#benteen

“A People’s Dream Died There…”

Today in History, December 29: 1890 – Massacre at Wounded Knee. “I did not know then how much was ended. When I look back now from this high hill of my old age, I can still see the butchered women and children lying heaped and scattered all along the crooked gulch as plain as when I saw them with eyes young. And I can see that something else died there in the bloody mud, and was buried in the…

DS9 never had the speeches that TNG or TOS did. It was a series that was more about action than words. This bit from Paradise Lost is fine example.

Benteen: Only if they know what's waiting for them! Only if they know the Earth is not a garden. It never was a garden! And it never will be a garden!

Sloan: Fair enough! Fair enough. Then I'll tell you what Earth is. It's a race of men, struggling for survival. Just as you have survived. And Captain Benteen is quite right when he tells you it isn't a place of all beauty. We may yet have wars, and there still remains prejudice, and I suppose as long as men walk, there will be angry men, jealous men, unforgiving men. But it has one thing that you don't have! One thing. It lets every man be his own master. There won't be any Captain Benteens down there for you. There won't be anybody to tell you when to eat and when to sleep and when to meet. There won't be anyone to tell you when to dance or when to sing or how to play. And instead of the thirst, you may feel hunger! Instead of heat, you may feel cold! But you'll be men and women, you won't be sheep! You won't be a kindergarten! And when you pray to God, his name won't be Benteen!