“Getting sicker, Russ makes a plea for peace.”

Location: Aurora, OH

“Mr. Shoemaker Goes To Ohio” provides a dramatic moment and an important message for those who survived The Fall — and for everyone watching a story about it.

In this episode:

• Russell says, “People willing to die over something don’t just give it away to a stranger”
• The nearest hospital was 20 miles away
• Russell feels a “pull between selfishness and compassion”
• Russell convinces himself that Aurora “was my problem”
• “Our responsibility is putting the world back together one town at a time.”
• Russell names fear and prejudice as causes of The Fall and what was happenning in Aurora
• The world has changed and we have to change with it
• We’re all victims of the past
• Instead of rabies, Russell actually had botulism
• What Terry and Sanjay did — that took courage, to admit they were wrong and do the right thing
• When I left Aurora, my faith in humanity had been restored — temporarily
• A horse appears on the horizon (one of the Four Horsemen from New Eden?)

Russell’s Journal:

• Includes a copy of the Treaty of Aurora
• Recounts how he passed out and was given treatment
• Enjoys the conversation with Sanjay and Terry
• Sanjay and Terry hike to a nearby town and find a “wordwall”
• On the wordwall is a rather extreme cure for rabies and a message from Terry’s sister-in-law

Russell’s speech is very good — made all the more so because it was short and to the point, without a whole lot of unnecessary melodrama. And his message is particularly noteworthy: That in order for any progress to be made, we need to look past old divisions. How many current conflicts could be settled on the spot if old grudges could simply be set aside? That is, of course, easier said than done. And, as Russell says, it takes very brave people like Sanjay and Terry to do it.

But that’s the point.

As it turns out, one person managed to change the tide in all of this. One person standing up to say, “enough.” Imagine what can be accomplished when one person is joined by a chorus? Imagine when the bravery of those who are willing to set aside their differences is added to it?

You might just find a pathway to peace.

Topics: Sci-Fi, Web Reviews
Filed under: Afterworld

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