TV star LeVar Burton encourages adults to help spark children's imaginations with books

Greeley Tribune ^ | 18 Apr 15 | Trenton Sperry

[Olog-hai]

Are they going to use Jimmy Fallon’s Doors-esque interpretation of the old theme music . . . ?

[PIF]

““I genuinely believe we have spent way too much money on war and machines of war, and we have left our children behind, and that is not OK.”

I genuinely believe we have spent way too much money on Leftist idiocies, and we have left our children behind, and that is not OK.

[latina4dubya]

Geordi La Forge... :)

[Veggie Todd]

Who’s Lavar Burton?

[SoFloFreeper]

[Kirkwood]

Well we have to teach kids to read stuff like the Constitution, gun manuals, tactical methods, preppers manuals, etc. so it is a good thing.

[driftless2]

He was a star of the tv hit mini-series “Roots” back in the seventies. I think he’s been on some other tv series since then, but I don’t what they are.

[fidelis]

“It was certainly uncommon for me when I was reading those science fiction books when I was a kid to encounter heroes who looked like me,” Burton said. “Gene Roddenberry’s vision of the future was one that embraced me. That vision where people have resolved all of our issues of race and class and sex and economy."

You know, this kind of talk always rubs me the wrong way. My heritage is Mexican and I look it. But being born and raised in this country (as was my father and his parents), I never felt like my heroes had to look like me (or vice versa). I read the same books, watched the same Westerns and Sci-Fi and super-hero TV shows, and idolized the same Rock stars as everyone else and never once thought, "Gee, it should would be something if some of these heroes looked like me!" The thought never entered my mind.

[Cowboy Bob]

He’s a TV star! (Can’t you read the title?)

[Rebel_Ace]

"You know, this kind of talk always rubs me the wrong way..."

Me too, although I am about as "Wonder White Bread" as you can get. But my experience was something like this:

I read Issac Asimov's I, ROBOT short stories as a kid. The "central" character throughout the stories was Dr. Susan Calvin. She was described in terms that we today would call "Plain and Nerdy". I didn't stop reading the Robot books because, "Oh, Darn! The protagonist is not a White Male."

Other favorite SF stories features beings that weren't even HUMAN for the sake of Pete!

[boop]

Yeah, what a ridiculous non-sequitur.

“The power of storytelling is irrefutable,” he said. “I genuinely believe we have spent way too much money on war and machines of war, and we have left our children behind, and that is not OK.”

What does the first sentence have to do with the second?

And BTW, history is composed of wars, why they happened, and how they affect us to this day.

Maybe cracking open a book will reveal to LeVar just WHY we have to spend money on war and war machines.

[dfwgator]

Who’s Lavar Burton?

Kunta Kinte.

[dfwgator]

Also played former Detroit Tiger, Ron LeFlore in a made-for-TV movie.

[dfwgator]

and we have left our children behind, and that is not OK

Who is "we"? Who is stopping kids from reading? Plenty of books out there, plenty of libraries and used book stores. Stop blaming "The Man" for all the problems in the world, and maybe you can make some progress.

[nnn0jeh]

Ping

[edpc]

Nope. Toby Waller.

[sten]

[oincobx]

He hosted Reading Rainbow, which ran on PBS for about 20 years. Each episode centered on a theme from a book, or other children’s literature, which was explored through a number of segments or stories. The show also recommended books for kids to look for when they went to the library. 

[Balding_Eagle]

In “Reading Rainbow’s” current iteration, children can watch videos and read books on the Internet with smartphones, tablets or computers.

I imagine The Rush Revere series is a part of that?

Yeah, I don't think so either.

One of Rushes callers should put these guys on the spot by publically donating his book to them.