BSG: A fitting end ... at the UN?

I'd be remiss if I didn't at least post a link to a story on BSG's visit yesterday to the United Nations.

As usual, Maureen Ryan has written a remarkable recap, which I encourage you all to check out. Ron Moore, David Eick, Mary McDonnell and Edward James Olmos were all on hand, in addition to four U.N. officials. Panelists talked about how BSG confronted real world issues such as terrorism and met with U.N. officials and the public in the hopes of forging a stronger link between representatives from the political world and the creative community.

I shot Mo a quick Twit yesterday to see if how Eddie Olmos (my favorite alongside Michael Hogan) was doing. Mo was firing off quotes throughout the whole event, but took a moment to respond to my inquiry saying:

"I didn't speak to him at UN but he was very forthright and very bold at panel. Very lively."

Marc Bernardin of Entertainment Weekly also has a nice writeup on the event, which details how he went into the event slightly amused by came out seeing how the whole panel "made perfect sense."

Here's an exerpt:

While the idea of the UN hosting a retrospective on Battlestar Galactica might sound a little odd, as the night went on it started to make perfect sense. From the very beginning, BSG has dealt with moral issues -- what it means to be human, the rule of law vs. the military might, the arguable merits of armed insurgency -- issues which find themselves on the UN's docket almost every day. As Robert Orr, the Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Planning put it, "You've got people thinking about issues that we try and get people thinking about every day."

When one of the UN's representatives talked about how part of their mandate was to safeguard the human rights of everyone, regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, and station, Olmos got a little heated. "You never should've invited me here," he said, before blasting the UN for continuing to use race as a term of separation, of division among peoples. His voice rose, steadily, as if years of social activism was coming to a head on this night. Then, directing his attention to the high schoolers: "Adults will never be able to stop using the word 'race' as a cultural determinant....There is only one race: the human race. SO SAY WE ALL!"

I swear to you, everyone in that chamber shouted it right back at him. Because the Admiral asked us to.

Frak that's really, really cool.

Update: Real Media Video for the event can be found here. (Link Courtesy Entertainment Weekly)