One day I was walking through a library in Los Angeles and stumbled across a large coffee table book called Before They Pass Away by photographer Jimmy Nelson.
I was stunned by the beauty of the photos he had taken of indigenous peoples while traveling on six continents. The message was not lost on me - this was 2017 and the recent shooting of 15-year-old Jordan Edwards, a young boy of African descent, by a white Texas Police Officer had sparked riots across the United States. Racism was a heavy topic at the time, and I felt an urge to speak up against what I saw as a basic human rights violation.
So I picked up my pen and wrote Space Patrol!
Allegory has long been used as an avenue of broaching subjects that are difficult to face. The word means, "a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one." (Dictionary.com)
Through my work with Youth For Human Rights International®, I knew that underneath the violent acts of 2017 lay an even darker problem - the false idea that peoples of other colors, cultures or ways not our own are lesser, base or unworthy of help. This is the basis of acts done by the likes of Roy Oliver, Hitler and others down a long and bloody line.
By writing Space Patrol! I hoped to target teens who are still at the beginning of that cycle--still have a chance to turn their backs on the racism and human-trafficking of earlier generations and build a new world.
~Sarah
