Friends of Padre Steve’s World,
“Write the words, brother Ben, write the words that will lead of out of the darkness onto the path of righteousness. Write the words, brother Benny, write the words!” The Preacher
Today was the official commemoration of Martin Luther King Day. It is something that in the context of today’s so-called Second Amendment Protest in Richmond I have been thinking about. Personally, I think such protests are misguided and deny the original intent of the Founders and the writers of the Bill of Rights which emphasized the importance of a well armed and trained militia under state control, not a bunch of yahoos running around with military grade weapons and equipment. Of course that is what the majority opinion opinion written by the late Associate Justice Antonin Scalia wrote. He dismissed the entire first part of the Second Amendment as meaningless. So much for men like him who say they want to preserve the original meaning of the Constitution. Truthfully, they are the ones who change the Constitution to support their political and social agenda. But I digress…
This evening I watched an episode of Deep Space Nine (Far Beyond the Stars) that deals with a dream of Captain Sisko where he is sent to 1950s Earth, where as Benny Russell, a Science fiction writer who after seeing a drawing that looked like Deep Space Nine writes a novella for his magazine with a Black Captain, which is rejected by the owner of the pulp magazine. Eventually, it gets published and he returns to his own time.
The episode exposes the prejudices of that day, even in a more enlightened and progressive city such as San Francisco. Sadly, these prejudices remain on display today, unrepentant and undisguised. But in the episode there is a quote, spoken by Benny Russell which is especially pertinent and very much in keeping with Dr. King’s Dream:
“I am a human being, dammit. You can deny me all you want. But you cannot deny Ben Sisko. He exists. That future. That space station. All those people. Thy exist. In my mind. They exist. In here. In my mind. I created it. And every one of you know it. You read it. It’s here. Do you care what I’m telling you? You can pulp a story but you cannot destroy an idea. Don’t you understand? You cannot destroy an idea. You cannot destroy the future!…”
Try as some people might, that future cannot be destroyed. Race hatred and violence may delay that, but the future cannot be destroyed. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Benny Russell, and Benjamin Sisko understood that, as do I. Donald Trump and his followers cannot stop the path of progress even if through threats of violence and legislative actions similar to Jim Crow and the Black Codes are upheld by the Supreme Court.
That is why we cannot ever give up, regardless of any momentary setbacks. That is not just a Dream, it is reality.
Until tomorrow,
Peace,
Padre Steve+
The Inglorius Padre Steve's World 