
A change of mind can slip in in the dark places
where no sleep can know the weather of time and thought.
It was here when the looters, with average faces,
helped themselves to whatever that I thought it right
to dream of Mother’s cooking, as if it were caught
in my nose, again with delight, on this long night.
I spoke with Governor Rockefeller who said
by noon, tomorrow, all power would be restored.
But, I sat in my room, away from the delight
of myself with my own memory’s resurgence,
to ponder the dark, and the others’ emergence
through these times, in such ways, that cannot be controlled,
that I long for the scents of a North Country stove,
and on this night- without it- cannot be consoled
in my yearnings. I dream of a different night
when other than repressions can take to the rove
of the mind, the shadow of all that is sheer white.
We do not want a police state but we need a state of law and order, and neither mob
violence nor police brutality have any place in America….
5/l/66
Karen Young once mentioned Cambodia in class,
and I recall no one knew where that country was,
and I didn’t care, for many a year. I passed
it by in my mind, like her red hair’s frieze of awe
which filtered its way through the young part of me as
a reason to move and keep on moving. A law
of the cosmos that is just me. When I saw her
answer the question that day, I had no horror
at the name, nor this dream, that I’d slowly abhor,
with a waking disdain- just more papers to sign,
growing more heedless and careless, as if design
could now micromanage my inner fears and cares-
Do not forsake me, oh, my darling- dissolving
part of my day, growing accustomed to despair,
as the Indochinese do, in midst of their poor
flights from fight-to-fight, war-to-war, never solving
the unanswered questions of youth, weighing down more….
And now the third reality, essential if the other two are to be achieved, is the necessity,
my fellow Americans, for unity in our country, for tolerance and forbearance….
7/12-17/67
No sagebrush in Newark, or none that we can see,
seems to blow in their wind. The President will say
why he canit understand living in harmony
to be such a messy proposition, after
all the laws he signed, the thickets cut from the gray;
and no one can seemingly enjoy a laughter
* “Truth
at another’s expense. The President calls us * is
all in, and begins to mumble. Then he lets loose * a
a cannonball of cussing. There seems no greater * lie."
moment in his existence than when the prickles * -
apply themselves to another. As he chuckles * Pablo
* Picasso
a call comes in. I do not know who it is from,
but Johnson sits back in his swivelchair and spits
out a piece of steak from his teeth. "Who can we blame
for this bullshit?", as if a pretend debater
awaited some rhetoric, like an old sunset
in the West- only this was East, and was later.
ROVER LOW:
"’I have also thought of a model city from which I deduce all the others.’ Marco answered.
‘It is a city made only of exceptions, exclusions, incongruities, contradictions. If such
a city is the most improbable, by reducing the number of abnormal elements, we increase the
probability that the city really exists. So I have only to subtract exceptions from my model,
and in whatever direction I proceed, I will arrive at one of the cities which, always as an
exception, exist. But I cannot force my operation beyond a certain limit: I would achieve
cities too probable to be real."’- Italo Calvino
So this is the message that I shall take to the people, and I ask you to stand with me.
******************************************************************
"’It’s a poor sort of memory that only works backwards,’ the Queen remarked."
-Lewis Carroll
******************************************************************
#2: Quite a beautiful place really, isn’t it?….Almost like a world of its own.
PRISONER: I shall miss it when I’m gone.
#2: Oh, it’ll grow on you. We have everything here….water, electricity, there’s the
council building. We have our council, democratically elected….we also use it for public
meetings, amateur theatricals.
PRISONER: Fascinating.
#2: Yes, indeed….there’s the restaurant….But did you know we have our own little news-
paper?
PRISONER: You must send me a copy….
1/30/68
Khe Sanh- where is that? Ninh Hoa- further to the south
than- Rach Gia- another- one can barely keep breath
from expelling itself, falling quick from the mouth
as hamlet and city, do in this rueful tune,
which reminds me of the song The Girl Who Was Death
we used to sing at birthday parties, Halloween,
or any occasion that a youth could concoct
as a reason to be scared. And who could detect
why a sane soul would choose to break peace with ruin?
All these names and occasions- one can fill the blanks
in, and still it would bear no meaning, or some thanks
to the solution. Then the President declaims
"To hell with this gook shit! Blow their asses away!
Ho Chi Minh is a bastard, fuck him all the same,
with his bullshit of peace talks, in Paris, by June."
Then he tossed his mug of tea and whiskey my way-
but I ducked. A shard stuck in his map of the moon.
Martin Luther King, Jr. had a dream. Robert F. Kennedy, as you saw tonight, had a great
vision….
These men, these men have given us inspiration and direction, and I pledge from this
platform tonight we shall not abandon their purpose- we shall honor their dreams by our
deeds now in the days to come.
I am keenly aware of the fears and the frustrations of the world in which we live. It
is all too easy, isn’t it, to play on these emotions. But I do not intend to do so….
I shall appeal to reason and to your good judgment….
4/4/68
Once upon a time there were two men, in their way
a part of each other, although one could see more * "Nearly all men can
than the machine; or, at least, only one would say * stand adversity, but
he did. The other got rid of such things as sight, * if you want to test
and decided to see if he could control law * a man’s character,
and order from the inside. One, it seemed, was right, * give him power."
* -Abraham Lincoln
while the other was not necessarily wrong,
it seemed inconvenient to just putter along,
especially when blessed with a skin labeled white.
But the day refused both, and the darker one would
try any avenue as long as it seemed good.
* “If your mind is empty,
Once upon a time there were two men, in their way * it is always ready for
a part of each other, although one hit the floor * anything; it is open to
of the machine, and his head full of dreams, would lay * everything. In the beginner’s
in its sauce. The other man would take wobbly flight, * mind there are many possi-
and see if the first man should have learned a bit more * bilities; in the expert’s
than to court flame in the midst of a paper night. * mind there are few."
-Shunryu Suzuki
ROVER I:
"It is as if I were attempting to trace with the point of a pencil the shadow of the
tracing pencil."- Nathaneal West
&nb
