Ken Burns: "Black Lives Matter!" at Wash U Commencement

[Fritz Walter]

Last edited Sat May 23, 2015, 12:34 PM - Edit history (1)

This video is worth 21 minutes of your life:

He opens with a paraphrased quote from Mark Twain: "It's not that the world is filled with fools. It's just that lightning isn't distributed right."

The truth doesn't end there. He draws insight from ancient to modern history -- including recent events in Ferguson MO and North Charleston SC before he challenges the graduating seniors to reject fundamentalism and prejudice, and to keep history from repeating itself.



Full transcript here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ken-burns/commencement-address-at-washington-university-in-st-louis_b_7306636.html

[daleanime]

1. K&R.....

[appalachiablue]

2. K & R. Ken Burns is a treasure, one of a kind. Wonderful, inspiring speech. Once I met him

briefly when he was giving a lecture; Burns is just as he appears in films- curious, deep and polite. It was interesting to see him on the PBS genealogy program with Harvard historian, Prof. Henry Louis Gates who found some nice surprises in Burns' family history including distant relation to well known Robert Burns, the Scottish poet just as relatives' thought.

[Fritz Walter]

4. You are lucky

I got to meet him too.

His miniseries "The War" was about to debut, and he gave a lecture on what WWII combat veterans had experienced and how they couldn't talk about it to those who hadn't been there, even decades later. That described my father and uncles perfectly, so I thanked him for sharing that insight with me.

[RBInMaine]

3. Just excellent, as always.