This week’s report, now that reports seem to have resumed from Epsilon 3, is part of a letter, for an incident taking place on Sunday, 24 September of our year 2259 CE, sent to us from our future by Ranger Mayann, writing to us from Minbar, where she is stationed:
—
Greetings, from Tuzanor:
“How many lives is a secret worth?”
That is the central question, though not the only question, of this report. My order, the Anla’Shok, had been waiting for over a thousand years for this time to come, and when it came, we were not ready.
So we decided to keep the secret.
That we knew of the coming darkness, that we knew the ancient enemy had returned, that we were preparing, and that you Humans, with your ability to build communities, were the key.
Because:
Decisions Matter,
Planning Matters,
and
Community Matters.
Writing from Tuzanor, on Minbar
Earth year 2278,
Anla’Shok Mayann
–
Shira’s addendum to Ranger Mayann’s report: I love this episode!
First, Vir decides to make a wish, involving Londo’s ‘friend’ Mr. Morden. (And I’m sure that he was very careful what he wished for, as he very much *wanted* someone to get it!) Seeing that alone is worth the pain of having been born, as they say: “Vale la pena haber nacido, nada màs por hacer/ver…” (* my favorite 16th century soldier).
It is gratifying to see how ‘little Vir’ stands up to being treated like a dog, by politely answering the famous question “What do you want?” with a devastatingly honest answer.
Then there is Churchill’s face, as related by Captain Sheridan, now in a not so different situation, at least emotionally.
And then, to cap it off, there is Sheridan’s Stoic response to the prediction of his death:
“Then I die. But I will not go down easily, and I will not go down alone.”
Both Neatnik and The Junkyard (and thank you, Junkyard, for letting us know that Churchill never actually knew specifically which city was to be bombed…) give more traditional plot and character perspectives of this episode.
Last week’s review was of the season 2 episode Knives
Next week’s review will be (in Lurker’s Guide order) Confessions and Lamentations …
-Shira Destinie Jones
* My favorite 16 century soldier is, of course, Alonso de Entrerios (“Sólo por tenerla en la mano ya merece la pena haber nacido” (Alonso con La Tizona en la mano/Alonso holding the sword of El Cid…), of El Ministerio del Tiempo.
Shira
Nih sakh sh’lekk, sleem wa.
I come in peace, I am your friend.
There are earlier episodes, as part of a letter on the history of the Babylon Project.
Action Prompts:
1.) Share your thoughts on how we Human Beings might start to build a more fully inclusive society for all of us, and how this episode of Babylon 5 could help that process.
2.) Write a book, story, post or tweet that uses these thoughts.
Dear Readers, ideas on learning, especially multiple #LanguageLearning, on-going education and empathy-building, to #EndPoverty, #EndHomelessness, #EndMoneyBail & achieve freedom for All HumanKind?
Support our key #PublicDomainInfrastructure & #StopSmoking for COVID-19:
1. #PublicLibraries,
2. #ProBono legal aid and Education,
3. #UniversalHealthCare, and
4. good #publictransport
-we can learn from the past Stayed on Freedom’s Call for free,
by Teaching and Learning (Lesson Plans offline) in the present, to
help build a kinder future: Do Better: a Vision of a Better World
( 5 month GED lesson 20 of 67 plans),
and Babylon 5 review posts, from a Minbari Ranger’s perspective: story (especially historical fiction involving escaping slaves) inspires learning…
Nih sakh sh’lekk, sleem wa.
Shira Destinie A. Jones, MPhil, MAT, BSCS
the year, 2021 CE = year 12021 HE
Stayed on Freedom’s Call
(free: https://archive.org/details/StayedOnF…)
includes two ‘imagination-rich’ walking tours, with songs, of Washington, DC. New interviews and research are woven into stories of old struggles shared by both the Jewish and African-American communities in the capital city.
Shared histories are explored from a new perspective of cultural parallels and parallel institution-building which brought the two communities together culturally and historically.
Please leave a review, if you can, on the GoodReads page.
Shira Destinie Jones is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Continue reading Minbari Mondays, In the Shadow of Z’ha’dum, and Decisions
Inspiring Critical Thinking and Community via Books, Lessons, and Story 