Try to watch "The American Experience" tonight on PBS

[GCP]

I saw it last year and found it very impressive and thought-provoking.


Here's the blurb off my local PBS station's web-site:

Based on the book "They Marched into Sunlight" by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Maraniss, Two Days in October tells the story of several turbulent days in October 1967. In Vietnam, a US battalion unwittingly marched into a Viet Cong trap; 64 out of 142 men were killed. The ambush prompted some in power to doubt whether the war could be won. Half a world away, students at the University of Wisconsin at Madison protested the presence on campus of recruiters from Dow Chemical, the maker of napalm. The demonstration spiraled out of control, marking the first time that a student protest had turned violent.

Narrated by the people who took part in the events — American soldiers, Viet Cong fighters, relatives of those killed in battle, protesting students, police officers, university administrators — the program offers a window onto a moment that divided a nation and a war that continues to haunt us.

American Experience: Two Days in October won a George Foster Peabody Award in 2006.

It's amazing to me that the cops who were involved in quelling the student protest still hate them for protesting the war - it's like their minds were closed in the 60s and were never allowed to open again. There are many people like that out there still, unfortunately.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

1. There are many people like that out there still, unfortunately.

Fear is a powerful motivator. It got us where we are today.... and it is taking us where we are headed.

[izzie]

2. I guess it is how we are brought up

It is really hard to get rid of things you get put into your mind. Then to face the fact that you may have been wrong is even harder. I have battled my whole life to try and see both sides of every thing and fear I will never get to that point. It also takes a lot of time to sit down and think about all this stuff dumped at us endlessly to see just how you think about some of it. I was on the other side of protested for anti-war a few times having been married to a sailor and it does make one stop and think. I also lived in the deep South when the Negro Rights things were going on, wish to be fair but I find I always come at it as a progressive thinker and it must cloud my hopes to be fair to all ways of thinking.

[rosesaylavee]

3. Fear and hate don't go away that easily

The students were the 'enemy' and were 'unpatriotic' and the cops considered their action to be 'patriotic' and will continue their beliefs that support this separation of people...

This is what will become of the division fostered by the neocons unless we find an actual LEADER that can unite the different factions again - help people understand that we are on the same side with the same goals for our beloved country. Not sure who this magic person will be for everyone but that is what is needed to get us together to repair the damage these maniacs have done to our country.

On a related note, recently had to sit and listen to a republican who has been extremely beneficial monetarily to my non-profit talk about how much he delighted in a conversation at a party bashing the Clintons and the liberals. (No, he didn't know my affiliation and didn't ask me but assumed I would agree.) Telling him how wrong he was wasn't going to change his mind but I did point out to him the similarities between the party he described and parties the liberals would attend bashing GWB and the republican "leadership"... and that until we all stop indulging in hate language, there will be no unity in our country again.

He did pause to think - not sure if he was thinking that maybe I was one of "them" or that I made a point he hadn't considered yet. He is a good man - just a victim of the spin and news he chooses to read/listen to...

[Warpy]

4. My PBS station is begging again

and tonight's fare is "Entertaining the Troops" followed by the "National Memorial Day Concert."

And they wonder why I stopped contributing.

It's endlessly frustrating to read about this stuff on other PBS stations when my own keeps expanding their begging time so that we're down to about seven months and three weeks of legitimate programming, the rest devoted to earfeel, garbage, bland music, and that endless ringing phone begorama.

[GCP]

5. Don't blame your local station

Maybe you live in an area where they don't get a lot of support for whatever reason.
Blame instead the republicans in congress who have consistently reduced funding for public broadcasting so it's now somewhere around 20% of what's actually needed.