As I was sitting watching the obligatory fireworks last week at the end of a hot, sunny Fourth of July in rural Minnesota, I began to think about what the anniversary of the independence of the United States meant to me. The more I thought about it, the more dissatisfied I became.

Now don’t get me wrong, I realize that living in the United States comes with many perks and I am extremely grateful for the life that I am able to have as a result of being a U.S. citizen, but this current state of affairs just doesn’t cut it for me.

I yearn for something more, something better.

We all know there are more social problems out there than a person can poke a stick at, from the failings of capitalism for the vast majority of people, to the continuance of the many "isms," including racism, classism, corporatism and heterosexism. Not to mention the fact that billions of people suffer needlessly in a world of over-consumption and that a child dies every three seconds in extreme poverty. It is clear that we need improvements in this world, we need something better.

But what is that something you ask? Well as I sat there, watching the synchronized explosions of color and splendor to commemorate the 231st birthday of the United States of America, I began to think of something all Star Trek fans are familiar with, the United Federation of Planets.

Sure, there is a whole lot we don’t know about the Star Trek universe, and even some of the things that we do know aren’t the greatest. But given the choice, I would live in the UFP over the USA in a second.

A system without greed, money or hunger, a society without hatred, but love, it is as if Gene Roddenberry walked into my dreams and put it on a silver screen. I’m not talking space ships or aliens or anything of the sort, but humanity. Not humanity in the sense that we know it today, but real human solidarity, real humanity.
If Roddenberry recognized one thing, it was the true potential of the human race, the potential for something more, something great, something beyond our wildest imaginations. For the first time since the dawn of the United States, it seems that we are moving socially backward.

Whether we chose to accept it or not, we live in a world where oppression, exploitation, greed and corruption run high. Where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Where we are killing the only thing capable of sustaining us, mother Earth. As a whole, we as a society are committing suicide.

There are those among us who are fighting for a better world, and I am proud to count myself among them. I’m not talking about the millionaire politicians currently jockeying for the next presidential nomination, because when it comes down to it, any change coming from either party is going to be nominal at best since they are two sides of the same coin.

In the end we shouldn’t be taking the lead from the current rich and powerful, but from ourselves, from our brothers and sisters fighting on the grassroots level for real social change for everyone, not just a façade of change that benefits a few. We also need to sit back and take the time to vision what kind of world we would want to live in, not allowing ourselves to be constrained by current situations or systems.

Perhaps we can take a little inspiration from the man who gave us the United Federation of Planets, the man who did not allow himself to be constrained by naysayers and ideas of impossibilities. Then once we have that vision, we need to fight for it as people of the world united for a common good, for something better, for another world.

Brian Meskimen is a columnist for SyFy Portal writing out of Minnesota. He can be reached at bmeskimen@syfyportal.com.

"The Trek Within" is a feature column on Roddenberry.com and SyFyPortal.com.

MICHAEL HINMAN ADDITION:

Humans have a way of living simply in the here and now ... but typically not humans who enjoy science-fiction.

Because of that, when we look at the world today from the "glass half-empty" perspective, we wonder how we're ever going to get out of it. Brian mentions a lot of that in his own column some of the things we as a society face today -- oppression, exploitation, greed, bigotry -- just to name a few. Unfortunately, we do have to look into the past, and when we do that, we will see that many of the things we dislike about our society today existed throughout history.

When I was a kid enjoying "Star Trek: The Next Generation," I always wondered why aliens -- if they exist -- didn't make first contact with us? I remember one episode where Capt. Picard talked about the Federation's First Contact procedures, and the things that have to take place. Basically, a society -- a planet -- has to be ready for such contact with outside races, and I realized that if there are aliens floating about out there and they are standing by to meet us, they likely are waiting for us to meet some kind of minimal societal goals.

And as much as we've advanced technologically, the human race has to advance as a people. In the series finale of "Next Generation" written by Brannon Braga and the great Ronald D. Moore, the lesson Q was trying to teach Picard was that evolution is not done by visiting new places, creating new toys, and getting a stronger air of superiority. In fact, true evolution is far different than that.

"For that one fraction of a second, you were open to options you had never considered," Q said. "That is the exploration that awaits you. Not mapping stars and studying nebulae ... but charting the unknown possibilities of existence."

And just as Picard learns ... the trial of humanity never ends.

Michael Hinman is the founder and site coordinator for SyFy Portal, writing out of Tampa, Fla. He can be reached at mhinman@syfyportal.com. His contribution to "The Trek Within" is exclusive to Roddenberry.com. He writes a weekly column at SyFy Portal called SyFriday.