Jack of Harts

The events of this weekend remind me why, when I first wrote Jack of Harts, I had things get worse before things got better.

There are generations of people out there who have been taught that others are less human than they are. That others have less rights to speak for thinking the wrong thoughts. That others can be driven out of business for being the wrong religion. That others can be evicted from our schools for being the wrong skin color. That others can be killed for not being like they are.

I grew up watching Star Trek, where mankind had grown beyond those petty disagreements. It was a hopeful message for mankind, a world where we did most things right and built a world we would want to live in.

The events of this weekend remind me that there are those on this planet who do not wish to share it with people who are different than they are. We must defend ourselves from them. We must stop them. We must stand against them. We must drive them from our communities, because they will drive us from ours if we let them. We must, in the end, be willing to fight them.

If we do this well, if we do most things right, we will create that magical world that Jesus, Roddenberry, and Mister Rogers would approve of. I believe that is our future. But as this weekend proves, we have a long way to go before we get there.