Yet Another Reminder

Upon reading today's NY Times' review of "The Scottsboro Boys," which opened last night but which I saw in previews, I was reminded, yet again, of how far we haven't come in race relations, in particular, and tolerance, in general. True, this musical was set in Alabama in 1931, that is -- "a long time ago in a [place] far, far away," but the musical depiction of the hasty incarceration of nine young black men over the false (and later recanted) accusation of raping two white women, shows the process by which such miscarriages of just could easily still occur today. To 'shock' the audience into awareness, as if the denial of due process wasn't enough, a song called "Electric Chair" is probably the toe-tappingest one of the Kander & Ebb (yes; classic) show. Not only worth seeing but also worth contemplating, especially considering the Epilogue-type of revelations that shares with the audience what happened to each of the men who had been falsely accused and imprisoned, "once upon a time."