|
|
|
I've been a Star Trek fan as long as I can remember. I was two when it premiered, and I always remember seeing Star Trek while I was growing up in Brooklyn, NY. The positive future, our planet working with a league of other planets, and the intelligence and ideals that Gene Roddenberry and crew cleverly weaved into the plots, in spite of NBC's "network deathgrip," made it something that I could embrace for our future. The networks have been satisfied to placate censors and hold with an outdated survey that the American public can't accept cerebral television.
Science fiction is the only genre that regularly treats the public as having intelligence and Star Trek has never simplified it's ideas or technology. Yet despite what the networks seem to think, the fans not only accept the technobabble and higher ideals, but approve of the ideology and understand the complexity of the "future technology."
I became involved with a fan club that supports and spreads the Trek ideals through community service. I embrace those ideals fervently and take my duties in the club very seriously. It was shortly after I joined that I became the commanding officer of the Little Rock unit and it was soon clear to me how unfairly the public viewed Star Trek fans. A person can wear any sports uniform with Michael Jordan's or Emmit Smith's name, or any other football or basketball "hero," and it's perfectly acceptable, no matter how improbable it is for the wearer to fit that person's image. Yet, when I put on my uniform, I met people who laughed and turned away with disrespect.
I will not surrender the ideals that have inspired so many over the past thirty years. I will wear my uniform, and all it stands for, with pride, whenever I feel it appropriate, just as I wore the uniform of the U.S. Army years ago. And I will gladly share the ideals with anyone who asks why. I've been well recognized since the Whitewater trial and thank all those who have supported me for wearing my uniform. There have been few who've said anything against it. So perhaps this small effort has raised the public view of the Star Trek fan; we are not people closed off or uncaring toward our world--just the opposite--we care very deeply and hope to see it reach a better future.
I was happy to work with Neo Motion pictures in Ms. Crosby's upcoming documentary, since they all showed respect and genuine regard for what we the fans hold dear about Trek. And I thank Denise, Roger and their crew for giving me a chance explain what the press left out of their news stories.
To Neo Motion Pictures, Denise, Star Trek and all my fellow fans:
tai nasha no karosha (live long, and prosper),