So I donated to George’s production efforts. When I was going through High School History, there were a few moments that really struck me about the last century of American History. Racism and the civil rights movement, Joseph McCarthy and his horrible crusades against those he deemed his enemies, and the internment of Japanese Americans. There were some other moments, as well, but the common theme running through these is that they never should have happened. Americans were persecuted publically, and the collective population let it happen. Time and time again. I am sure there are many people today that would say that such things would never happen now, that we’ve moved beyond that… I disagree. Social Media allows us to mount campaigns far more effectively, far more widespread, and just as brutal, than ever before. And what used to take weeks of news coverage to slant people’s opinions is now done in hours by the likes of Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. It has a shorter half life in the public consciousness than those witch hunts of previous generations, but thanks to the Internet’s resilient nature, these things may never disappear into history.
I believe that is why we need reminders such as this. I don’t want to “dig up old wounds”, I just want to make sure we understand why they can happen again.
http://igg.me/p/george-takei-s-legacy-project/x/10852066
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/george-takei-s-legacy-project/x/10852066#/story
