Scene 1: Havana, February 1898
Scene 2: Pawtucket, Rhode Island, February 1898
The Roosevelt Room in the White House
Scene 3: Washington, February 1898
Buffalo Soldiers in Montana, 1896
Scene 4: Montana, February 1898
Scene 5: New York, February 1898
Scene 6: The Cuban Countryside, February 1898
1893 edition
Scene 9, Siboney, Cuba June 1898
Scene 10
Scene 11
For background, see: (from War, Literature and the Arts)
“Infirm Soldiers in the Cuban War of Theodore Roosevelt and Richard Harding Davis”
“Strains of Failed Populism in Stephen Crane’s Spanish War Stories”
“Imperium in Imperio: Sutton Griggs’s Imagined War of 1898”
Scene Twenty Four: Washington, D.C., January 2009
It is about a week into Barack Obama’s presidency. The last meeting of the day is over and Obama is headed for dinner with his family.
Aide: Mr. President. Very briefly. This package marked URGENT just arrived.
The George Eastman House, Rochester, NY
Obama: From where?
Aide: From the George Eastman International Museum of Photography in Rochester, New York.
Obama opens the package, quickly reads the enclosed letter and raises his eyebrows.
After dinner, Barack and Michelle are sitting on a couch.
Barack: The kids are in bed and we have the place to ourselves. Ah, I still can’t believe an African-American boy born in Kenya made it all the way to the White House. And in the front door no less. Miss First Lady, what’s your pleasure? (putting his arm around her)
Michelle: I’ve stocked up on old West Wings. You know much I like carefully crafted and trenchant political drama.
Barack: If you want to see the West Wing, just walk down the hall. Can’t we watch old re-runs of The Jeffersons? Movin’ on up, Weesy!
(Michelle rolls her eyes)
Michelle: And they said he wasn’t black enough to be President.
(the phone rings)
Barack: Hello, Hillary. Yes, yes, your trip to China then to Russia then to India. Right, right, then peace in the Middle East. Yes, yes, you’ll do fine. You’re nice enough. Can we talk about this in morning?
(holding his ears and hanging up the phone)
One week in and she’s already going on about her legacy.
Michelle: She has her sights on ’16.
Barack: Bill right back here on this couch. As First Lad. Stock up on saltpeter. Do you think they still have sex?
Michelle: People probably ask that about us.
Barack: Hey, I’ve told you that campaigning for a year straight takes its toll. Don’t worry, O-Bama-rama is back. Commander-in-Mis-chief.
(Michelle starts the West Wing tape)
You enjoy your trenchant soap opera. Actually, I am going back to the Oval Office. There’s something I want to watch.
(on his way out, he turns to Michelle)
Aren’t you forgetting something?
Michelle: Shh, I can’t hear. What?
Obama: You are supposed to salute me.
(Michelle rolls her eyes)
In the Oval Office, Obama opens the packaged, looking at an enclosed CD and more closely reading the letter. He starts the CD.
About two hours later. Obama has finished watching the CD and sits quietly for a moment. He then picks up the phone:
Stephen Crane in Greece, the Greco-Turkish War, 1897
Obama: Hello, Oliver, this is Barack. President Barack. No, I haven’t yet seen JFK. I told you that movie gives me the creeps. Anyway, I am hoping there’s something you can do for me. Now it has to be handled very sensitively. None of your usual grandstanding or sensationalizing. But have I got a vivid story for you. Mr. Stone, you are going to make a little bit of history.
U.S. President Barack Obama, center, walks in the rain with first lady Michelle Obama, who is holding the arm of her mother Marian Robinson, during a walking tour of Old Havana, Cuba, Sunday, March 20, 2016. Obama became the first U.S. president to visit the island in nearly 90 years. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
