SOUTH PACIFIC

Skimming through FaceBook this morning, Fiorella noticed a post of a mean-looking woman in a car yelling at a stringed-instrument group marching down the street, minding its own business, but mourning the loss of a violinist. In the back seat were two young children, a boy and a girl, who, following the lead of their mother, were distorting their faces and yelling just like she was.

Fio was shocked, and immediately, Bali Ha'i floated into her mind, but it took a few minutes for her to figure out why. Then she realized that, under the covers, the Rodgers and Hammerstein play/movie SOUTH PACIFIC was all about racism. The hero has two mixed-race children that the heroine first rejects, then grows to love, but they live on Bali Ha'i, an enchanted pacific island, while the second lead knows he cannot take the native girl he's fallen in love with home because he has to return to the US, where she would not be accepted. He explains how racism works in a heart-breaking solo that makes Fio cry with every verse she types:

     You've got to be taught and fear
     You've got to be taught from year to year
     It's got to be drummed in your dear little ear
     You've got to be carefully taught

     You've got to be taught to be afraid
     Of people whose eyes are oddly made
     And people whose skin is a different shade
     You've got to be carefully taught

     You've got to be taught before it's too late
     Before you are six or seven or eight
     To hate all the people your relatives hate
     You've got to be carefully taught

How about reviving the SOUTH PACIFIC again? It's time.