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George Takei
George Takei-from FB
24 mins ·
Tonight, much of America, and indeed the world, will be watching the debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. The pundits have been busy dissecting debate strategies and preparations, while the campaigns busily downplay expectations. For me, the question we the voters should be asking, most fundamentally, is this: What values do these candidates represent?
We can argue in circles about who is more honest, or who will create more jobs, or who will keep us safer. But we all know there is something more at stake than these questions, which attach regularly to every election. This time, we're not just voting for a person. On the line is our very national character.
I grew up in a time where fear and hysteria drove a whole nation to view me, my family, and my community as the enemy, simply because we happen to look like the people who bombed Pearl Harbor. In the end they rounded up 120,000 people--two thirds of us U.S. citizens--and put us in ten barbed wire prison camps around the country. It has been my life's mission to ensure those dark days are never forgotten, and never repeated.
Any candidate that would play to our baser instincts, vilifying whole groups based on their religion or national ancestry, has no place in our elected government, let alone atop it. We've been down that road, and it ends in shattered communities and scars that last a lifetime. So when we hear the drumbeat of racism and nativism, we must rally against it with all our might. For above all, this nation stands for the principle of equality, for all of us, under the law. Any political aspirant who would undermine that guarantee must be rejected by all those of good conscience.
I have no doubt the American people will do the right thing. But it begins with each of us, speaking out, and pledging to do our part.
Thank you for listening. Be well, and this November give to your children the same promise that was passed on to you.
-- George
We can argue in circles about who is more honest, or who will create more jobs, or who will keep us safer. But we all know there is something more at stake than these questions, which attach regularly to every election. This time, we're not just voting for a person. On the line is our very national character.
I grew up in a time where fear and hysteria drove a whole nation to view me, my family, and my community as the enemy, simply because we happen to look like the people who bombed Pearl Harbor. In the end they rounded up 120,000 people--two thirds of us U.S. citizens--and put us in ten barbed wire prison camps around the country. It has been my life's mission to ensure those dark days are never forgotten, and never repeated.
Any candidate that would play to our baser instincts, vilifying whole groups based on their religion or national ancestry, has no place in our elected government, let alone atop it. We've been down that road, and it ends in shattered communities and scars that last a lifetime. So when we hear the drumbeat of racism and nativism, we must rally against it with all our might. For above all, this nation stands for the principle of equality, for all of us, under the law. Any political aspirant who would undermine that guarantee must be rejected by all those of good conscience.
I have no doubt the American people will do the right thing. But it begins with each of us, speaking out, and pledging to do our part.
Thank you for listening. Be well, and this November give to your children the same promise that was passed on to you.
-- George
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