Report from the Interior (32 page)

… a minute Odysseus or Robinson Crusoe living by the force of his wit, his courage, his resourcefulness …

… the Freedom Riders traveling through the South on long-distance buses were beaten by mobs of white men …

… the Bonus Army was camped out on the Anacostia Flats …

Against Eisenhower’s advice (
I told that dumb son of a bitch that he had no business going down there
), MacArthur took charge …

… pushing out the interlopers at gunpoint as dozens of shacks burned to the ground.

Then, everything suddenly goes wrong.

The prisoners are no better off than slaves.

… they are rousted from their beds at four in the morning and work steadily until eight at night …

… smashing rocks with sledgehammers in a broiling, barren landscape …

… no one is allowed to talk back …

… the nightly ritual of arbitrary punishments …

If not a perfect scheme, Allen nevertheless has a plan …