Well, I thought "oughta" was spelled "oughtta." Google, however, disagrees: 3 million hits for "oughta," but only a thenth that for my version. Oh well, outvoted by the collective wisdom of humanity. I guess that's not such a bad thing.
Tecumseh, however, reminds me of lawnmowers. If you have to ask why, then you've never experienced the pleasure of trying to pull start a two-stroke engine that's been rusting in your neighbor's garage all Winter. I did that for a few years as a kid, every Spring, to raise money to buy books. Science fiction books; stuff by Asimov and anything about Star Trek.
I never bought any Star Wars material, though. Star Wars was just too Hollywood. Star Trek was much more real - to me, anyway.
The difference between Star Wars and Star Trek has a lot to do with how people view current events. ... Bet you can't wait for me to explain that, can you?
Star Wars was grandiose - well, you can afford to be grandiose in a two hour film. The film concerned a sweeping history of the universe with absolutely evil characters and absolutely noble characters. The protagonists had to prevail lest everyone be doomed to live under the iron thumb of the evil Empire.
Ever notice how empires are always evil?
Star Trek, however, didn't have that luxury. The directors had but 50 minutes within which to tell a morality tale. But they weren't sweeping, and they always left things just a bit up in the air. Kind of like real life, that.
Which is why Star Trek is closer to reality than Star Wars.
People, it seems to me, have a tendency to get this sort of thing mixed up all the time, especially when it concerns the history through which they're living. Things that may seem quite important - who is President or Prime Minister, how much tax you have to pay, whether the government will promote nuclear power, whether we should do something global warming - sometimes aren't as important as they might seem.
Unlike Star Wars, no hero will fly out of the Orion nebula to save us all, gifting humanity with peace and good times forever more. There are no simple solutions. There are no easy answers to humanity's most vexing problems and no easy answers to the most important questions.
Like Captain Kirk, we'll get most of it right, some of it wrong, and the Republic will putter along much as it always has.
Which is why people could, in my opinion, do well to just calm down already.
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