Fatherland

Ira and I went to see Fatherland at NYC Center, the true story of an 19-year old son who turned his father in to the FBI after the Dad's active partcipation in the January 6th storming of the capital. It uses actual transcripts of court testimony: The United States vs. Wesley Feffitt, the jury trial held before the US District Court in Washington, DC. This was a son who had a very loving relationshop with his Dad in his younger days, but when Trump challenges the result of the 2020 election and sends out a call to rally at the capital building, urging his fans to "fight like hell or you are not going to have a country anymore" things change. The proudly reactionary father arms himself for battle and drives from Texas to DC by car, (with weapons), while the son contacts the FBI and records his Dad on a cell phone, so the young man's testimony will be believed. The Dad had become a changed "Maga-man" drinking heavily and physically and verbally threatening his wife and child. He totally bought into the incendiary extremist ideology of the Far-Right Three Percenters Militia Group. But the son's decision ends up, ultimately, splitting up the family, so right now no one talks to the young man, who is on his own in college, while his Mom left with her two girls and his Dad is in jail. The Dad admits, at the end of the play, that he would do it all over again, since it was his patriotic duty, but so would the son do it, even though he feels guilty and anxious every day. This is a heart-wrenching decision based on morality and conscience. Everyone's life has been changed forever.

But I have to say, I have nothing but admiration for this son. The Dad's decision to storm the capital, the "insurrection" was dangerous, and the rhetoric of today's politics is ugly, divisive and threatening. How brave it had to be, but also scary, for this young man to face the truth of having a Dad whose belief system was immoral: the killing ("Hang Mike Pence") and desecration of the U.S, capital, all in the name of a HUGE LIE that the election was stolen, though all data had proven otherwise. The moral courage to turn a parent in is astounding, since no one wants to act in a way that would send a beloved family member to jail. Yet, this boy knew the ugly war his father was raging was corrupt and morally reprehensible.

To have raised a child who is willing to sacrifice all of his family anchors in the name of justice is an act of bravery. I would be proud to have a child like this, who puts RIGHT OVER MIGHT, and moves forward with his or her conscience. But even as I say this and feel he did the right thing, it is a lonely road he now walks on, yet a road paved with decency and integrity and morality. It is the final act of courage.  Still, he is only nineteen, and now he walks alone. 

This is a story that would make you weep!