SHANE:  I’ve made so many mistakes.

SYDNEY: You don’t know they’re mistake when you’re making them.  The key is not to loose the lesson. 

SHANE:  But achievement is easier for you, your smart and talented.

SYDNEY:  Shane, I was never the best•but I busted my butt and outperformed the more talented.  So can you.

SHANE: But how are you defining success Syd•standing out or fitting in?  It’s tough to live with secrets.

SYDNEY: I know, sometimes I fear that I pretend so much I’ll actually forget who I really am.

SHANE: Do you want to forget?

SYDNEY: (sadly) Somedays.

Shane gently turns Syd so that her back is against the shower wall.

SHANE: Well, let me remind you exactly who you are…..

Shane kisses Syd’s breasts and they make love in the shower.

INT:  NEW YORK CITY RESTAURANT – EVENING OF THE SAME DAY

Helena, Syd and Shane are having dinner with Syd’s high school friend Griffin and his wife Brenda.  Griffin is distinguished looking and well dressed.  Brenda is richly and very stylishly dressed, giving an air of money.  Griffin is likable, his wife is not.  Syd and Brenda are engaged in an intense and very tense discussion.

BRENDA: Politicians are like diapers, they need to be changed frequently and for the same reason.

SYDNEY: Irreverence is the champion of liberty•perhaps it’s only defense.  In a time of universal deceit speaking the truth is a revolutionary act. 

BRENDA: And the opinion of the Moral Majority?  They think you’re a heretic.

SYDNEY:  The Moral Majority doesn’t get to decide who loves this country and who doesn’t•who’s patriotic and who’s not.  Patriotism is love of country; when it’s right we need to keep it that way, but when it’s wrong we need to make it right.  Dissention is patriotic.

BRENDA:  You don’t think our current leaders know much, do you?

SYDNEY:  I don’t think leaders need to know it all•leaders need to show the ability to learn.  But you have to separate the people from their political leaders.   We are a better country than our leadership of the past 8 years.  I just want this country to be as good as its promise. Never forget that Hitler was elected by a democracy.