I just finished watching this episode, one that Serling considered his best play for the 1962-63 season, about the street urchin who, guided by the ghost of Hitler, starts a Neo-Nazi movement in early 1960s America. Rod Serling's closing quotation is as apropos today as when he penned it so many decades ago:
"Where will he go next, this phanton from another time, this resurrected ghost of a previous nightmare--Chicago; Los Angeles; Miami, Florida; Vincennes, Indiana; Syracuse, New York? Anyplace, everyplace where there's hate, where there's prejudice, where there's bigotry. He's alive. He's alive so long as these evils exist. Remember that when he comes to your town. Remember it when you hear his voice speaking out through others. Remember it when you hear a name called, a minority attacked, any blind unreasoning assault on a people or any human being. He's alive because through these things we keep him alive."
Happy 2010. Let us work to make it better than 2009.
"Where will he go next, this phanton from another time, this resurrected ghost of a previous nightmare--Chicago; Los Angeles; Miami, Florida; Vincennes, Indiana; Syracuse, New York? Anyplace, everyplace where there's hate, where there's prejudice, where there's bigotry. He's alive. He's alive so long as these evils exist. Remember that when he comes to your town. Remember it when you hear his voice speaking out through others. Remember it when you hear a name called, a minority attacked, any blind unreasoning assault on a people or any human being. He's alive because through these things we keep him alive."
Happy 2010. Let us work to make it better than 2009.
