Greetings Dear Reader,
Sometimes I will end the day with thoughts that are
important to get out. Usually I just
write them and put them in my journal folder.
I have chosen that on occasion I will share them with you Dear Reader. My Brother has been and always shall be my
friend.
Today my Brother posted the following. He captured a vast part of the essence of my
heart and the lessons of Star Trek so well in homage to Leonard Nimoy. What follows are my Brother's words:
By the time I had reached the age of 5, my brother Michael
was already a huge Star Trek fan. When he would sometimes watch me in the
evenings, he would show me episodes of his favorite television program and
reassure me that the dangers were only theatrical and the aliens on the program
were costumed people. As a result of this, along with my family's diverse pool
of friends, physical differences were a non-sequiter in my mind. People were
people.
As I grew to know and love my brother over the years, his love
of this long running series of shows and it's many spin-offs made more sense to
me. We were, after all, growing up in the "post"-Jim Crowe South
during the Cuban missle crisis, the Cold War and the Space Race. This program
was set in a world post-recovery-from-nuclear-apocalypse, in a culture that
celebrated it's attainment of global peace, and took place on a ship with
Russian and Asian helmsman, an African female communications officer, a
Scottish engineer and aliens aboard played by a cast perhaps more diverse than
the fictitious crew itself- including one "pointy-eared,
cold-blooded" Vulcan, of course.
My brother was and is a person of principle and, not only
because of a love for the idea of space travel, but because this cast and
director were coming strongly against so many unjust cultural norms and social
dogmas, it made perfect sense for him to be drawn to it. Leonard Nimoy was a
huge part of this. A Jewish-born actor, working with the first African American
actress to attain such a key role on any television program at that time in
history- a fact that later inspired Whoopie Goldberg to request a role on Star
Trek The Next Generation- Nimoy infused the program with his own values and
offered many ideas to the director. As a result, it was years ahead of its
time, both thematically and literally; a rallying point for change in the
segment of the culture that embraced it. Several NASA scientists even site Star
Trek as one of their key sources of inspiration leading to the pursuit of a
career in space aeronautics and it's related scientific fields.
The loss of Leonard Nimoy today was not an emotional event
for me as it was for my brother, but I understand the loss it represents to the
generation and culture that existed when we were younger, and to the global
realities we still must overcome in the realms of racism in any form, sexual
slavery- primarily of young females- globally, genocide, war and persecution as
they exist today. I think it fitting that today is not only now the anniversary
of Leonard Nimoy's passing, but was also- through the End It campaign- an
international day of remembrance for those who are trafficked globally as
slaves.
It was Nimoy's character Spock who once said, "The good
of the many outweighs the good of the one.", and although his friend Kirk
(William Shatner) argued rightly that "the good of the one sometimes
outweighs the good of the many", I think the point our generation took
from the values these men's characters espoused and brought to their craft was
that there is a better way to live in community together here on earth. Nimoy
had much to do with those values being poured into his generation and I hope we
can each find ways to do the same in our own. RIP Leonard Nimoy
Wishing you joy in the journey,
Aramis Thorn
Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer
who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home
owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”
(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
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