In the Star Trek universe there was no prejudice. There were blacks, Chinese, Scots, and a couple of white dudes. There were no religions unless they were weird alien religions like Spock's weird sex fiend religion. All the nations were peaceful and everyone worked together.
We all want to live in a Star Trek universe. We are raising kids in America who can live in that world. When I was growing up, I never heard any racial, religious, or nation-of-origin slurs. The first time I heard anyone talk like that was when I watched "All In The Family". I am still shocked at the anti-semitism of people like Mel Gibson when it erupts from under the surface of a seeming well adjusted person. But how do we raise a nation of children who don't hate, in a world of people who do? It seems a disservice to our children to raise them to believe they are living in a Star Trek universe when there are truly horrific racial and religious prejudices.
I just read the story of the Sarajevo Haggadah, a Jewish prayer book, that has been saved over its life by a Catholic priest, and two Muslims. First it was saved from burning by a Catholic priest in Venice. In Sarajevo, it was saved, by Muslims, during the second world war from the Nazis and during the Bosnian War from bombing. This story is always told as an uplifting tale of people working together to save something beautiful even when the book is from a faith that they disagree with. The thing that is missing from this tale are the terrible acts which forced these people to save the book. These great acts of courage would not be necessary in an atmosphere of peace, prosperity and lack of prejudice. The forces that caused these acts of courage were forces of unimaginable horror.
The first recorded salvation of the book was in Venice. The book was saved from burning by a Catholic priest during the burning of Jewish holy books. Why was it saved? Who knows? But we know what it was saved from - hate and prejudice.
The book was saved by a Muslim museum curator in Sarajevo during WWII. The Nazis were burning Jewish holy books and the Nazi general who came for the book was told the book had already been picked up by another German officer. Brave, yes, ecumenical, yes, but the reason he had to be brave was the genocidal hate toward all things Jewish.
During the War in Bosnia and Herzegovina another Muslim museum curator had to risk his life to save the book. The Serbs had placed a siege around Sarajevo and proceeded to bomb the capital, killing tens of thousands and reducing the city to Medieval sanitary standards. The city was being bombed everyday and no building was spared including the National Museum where the book was held. This modern war was the equivalent in hate motivated massacres and atrocities to WWII, albeit in microcosm. Both sides strived to cleanse their areas of ethnic and religious minorities. As the war came to a close these efforts intensified.
Sarajevo was the home of the 1984 Olympics and the people of Sarajevo felt that they had a new type of city, one where Jews, Christian, and Muslims could live in peace forever. They were horribly wrong. Neighbors turned against neighbor. Young snipers targeted and killed school mates. This, Sarajevo Syndrome, the belief that this time it can't happen here, to us, because we are civilized, has proved to be wrong time and time again.
So how do we raise Star Trek kids in a Sarajevo world? Creating a world without prejudice and hate requires the right kind of people to fulfill the vision. Do we inoculate our children to know there is hate when we really don't want them to know it? Are we really what is on the surface or is there a world of hate just bubbling beneath ready to break free?
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