"There is a fifth dimension, beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call The Twilight Zone." (The first episode of the Twilight Zone October 2,1959 narrated by Rod Sterling)
FRIDAY NIGHTS, for those of us old enough, to have been young enough, to sit and shudder, check all the locks on the doors and windows, made certain the basement door had barbed wire around it, from 10 to 10:30, with an afghan around us to hide our eyes, just in case, and actually sitting a bit closer to your sibling than usual, again just in case, we KNEW some kind of fright was about to appear on our black and white TV’s, but BECAUSE this was the TWILIGHT ZONE, whatever we might have thought was NEVER as SCARY as what was presented. And as a reminder, at the end of each episode, Rod Serling would remind us by saying “In the Twilight Zone.”
At 10:30, we could quickly switch the TV dial to off, (no remote controls) turn off the lights, and race to our bedrooms, never once looking behind us to see what might be in the shadows: as we sought some safety. It is 2021, and somehow the Twilight Zone remains alive in the form of monsters named Giuliani, Gaetz, Cruz, Paul, Ingraham, Carlson. The light and shadows provide us with creatures named Trump, Kushner, Barr, McCarthy, Stone, McConnell, Ivanka, Boebert, and Greene. A dimension seemingly as vast as space includes Mar-A-Lago, Trump Tower, Concentration Camps for Immigrant Children, Gerrymandered Districts, Jewish Space Lasers. There is no middle ground, just wretched consequences of Oath Keepers, Good Nazi’s Bad Republican Governors and Legislatures, Systemic Racism, and some kind of GOD who prefers life inside a womb rather than those Black Lives, Transgendered, LGBTQ, Brown People, Jewish, Women, Poor, Homeless, and Hungry. Once upon a time, we could just turn off the Twilight Zone, rest assured there would be another scary as shit episode the next week. NOW, even more terrifying, we seem to live each day, hour, and moment in an area Rod Serling calls THE TWILIGHT ZONE!
