I only went to one Star Trek convention and that was in the late '80s. I hadn't gone to a convention before that. It was quite amusing, with the people dressed up and all of that. ↗
Racism is a way to gain economic advantage at the expense of others. Slavery and plantations may be gone, but racism still allows us to regard those who may keep us from financial gain as less than equals. ↗
As far as Iraq, the important thing is that the Taliban is gone in Afghanistan, three-quarters of the al-Qaida leadership is either dead or in jail, and we now have Saudi Arabia working with us, Pakistan working with us. ↗
I can spend 10 to 15 minutes with someone, and they can tell me what they're going through. I may never have gone through that, but I get it on a really deep level. ↗
One of the things that has been truly incredible to observe though, is the amount of venture investment that has gone into early stage security technology. ↗