George Takei

[billvon 3,058]

Went to a talk last night with George Takei and John Cho (both Sulus from the Star Trek films) at UCSD.  George was very eloquent.  They both talked about the role a bit.  Then the moderator asked them about their childhoods, and George talked about growing up in an internment camp.  Then they went over to John who didn't say anything for a second.  "I have no idea how I follow _that_" he finally said.

George Takei was taken from his home in LA to a Japanese internment camp when he was 5, because he was Japanese and the Japanese had just attacked Pearl Harbor.  All his family's money was taken.  Their house was sold.  All their possessions were taken.  They were stripped naked.  They were first imprisoned in a horse stall; their family of four was in one stall.  They all got sick from sleeping on dung, but fortunately survived.

They were then moved from camp to camp over the next five years, ending up in a mosquito infested camp on a bayou in Arkansas.  And every morning they'd line everyone up in the mud and forced them to recite the Pledge of Allegiance.  And every time he got to the "with liberty and justice for all" part he'd look around the prison camp they were in and think that perhaps that America was fibbing about that part.

He also talked about growing up as a gay man, and how he had to hide who he was for decades from a Hollywood that would have fired him instantly if they had known.  Finally he was able to come out in 2005 and admit to the relationship he'd had for the past 20 years.  In 2008 they were married, and when they re-outlawed gay marriage in California later in 2008, they were both amused, thinking about what a fun court case it would be if republicans tried to forcibly divorce them.   Then Prop 8 was overturned and it was a moot point.

His unique perspective - a man who has had his rights taken away TWICE by America - has led him to be very politically active.  When the US government finally paid him reparations for throwing him in jail for four years he donated it all to an Asian civil rights group.

He's also very aware how tenuous people's rights are and how easily they can be taken away.  He talked about FDR, a guy he otherwise respected, giving in to fear and starting up the internment camp program.  And he cautioned that if you start with a guy that does NOT have the sort of morals that FDR had, then the damage he can do to civil rights will be that much greater.

His words - “I consider it my responsibility as an American citizen to actively participate, particularly because I know my childhood imprisonment - the unjust imprisonment.  If we don't participate, if we don't educate our fellow Americans to the vulnerability of our democracy, how fragile it can be, then we're not being responsible citizens.”

Sometimes we forget how fragile our rights are.

[gowlerk 2,245]

1 hour ago, billvon said:

Sometimes we forget how fragile our rights are.

Canada did no better and in some ways worse during both of the world wars.

[Phil1111 1,149]

This is why political awareness is a requirement of all intelligent people. Why dangerous ideas and people must be fought. Why the weak and the vulnerable in society must be protected from those who would abuse them.