I was all set to do a nice, low-stress, no-rant entry about the new Star Trek series “Enterprise” today when I heard something on the radio while driving to work which started me boiling up all over again :p Am I being very sensitive about how America (or rather certain Americans) react to certain events after the recent events? Yes I am but that’s only because I have a hope (or should that be dream?) to which America – an open, great, non-arrogant America – is integral. My dream is for a united world under one government – a world where we wouldn’t have the national conflicts that we face today because there would be only one nation, one government and a world where even the racial boundaries would slowly begin to fade. A world which would share all its resources so that all the citizens of the world will have the same quality (or almost the same quality) of life. My friend jugg tells me that this will never happen and when I wear my realist hat, I don’t think so either but then again, I don’t wear that hat much – I usually wear the optimist hat and I hope that one day, not in my life time but perhaps in a few hundred years or maybe even a thousand, that this would indeed come to pass.

To fulfill this dream, I believe that America is crucial. Because I believe that America is the one nation on Earth that can lead the other nations of the world towards achieving this goal. But not an America which is arrogant and introverted! Not an America where some of its citizens don’t even know there is a world outside its shores and doesn’t even care about that world in particular!! Not an America whose citizens are seen as arrogant and boorish by quite a bit of the rest of the world!!! That is why I have higher expectations from Americans. So let me rant on :p

Today on the radio the people in the morning show that I normally listen to were all upset because they had one of their guys distributing red, white and blue stickers at a school and the principal (who had earlier given permission BTW) had asked the guy to leave and tore up one of the stickers. The people on the show were mad about it but they kept it restrained whereas some of the people who called in equated the principal’s actions to burning the flag and even called him anti-American! I have to say that patriotism is all good and well but there is a point when patriotism (or any -ism for that matter …) becomes fanaticism and things seem to be reaching that point. Come on! Yes, the stickers were red, white and blue but does that mean that the guy was tearing up the flag! This sounds like just how the McCarthy era (or the Spanish Inquisition) began – you begin something like that and pretty soon you’ll be scrutinizing the actions of everybody around you and trying to decide whether they are un-American! People need to take a good look at themselves and reanalyze their perspectives!!

OK, I’m done with that :p To talk of what I really wanted to talk about today, “Enterprise” turned out to be pretty good! I don’t know other people will react to the show but I thought Scott Bakula’s Captain Jonathan Archer hearkened back to the early days of Captain James T. Kirk. Here was a man who exemplified all the qualities that make us humans who we are and always showcased those qualities. The first Star Trek series was like that whereas the later ones didn’t concentrate so much on humanity and what makes us human. I also liked the fact that Vulcan’s were shown in a slightly negative light since we had never seen them in that particular light in the original series. I enjoyed the tension between Captain Archer and his Vulcan science office which was directly in contrast to the camaraderie between Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock 🙂 All in all, a good show and one which I’m looking forward to seeing more of!