THE LAST BATTLEFIELD

ronbrownx, , , , , , , , , , ,

The ORIGINAL “Star Trek” featured an episode, in which, the crew of the Starship ENTERPRISE, while on their continuing mission to “Explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations etc…” encountered two men, one of whom had been chasing the other—an escaped “traitor”—for more than 50,000 years. The source of their strife involved racial segregation and slavery on their, “war-torn”, home planet. The episode first aired in 1969 and was entitled, “LET THAT BE YOUR LAST BATTLEFIELD”.

 

Their conflict seemed to arise from the fact that, although nearly identical in physical appearance—both men had “two toned” skin; black on one side, white on the other. However, there was one small—seemingly insignificant—difference between the two. One of them had white skin on the right side of his body and black on the left and the other had black on the right and white on the left. Because of this minute difference, one “race” had enslaved the other. Does this preposterous proposition sound familiar?

 

 

An NPR reporter once asked a famous neurosurgeon, why he didn’t speak of race or racial differences very often. He responded, “It’s because I’m a neurosurgeon…you see, when I take someone to the operating room, I’m actually operating on the thing that makes them who they are. The skin doesn’t make them who they are. The hair doesn’t make them who they are. And it’s time for us to move beyond that because, our strength as a nation comes in our unity. We are the United States of America, not the divided states. And those who want to divide us are trying to divide us, and we shouldn’t let them do it.”

 

His words left me thinking, “Finally, a moment of clarity on an otherwise, fogbound, sea of perturbation.” Of course, my thoughts did not consist of those exact words, but they make for better print. What he said was logical, and scientifically factual. But, there are those who care not for logic, or scientific fact. The definition of a bigot is; “a prejudiced or closed-minded person, especially one who is intolerant or hostile towards different social groups—especially, and originally, other religious groups—and especially one whose own beliefs are perceived as unreasonable or excessively narrow-minded, superstitious, or hypocritical”.

 

I saw an article the other day which, attempted to explain the meaning of the various components of the “Confederate Flag”. The article summarized by stating the following: “Through the blood of Christ, with the protection of God, we the thirteen states are united in our Christian fight for liberty.” The hypocrisy of that statement is in its use of the word “liberty”. How could that flag represent “liberty” when its bearers held men and women in chains and subjected them to the whips and the back-breaking labor of slavery? That just doesn’t make sense!

 

Allegedly, the blue portion of the flag represents “justice”. How ironic is it that a flag, which is purported to have represented “justice”, be borne by those who denied and continue to deny justice to their “fellow man”? Some things just make sense and some don’t. The surgeon’s statements make sense. Racial injustice and inequality does not!

 

The episode of Star Trek mentioned at the outset of this composition ended with both men returning to their home planet, only to find that every man, woman and child on the planet was dead and its cities destroyed, presumably due to a “war of the races”. The final dialogue on the Enterprise goes like this:

 

Mr. Spock: [On the bridge, after Lokai and Bele have beamed to the surface of Charon] “And another life form has appeared on Cheron.”

 

Uhura: “That doesn’t make any sense.”

 

Mr. Spock: “To expect sense from two mentalities of such extreme viewpoints is not logical.”

 

Sulu: “Their planet’s dead. Does it matter now which one’s right?”

 

Mr. Spock: “Not to Lokai and Bele. All that matters to them is their hate.”

 

Uhura: “Do you suppose that’s all they ever had, sir?”

 

Captain James T. Kirk: “No, but that’s all they have left. Warp factor two, Mr. Sulu. Set course for Starbase 4”

 

The two men, in a rage, attacked each other; intent upon destroying the last vestige of their “races” and their world on “the Last Battlefield”. What will be our EPILOGUE?

Published by ronbrownx

I'm just a country boy who was fortunate enough to have seen a little bit of the world, courtesy of Uncle Sam. My blog site began as a college assignment, but is slowly evolving into something more. What, I'm not exactly sure of yet. So, forgive the links that go nowhere; the dead ends etc. I'll get it together some day. You can also find samples of my writing under the title, "Ron's Time Tunnel" and "The Flowering Vine", on my most generous cousin's blog site, seekthebestblog.com. As you can see by the title of my blog, I have a fascination with TIME. I hope you'll enjoy tripping through it with me.

43 Comments

  1. This is awesome Ron!

    And to think that this episode was from so many years ago. You’d think that we would have come to some sort of understanding. But as you referenced, sometimes all some people have is their hate.
    I just wish that they would keep it to themselves.
    As for that whole “Heritage not Hate” justification of Confederate folk, I call bullshit! Or worse than that, “It’s about state’s rights!” –Yeah, a state’s right to keep slavery legal.
    I could go on, but I won’t

    By the way, I love what you’ve done with the place 🙂

    Love you!

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    1. Thanks Cousin the Beautiful! I love that comment, “I just wish that they would keep it to themselves”. LOL Wouldn’t that be wonderful?

      Thanks, as you can see, I’ve been doing some “cleaning and remodeling”. LOL I need some help with “pages” and “categories” though.

      Liked by 2 people

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  3. Pingback: The Miranda Sings Award – Life of an El Paso Woman

  7. What an excellent post, Sir. My family moved from Phoenix to Los Angeles in August of 1965. I remember that episode haunting me for years. I also remember Dr. Carson’s response to questions – almost verbatim also. I felt crushing disappointment when he dropped out of the primaries. Let’s hold on to hope that man has learned from The Last Battlefield.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    1. Thanks Roos. I see you recognized the “surgeon’s” quotes. Wonderful. He made some great points. I think we passed up several good candidates to get to our current state of affairs

      Like

      Reply

  12. Great post. I recall this Star Trek episode as one where Gene Roddenberry showed how destructive racial hatred is. Yet, it is unfortunately relevant today.

    It disturbs me, we have a candidate who has tapped into racial, xenophobic hate with some extremists crawling out from under rocks feeling they are justified. It disturbs me that our Supreme Court said that certain provisions of the Voters Rights Acts are no longer needed and several states went out to prove them wrong by passing cookie cutter Jim Crow like Voter ID bills, four of which were ruled unconstitutional this past week, with NC’s being accused of “surgical precision” in crafting voter suppression. It disturbs me we have some who ridicule Black Lives Matter, when it should be understood and discussed, rather argued against with Blue Lives Matter and All Lives Matter. Of course, the latter two are important, but this is not a contest and the former is extremely important to talk about and do something about.

    As a white southerner, the unhealthy affection for the Civil War and Confederate flag have always puzzled and disturbed me. When I see a Confederate flag and an American flag decals on a vehicle, I want to ask, “you realize that flag rebelled against that flag causing 750,000 deaths?” What is lost on the driver of the vehicle is the symbol of the flag in the Jim Crow south after the Civil War. That flag was carried by many wearing white hoods and caused the need for a song by Billie Holiday called “Strange Fruit.”

    I am sorry to wax on, so please forgive. Thanks for writing this.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    2. Thanks Keith. Your wonderfully stated comments and insight are particularly refreshing coming your perspective. You are a welcome beacon on the dark and foggy seas of racial injustice. Thanks again for sharing your wisdom and insight

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  15. To hate, we have to first dehumanize. We see that in all kinds of killing or enslaving of human life. We have to mentally make a nonhuman being of the person. We have to make them different from ourself. You can’t make sense out of that attitude. It stems from fear and isn’t rational. Good post, Ron. —- Suzanne

    Liked by 1 person

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  16. Thank you for your follow
    I just heard about the star trek thing not to long ago
    It was fascinating
    But that thing with the surgeon
    Not that really deep
    It’s a shame that there isn’t more of that for us to think and learn from
    Instead all that stuff that try to say about lives matter
    Great post
    Excellent work
    Sheldon

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  17. Men are all evil and will continue their efforts to rise above others and rule them.

    Our hope is in women. They do not harden their hearts at 13 and cry like babies.

    But they’ve gathered some dust and need a cleaning job. Hence, my blog site.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

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