By Elim Craighill-Middleton

April 5th was Star Trek’s First Contact Day.

In 1996, ‘Star Trek: First Contact” hit theaters across the world, and as the widely-regarded “best Trek film”, it’s hit a lot of solid points that we can apply today.

For the uninitiated (or perhaps, may I say, the unassimilated?) today’s the celebration of Earth’s First Contact with an extraterrestrial species — namely, the Vulcans. Even if you’re unaware of the series itself, most have heard of Mr. Spock, a member of said species. Vulcans are humanoid, but stand for logic above all else. Their logic dictates most of their society, but also dictates that all are welcome to be the best that they can be.

As a Trekkie, it’s hard to ignore the parallels of their politics against the backdrop of real-world ones. First Contact Day symbolizes a moment where we, as humans, were offered a hand to the stars. I see a lot of the same today in how we as a nation are handling global events.

First, I’m going to segue and talk about the politics of Trek — in a post-scarcity society, people all have food, housing, medical care, freedom of travel and more provided. Society is based on the pursuit of knowledge and furthering of it, rather than the acquisition of wealth or power. In fact, even starship captains are expected to have wide-ranging hobbies, from Commander (later, Captain) Sisko’s love of baseball (GO NINERS!) or Captain Picard’s love of archaeology. It’s an idyllic world, where everyone is considered equal regardless of their circumstance of birth, gender or individual identity. Prejudice and poverty are gone.

Take that in for a moment. It’s a world where folks are allowed to be who they are, as they are, and their inherent value to society is known and felt.

Sounds pretty excellent, but how do we get there?

The closest parallel to the world of Star Trek is, plainly, the one we’re putting on our blue slate. Normally, I’d shy away from blatant partisanship, but that’s where we are. We’re in a world where a Nazi-sympathizing, blatantly sexist man is the GOP frontrunner for governor. We’re in a world where a man who’s known best in our circles by his insane quotes (see also: “grab them by the pussy“) and unchecked racism is running for presidential office. We’re in a world where there are “better thans” and “less thans.”

I’d like to ask this, instead: How do we reach an idyllic world, where we can all be seen as truly equal regardless of any outside circumstances? How can we reach a world that’s ready for first contact?

The answer is ridiculously simple: we’ve got to elect candidates that champion rights, education, healthcare and the things we individually hold dear. We may hold opposing opinions on how these things should be implemented, but they’re core Democratic values regardless and ones we can rally behind. Perhaps the Vulcan Surak put it best:

“I am pleased to see that we have differences. May we together become greater than the sum of both of us.”

This is the way to accomplish what we’re aiming for — a society that both thinks and feels, a society that considers all of its members rather than just those wealthy enough to become loudspeakers for their personal opinions.

If you’re still with me, here’s another quote:

“There is a way out of every box, a solution to every puzzle; it’s just a matter of finding it.”

Captain Picard was right; we’ve just got to find it. The simplest way to do so is to support and elect people who are not only capable of doing so, but willing to do so. It’s time to take what we’ve learned from Trek and apply it to the ballot box. Perhaps, one day, we’ll be ready for that first contact, but I’d hope it’s when we’re a society that cares about its entirety. As our government begins talking about reaching for the stars and we invest in new and exciting projects as a nation, we should not lose the ethos and humanity of Star Trek and what it stands for. Like the characters and stories, we can achieve freedom in our society and flight through the stars, both metaphorical and not, through bringing in the right people to bring us back together.

I’ll end with this — live long, and prosper, as we all should.

Elim Craighill-Middleton lives in Kannapolis.