Maddow: Ken Burns on America's Best Idea
By Nicole Belle Friday Sep 25, 2009 8:00am
Big thanks to Shoq for tipping me off to this segment.
It's hard to cogitate when you're immersed in the cesspool that passes for political debate nowadays that this country has actually seen worse days than this. Our economy has been worse, unemployment was higher and journalism was just as yellow.
But as documentarian Ken Burns points out, we also had a president who was willing to invest in our country, to invest in American "shovel-ready" jobs and put them to work developing our beautiful national park system. And as a result, we all share in the beauty of Yosemite and the Grand Canyon as well as the historical significance of sites Monroe Elementary and Manzanar, which do not necessarily reflect a time where America is at its best.
Burns does a great job of smacking down the GOP's completely nonsensical cries of "Socialism!" and reminds us of how tragic it would be if those in Washington had been so similarly cowed during Roosevelt's day, instead of understanding that the creation of the National Parks system brought Americans together, made these areas accessible and available to every American, thereby democratizing our very best idea.
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I saw Burns on the rerun this morning of Colbert's show last night. I sure do want to see his documentary about the Nat'l Parks. Too damn bad now that people have to worry about idiots with loaded guns when they visit the parks. He said the first keepers of the parks were the Buffalo Soldiers and way back then their job was to hold the guns of the visitors while the people went into the parks. Even those many years ago people had sense enough to know that guns and parks didn't mix.
This terrible intervention by government by creating National Parks and usurping God's authority over His land is reprehensible.
... are you being sarcastic, yes or no? Thanks
It may have been a snarky remark...but then again... ;o)
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Server Burp!
hopefully we can end this injustice and commence full exploitation soon.
DOWN WITH SOCIALISM!!!!!
UP WITH CHEAP PLASTIC CRAP!!!!!
I asked my Dad (in his 80's) what HIS parents thought about the New Deal way back in the Depression. He replied that they were horrified, and often said Roosevelt would turn the US into a Socialist Country.
The ironic thing is my Grandfather was a career Navy (Coast Guard) man from a family of Career Navy; my Grandmother was a public school teacher.
My grandfather on my mom's side (and her mom, of course) lived through the depression and he was always very critical of the new deal. I never got it as a kid. Mostly it was because he viewed it as a chance for people to get something for nothing.
But in fact, the real money went towards public works that DID good things and put men to work.
The irony, of course, was that at one time he worked as an electrician on the Columbia River Gorge bringing transmission lines from the Grand Coolie Dam. The irony was lost on him, I'm afraid..
"...the creation of the National Parks system brought Americans together..."
Bringing Americans together is the very LAST thing our gov't wants to do. Divide & rule is their style.
"Bringing people together" is an old Coke slogan, best used for selling sugar-water.
I loved this segment.
Deep fried butter...
I use margarine on my Deep Fried Butter...gotta watch my cholesterol.
http://www.star-telegram.com/news/story/15788...
Naturalist John Muir was instrumental in persuading Roosevelt to preserve areas like Yosemite as national parks.
The politicians of the day were busy selling fear of another 1906 Quake & Fire to create the Hetch-Hetchy Reservoir, which Muir fought against (and lost).
Ken Burns (who I really enjoy) AND John Muir who should be front and center of any conversation about conservation and our national parks.
I have hiked every foot of the John Muir trail. Breathtaking doesn't start to describe how amazing it is.
How long did it take you to hike the John Muir trail? If I were going to venture out on my first hike of the trail, where would you suggest I start from?
Keeping in mind, I have no plan to be as ambitious as you in attempting to tackle the whole trail.
His mini-series are always top notch, but this looks like it will be better than all the rest.
I loved Baseball, the Civil War, Jazz, the Brooklyn Bridge, etc.. such great snapshots of our country.
I'm hoping (big hope, maybe) that folks will watch this and realize that we CAN collectively work together to make the US a better place.
I'd feel 'more hopefuller' (as a certain president once put it) if they weren't trying to turn the Grand Canyon into an outlet of Answers in Genesis.
It is quite insane you know . . .
Grand Canyon National Park Embroiled in Creationism Issue
http://ncseweb.org/news/2004/01/grand-canyon-...
One excellent solution would be for the Park to describe ALL, or a lot of the World's Religion's "Creation Stories". I myself like the Norse (Viking) version, but the Hindu explanations of how the Universe came to be are also fascinating.
If we teach ONE religion in school, we should teach at least 10 others. After all, in a Shop Class, the teacher wouldn't just teach students how to fix a Chevy, would he? A few other popular cars would be indluded.
"All religions can't be right. All religions can be wrong!"
All religions can't be right - if you take them literally. However, if you understand religion as a symbolic representation of reality, a poetic way to think about the universe, then they can all be right. That is the basis of statements by leaders like the Dalai Lama when they say that all religions contain the truth. "Truth" as opposed to "facts".
This is the main problem with atheists' claims that religion is worthless. It is, but only if it's taken as a substitute for science. Not everyone thinks of religion that way. I certainly don't, which is why I've never had the slightest problem being both religious AND greatly respectful and grateful for the existence of science, which lifts humanity out of the dark.
Nice comment.
It seems to be semantics? Like I could factually claim, you were an atheist, when you were born, could I not?
1. One that disbelieves or denies the existence of God or gods.
If you need it to represent reality, I'll take your word for it. I think people are good or bad representative of their individual actions or inaction... absent any additional entities. Thanks again √
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My dad was from Arkansa and joined the CC who sent him to N Dakota where he met and married my mother.
which is why the Owners are working so assiduously to overturn the very notion of 'commons," and to re-privatize the Parks...
Of what "party" do you expect the final re-transfer back to private hands to occur?
Dims? Yeah, me, too...
They'll probably do it for "guaranteed" votes for healthcare, then get f*cked, as usual...
from my photo blog-
Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park
Can't agree more how important these places are. We have sop many where I live here in Humboldt, Northern California. They are actually quite under used.
Like Rachael, the state of California is considering closing hundreds of its state parks. Almost all the state parks,in our county may be closed.
... about that is people have effectively reduced state parks to an unwanted expenditure.
As if you can put a price on the beauty of trees, a pristine coastline, or a fragile ecosphere that can benefit from protection.
It's like it's not real unless it's paved over and has free WiFi.
to have venal morons like Blobfish saying trees are a waste and we should cut them all down. Of course his brainless minions nod and agree.
The GOP with Teddy Roosevelt in office was bold and progressive. He monitored Big Business and engaged in trust busting. He actively promoted land preservation and conservation. While he was a dedicated hunter, he led the fight to act as a protector of numerous species of wildlife and the habitat that sustained them. With the 1912 election of William Howard Taft, the GOP turned away from the policies of Roosevelt and cast their lot with corporate interests to the detriment of our natural resources. A progressive GOP was relegated to a footnote in history since that pivotal election.
"...if those in Washington had been so similarly cowed during Roosevelt's day..."
We'd probably all be speaking German.
...fighting a Never-Ending-War with the NAZIs. Good for the economy, or at least the rich people. The ones that matter.
poll all current members as to who has/hasn't visited any of our National Parks. Anyone who has should be publicly shamed for voting against funding for them.
Who will step up?
I love Rachel for pointing this out. It's undeniable how government programs have made this country great, I suppose these Ron Paul types (which now includes many pro-war Republicans, ironically enough) would want to reverse all that and make our country something unrecognizable.
(which now includes many pro-war Republicans, ironically enough)
What's ironic about that? They'll get behind anything that will deny money and services to the people and make them and their cronies richer. That's hardly a surprise.
... if you lived through the gilded age though.
A lot of Ron Paul types read The Jungle and reminisce of old good times past.
He issues these regular reminders that you don't actually suck as a nation. Much needed reminders it sometimes seems.
on upcoming beck/rush/kkklannity/slaggage shows, so that the dipshit masses who worship them will clamor for more land that needs to be cut and paved to allow for housing for their future broods...
but only after someone tells them this documentary exists. Can you imagine any of those ass clowns watching PBS?
(yeah, who knew he had one...) at least knows of Rachel Maddow. He was slamming her yesterday; the usual, "If she's for it, it must be wrong" crap...
I watch PBS and documentaries all the time, but I've never been a big fan of Ken Burns.
I think I've seen one about the Civil War by him.
But he has such a dweeby persona, and lately it's documentaries like baseball and national parks.
In the former, I kept expecting billy crystal to show up saying, "Basebahl has been very very good for me," and then his stupid version of silent baseball clips.
Actually, that was Garrett Morris as Dominican baseball player Dominican baseball player Chico Escuela.
you beat me to it!
A Dominican Dominican?
do a documentary on the NASA space program, including telling how the NAZI German Scientists were a big part of its success. They're dead now, and our Space Program ... lacks focus, Id say. An observatory on the Moon would be a good kick-start. Sending people to Mars? Eh. Not just yet. Mining asteroids? Good idea, that is to say, a Financially Rewarding idea.
Werner Von Braun
You're judging the content of his documentaries by his personality? How incredibly shallow. The guy isn't even IN any of his documentaries. And for that matter, what in the world is wrong with being soft-spoken and concerned with issues of history? Would that MORE of our population were like Burns; this'd be a hell of a lot more pleasant country if there were more people like him around.
Burns focuses on the things that are uniquely American. Baseball is one of the best known, as is jazz. If you don't like the fact that Americans love baseball, don't blame Burns for that.
Really, ys, I'd expect better of you.
Beat me to it, Excelsior. What is at all wrong with documentaries about that which defines us as Americans?
I have found all his documentaries fascinating. He doesn't take sides, and draws from a multitude of sources. The best ones (IMHO) are those sources that are first-hand, i.e. the diaries people kept during the Civil War.
Finally. Someone is speaking of a President other than Ronald Reagan. Now don't get me wrong, I generally admire and definitely respect anyone willing to go into public office. Even those whom I think get it wrong. But I really am tired of hearing Pres. Reagen hailed as the last great leader of our times. Pres. Roosevelt put our country back on its feet after the depression, and gave men and women an honest days pay for an honest days work.
My family and I have hiked the Appalachian Trail, the Mohawk trail, we have been to Yellowstone, the Everglades, and numerous other National and State parks. Thanks to all those who support and continue that great work for the beauty and wonder of it all.
We did not become a socialist country then, and we will not now. If people would stop their hollering, put the guns down, and just quietly think of the other person for a sec, I bet we could get this country up and running again in no time. As American's our ingenuity and drive is second to none, let's just get out of our own way!
Most of us had that no talent, GE shill's number a long time ago.
reagan and bush1 were enough to do the republicans in as far as I am concerned. I absolutely could not believe that 10 people would have voted for dumbass 2! But everything that has happened in the last thirty years has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that, republicanism is a mental illness. I think we are as sick as we have been in the last 100 years.
Just think what a fine world we'll have when there's another layer of government over America run by the corporate proxies. Fun world, huh?
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsMaps/idUST...
...found in 1776 on the Seal of the United States and adopted by an Act of Congress in 1782.
Unfortunately... "E pluribus unum" Never codified by law, E pluribus unum was considered a de facto motto of the United States until 1956 when the United States Congress passed an act (H.J. Resolution 396), adopting In God We Trust as the official motto.
Sinclair Lewis (1935)"When Fascism comes to America...
Henry A. Wallace 33rd Vice President of the United States (1941–1945)
A fascist is one whose lust for money or power is combined with such an intensity of intolerance toward those of other races, parties, classes, religions, cultures, regions or nations as to make him ruthless in his use of deceit or violence to attain his ends.
--Henry A. Wallace
In 1932, Franklin Roosevelt, governor of New York, invited Abram to his office to discuss his organizing system. Later he'd come to see Russian red running through out Roosevelt's New Deal, but at the time Abram was captivated by another man summoned to advise the governor, James Augustine Farrell, president of the United States Steel Corporation.(THE FAMILY by –JEFF SHARLET)
I state with prejudice, though not absolutely... the United States Of American experienced and incurred, some unjust fascist infractions in my opinion. Whether it was push-back to Roosevelt's New Deal I can't say for certain, though JEFF SHARLET's book about "THE FAMILY" bolsters my opinion as well as FRANK SCHAEFFER's Crazy for God.
By the 1920s, the modernists were taking over the seminaries and the bureaucracies of the big denominations. New York's most prominent Baptist minister, Harry Emerson Fosdick, converted to a new kind of orthodoxy --the belief in a liberal progressive vision of mankind. And he began to preach that the Bible was not literally true, but that God would save the world through human progress. --FRANK SCHAEFFER
Throughout the 1920s, Abram directed Seattle's division of Goodwill Industries. He didn't just open stores for used clothes; he organized 49,000 housewives into thirty-seven districts and set them to work salvaging goods for the poor. --JEFF SHARLET
The fact is, the first amendment allows for good and bad and good and evil, depending on ones ideology. I have a hard time believing 4,200 religions can peacefully coexist. Do onto others sounds good to me though. :-) I ♥ Rachel, Thanks Nicole
4,200 religions
→ http://www.adherents.com/
The Dangerous Times We Live In
→ http://open.salon.com/blog/tim4change/2009/09...
Many of the commentators/narrators were present to discuss the series. One particularly engaging park ranger who is also showcased in the film was there and he stated that he'd had the privelege to meet and speak to the President last week when this was previewed in D.C. Someone in the audience asked the ranger if he'd been able to stress to Obama the relevance and need for similar CCC projects as those dicussed in the series in light of the current economic times. He advised that Obama had indeed commented on this and it was brought up and discussed after the preview. Sadly, I highly doubt that the people who NEED to watch this will actually WANT to watch it.
You cannot do good things when your motive is greed.
republicanism is a mental illness!
How do you keep a people down? You 'never' let them 'know' their history.
The 7th Cavalry got their butts in a sling again after the Little Big Horn Massacre, fourteen years later, the day after the Wounded Knee Massacre. If it wasn't for the 9th Cavalry Buffalo Soldiers, there would of been a second massacre of the 7th Cavalry. Read, and visit site/great history, http://www.rescueatpineridge.com
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