Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country is one of my favorite Star Trek movies. But anyone who knows me knows I’m more of a Star Wars fan (kinda like J.J. Abrams; didn’t he direct a Star Trek film?). At this point I can hear the “snap/hiss” of lightsabers and phasers being set for kill all over the world-wide-web. How in the word can a Star Wars fan love a Star Trek movie? Well, the sci-fi genre has always been one to take issues of the time away from Earth and tackle them in a safer environment; Star Trek VI does this. At the time Star Trek VI released (12.13.91) the Chernobyl incident had occurred, the Berlin Wall had come down, and the Iron Curtain had recently fallen. The story in Star Trek VI mirrors this with a energy disaster on a Klingon moon and the need for peace between the Klingon Empire and the United Federation of Planets. Add to this plot great performances by the Trek cast and additions like Christopher Plummer as General Chang and David Warner as Chancellor Gorkon and things get better. Throw William Shakespeare quotes into the dialogue and make it relevant to the plot and it’s amazing. Now, how does this relate to the FENX? Well, one of the themes to Star Trek VI is fear of the unknown. Peace between the Klingon Empire and the Federation was a scary thing for some because it would change the galaxy.; it was something folks just couldn’t understand.
A few weeks ago I was driving the FENX home from the movie theater in Chinatown when some hooligans decided that it would be a lot of fun to cause me grief by messing with me and the FENX while I was trying to drive. Both incidents happened so fast I didn’t have time to do anything about it, but I was upset. I was very thankful that I wasn’t alone and my friends who were with me made sure the law enforcement officers knew what happened. I was angry, that’s an understatement. It’s tough being defenseless. It’s hard accepting weakness and being forced to trust my circumstances to One greater than I am. The FENX sticks out, it attracts attention from droves of people who don’t understand it. Just like in Star Trek, and life in general, folks fear what they don’t understand – attracting the attention of the K9 unit of the Capitol Police because they think the FENX is a weapon is certainly an example of this. Trying to do something new, trying to change the way people think about handicapped folks and transportation is difficult, some people aren’t going to get it, others give you grief; but like Spock said to Kirk when Kirk and the Enterprise were volunteered to escort Chronos One to the signing of the peace accords – “Only Nixon could go to China”
The Adventures of Aaron and the FENX 4.x 