I have to ask. Does everyone know what a fictional character is? Does everyone know that there are no Elves, Dwarfs or Orcs right? You do know that there is no such thing as Mermaids right?  Not only that, but you do know the Ariel was first a cartoon character? Why is the world so upset at the thought of a Black Elf? Why in the world are so many people upset that there is going to be a Black Mermaid?  These are not real beings. They are make believe so they can be any color that the author or screenwriter wants them to be. Heaven forbid that there is a Black Storm Trooper turned Rebel Hero or even a Black Cinderella, oh wait, there has already been a Black Cinderella. How about an Asian Elsa or an Indian Snow White? Now a Hispanic Sleeping Beauty would really be just too much for some of the world to take.

No one likes to be called Racist but guess what? Many of the people that were complaining about Black Elves and Black Storm Troopers are Racist plain and simple. Back in the 70s I did not hear a single person complain that Lando Calrissian was Black. There was a little backlash with Cinderella in 1997 with a Black Cinderella in Brandy and a Black Fairy Godmother in Whitney Houston but that movie broke records for a made for TV movie. You look at all the White actors that have played Asian or North African characters and some of those movies are considered classics. It never bothered me that Charlton Heston played Moses or that Yul Brenner played the King of Siam. Scarlet Johansson playing Major in the Ghost in the Shell or Jake Gyllenhaall playing the Prince of Persia. When I go to the movies or what I watch on TV I just want to be entertained.

Complaining about the color of a Storm Trouper or a Mermaid just brings the reality to the problems that I am trying just escape from for a few minutes. That is why I go to the movies and why I watch TV. I want to escape. Almost everything that I watch is either fantasy or Science Fiction. There was a black Freeman on Dune. I didn’t care one bit. In fact I didn’t even think about it until people began complaining about a Black Elf. All I want to do is see a good movie and Dune is a good movie. Do I want there to be a Black James Bond? I will be honest with you I don’t because James Bond was always the same guy. Now that James Bond died could there be one? Well yes, and I would go and watch hoping that I would be entertained like I was with all of them. For years the viewing public never wanted a Black quarterback in the NFL. Even after the success of Warren Moon there were still a lot of people out there that wanted the leader of the team to be White. I even heard some people say that a Black was not smart enough to be a quarterback in the NFL. Well look around the NFL now. They are still under respected but their numbers are growing and will continue to grow.

I live in a state where there is almost a church on every corner. That is an exaggeration but there are really a lot of churches here in Florida. We have a Senator that quotes scripture while justifying an Ex- President stealing classified nuclear documents. We have a governor that flies Venezuelan refuges seeking asylum from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard claiming he did it because there is a chance that they would wind up in Florida. It is a pretty easy drive from Massachusetts to Florida. One thing that we have here is an over abundance of is hate and at times a shortage of the truth. I am not a young man and the closer I get to the end of the trail the more I realize the lies that have been told to me. I pass that sign On McGregor Boulevard a few times a week that says “God Is Love”. Well, he may be but in Florida they sure doesn’t want him or her to be. If there is a god and if he or she really sacrificed his only child for our salvation I would bet he or she is awfully pissed right now at the State of Florida and much of our Country.

Hatred, racism and bigotry are the main things that are dividing our Country. The fact that so many people are upset that make believe people are one color versus another is just the tip of the iceberg of what is wrong with our country. In Germany they thought they were superior to other races and look at the results. Millions died. Our own history is littered with atrocities that they try to hide. We need to study them so they are remembered and we don’t make the same mistakes. DeSantis’s family migrated to America on 1904 from Italy. I grew up in a city with a lot of Italian immigrants and guess what? The White Anglo Saxons didn’t treat them as White either. They were called “greasy Italians” and worse things. Now we have a Governor of Italian descent doing the same to another group of immigrants. It was wrong then and it is wrong now. They say that the truth will set you free but there a lot of dishonest people in America.