Athena Has a Sit-Down, Goddess-to-Woman Talk with Sarah Huckabee Sanders

by Kathleen Murphey

SHS:                “The President in no way form or fashion has ever promoted or encouraged

                        violence.”

Athena:           “What is this nonsense that has escaped the barrier of your teeth?

                        In Cedar Rapids, he told supporters to ‘knock the crap out’ of protesters.

                        He said that he could murder someone on Fifth Avenue and still get elected.

                        His platform, America First, comes from a 1930s white supremacist movement

                                    that promoted appeasement with Hitler and the Nazis, people okay with

                                    the torture and murder of Jews.

                        He made excuses for white supremacists in Charlottesville. He bemoaned the

                                    taking down of Confederate monuments, thereby endorsing white

                                    supremacists and violence and/or intimidation of African Americans by

                                    such public statues.

                        He accused NFL players taking the knee during the national anthem of being

                                    unpatriotic for supporting Black Lives Matter and using their First

                                    Amendment rights to freedom of expression—meaning that they should

                                    abdicate their positions of public spotlight to highlight the injustice of

                                    innocent and unarmed Black men and boys being shot dead by police. 

                                    AKA not condemning violence done to unarmed Black men and boys and

                                    slandering NFL players who want to bring attention to this injustice.

                        He is systematically dismantling the legacy of the first Black president of the

                                    USA—which sends the covert message that African Americans are not to

                                    be valued and respected in this country—which supports a white

                                    supremacist agenda of targeting Blacks, Muslims, Hispanics, Jews, and

                                    “others” including the LGBTQ+ community for violence and hate. Just

                                    ask the Southern Poverty Law Center and Anti-Defamation League about

                                    the rise of hate crimes since Trump became president.

            In failing to stand up to the NRA, he has become complicit in gun violence that

happens in your country, whether in your inner cities or in mass shootings like Parkland, Florida, and others.”

           

SHS:                “Trump can’t be expected to be held to a higher standard.”

Athena:           “What are these words that have broken through the fence of your teeth?

                        The President of the United States of American can’t be expected to be held to a

                                    higher standard? Since when? Apparently since Trump—every other

                                    president of the USA has understood the responsibility of the office and

                                    his need to set a higher standard. Twitter Troll, Bully in the Pulpit, trash-

                                    talking Angry Trump Baby—the first president in history that no one

                                    should want their children to try to emulate. How has your country come

                                    to this?”

SHS:                “It’s our responsibility to keep the American dream alive for kids like Frank,

                        immigrants who are already here and those who dream of immigrating here in the

                        future.”

Athena:           “What is this talk that’s escaped the barrier of your teeth?

Travel Ban, Border Wall, Zero Tolerance (separating children from their parents)!

Rapists, drug dealers, bad hombres! Dehumanized people who will ‘infest’ your country like insects or vermin.”

SHS:                “I don’t think it’s appropriate to lie from the podium or any other place…my job

                        is to communicate the president’s agenda.”

Athena:           “What are these words that have broken through the fence of your teeth? 

Your own people know that you lie about his lies. Listen to them!”

“You know what? [Huckabee] does work for Donald Trump, but she also works

            for us… She works for everybody who pays taxes, and even for people

            who don’t pay taxes—like, I guess, her boss. If you can’t do the minimal

            requirements of the job, you become complicit in the lie and in the

            degradation of the podium, the White House, the office of the president

            and ultimately the democracy.” Joe Lockhart

                        “The general proposition is that either the president or someone on the president’s

                                    behalf ought to stand up and be accountable to the American people every

                                    day…That’s a fundamental aspect of our democracy. It is broken now. 

                                    And I don’t think it’s broken beyond repair. It’s just broken beyond

                                    Trump. I hope we restore some kind of regular order when this whole

                                    episode is done.” Mike McCurry

SHS:                “Look, no matter how much phony controversy the Democrats generate, it’s a

                        simple fact that illegal alien criminals this young are still developing the part of

                        the brain that feels pain, goes through emotional trauma, and retains memories.”

Athena:          “What utter nonsense has just escape the barrier of your teeth?

                        It is a staggering set of lies which reduces innocent children to criminal, senseless

                                    animals. Unbelievable! Everyone knows that children feel pain from the

                                    time they are born (if not before) and for the rest of their lives. When

                                    small children wake up with ear infections crying, they are crying because

                                    they are in pain. When small children wake up from nightmares crying,

                                    they are crying in fear which is a kind of pain. When small children break

                                    their bones or cut themselves and cry, they are crying because they are in

                                    pain. When children are sexually abused by teachers and priests before

                                    they are fourteen, they understand and are impacted for their whole lives

                                    by those memories and those traumas as the Sandusky and Catholic

                                    Church priest scandals have made clear. Children—helpless children—

                                    dehumanized by you as “illegal alien criminals”—how is a four year old,

                                    “illegal” or “criminal”? What kind of country criminalizes and outlaws

                                    children? Apparently Trump country.”

SHS:                “Furthermore, it’s important to keep in mind that we are talking about foreign

                        Children—even if they somehow manage to see their families again,

                        environmental factors may prevent them from developing the capacity to even

                        recognize them. I mean, they live in cages, for God’s sake.”

Athena:           [Athena is visible agitated and annoyed.] “O, Father above, Zeus, the

                                    shamelessness of these lies and falsehoods is staggering! Sisyphus’

                                    duplicity was an insult that delivered him to eternal torment in Hades,

                                    pushing the boulder up the hill over and over because it was never allowed

                                    to reach the summit. But this! Sadly, our power is gone from this world,

                                    or I would beg you to smite this outrageous liar with a thunder bolt as a

                                    just and fitting warning. I can only hope, that their gods now will deliver

                                    her to eternal torment for her lies and complicity with this government or

                                    that her people will shake off the haze of this poisoning propaganda and

                                    send her to prison!

                        Environmental factors—like traumatizing them by separating them from their

                                    parents. ‘For God’s sake,’ you put them in cages!”

SHS:                [Sarah Huckabee Sanders remains wholly committed to the lies she has been

                        prepped to repeat. She does not flinch under the anger of the goddess. Brazenly,

                        she parrots the words:] “The president is not a liar.”

Athena:           “What trash talk has just escaped your mouth?

                        Trump lies all the time. Call it whatever you want—deception, falsehoods, lies,

                                    deceit, poppycock, bull, bullsh*t, rubbish, nonsense, bunk, falsification,

                                    falseness, fable, detraction, defamation, calumny, fraudulence, guile,

                                    hyperbole, invention, libel, mendacity, dishonesty, evasion, fabrication,

                                    distortion, aspersion, backbiting, fib, fantasy, fiction, forgery, inaccuracy,

                                    misrepresentation, myth, perjury, slander, bluff, equivocation,

                                    exaggeration, fallacy, half-truth, humbug, jive, babble, untruth, white lie,

                                    tall story, whopper, subterfuge, revilement, prevarication, balderdash,

                                    baloney, drivel, foolery, gibberish, hogwash, hooey, malarkey, prattle,

                                    vilification. 

He calls news he doesn’t like ‘FAKE NEWS’. He creates Fake News with his

                                    lies. You create Fake News with your lies about his lies!” [Athena throws

                                    up her arms in exasperation.] “Maybe you’ll let him lie his way into

                                    World War III, and the earth can be purged of the wretchedness of

                                    humankind. 

I thought I might be able to talk some sense in to you, but clearly you don’t care

                                    about the damage you are doing, to your own people, to your government,

                                    to other governments, and to the people of the world. Shame on you!”

[And Athena walks away.]

SHS:                [Sarah Huckabee Sanders looks stricken for moment. But then Athena

                        disappears, and she shrugs her shoulders and goes to prepare for the next round

                        of White House lies.]

* * * * *

Kathleen Murphey is an Associate Professor at Community College of Philadelphia.  She will have her first play performed as part the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, P Pan and Beyondland, with performances at the German Society of Pennsylvania on Saturday September 15^th and Sunday September 16^th.  More information about her and the play can be found at her Website, www.kathleenmurphey.com.