Posted on 09/13/2014 8:10:16 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
Let’s start with the end. When it’s over — when you make it through the marathon that is Ken Burns’s beautiful, seven-part documentary “The Roosevelts: An Intimate History,” which begins Sunday night on PBS — you may find yourself with a lingering, nebulous grief. You’re sorry it’s over. You’re sorry they’re over. You’re sorry a certain expression of American ideals is, or often appears to be, completely over.
My study habits haven’t improved since college; like an idiot, I put off watching all 14 hours of “The Roosevelts” until I absolutely had to watch them on a deadline binge this week. Yes, the entire series sat on my desk for most of the summer, while there was still plenty of time to savor it. When I emerged from my office for a break, midway through the amplified noise of World War I, a co-worker reminded me (spoiler alert) that all of the major players eventually die, so why bother watching the whole thing? Why not skip ahead or skim through most of it?
Because I was absorbed. Within the first hour, “The Roosevelts” will probably have you hooked in a way that Burns and his collaborators haven’t quite achieved since 2007’s “The War.” Unlike the intimidating climb offered by “National Parks” or “Prohibition,” you easily glide through “The Roosevelts’ ” sublimely constructed narrative arc. The series is among Burns’s best works.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Are you a theatrical? A rare breed, indeed, on FR. I checked your home page but there was no explanation.
I teach Voice, Piano and Guitar, and have been a performing artist for half a century.
I am, at present, the Director of Music for an Evangelical Ministry to Bikers, I play the bass, and compose most of the music.
I guess that makes me a psalm-singing old widow! LOL (Not an old maid though!) hahaha.
That’s why your statement cracked me up! LOL!
I congratulate you on bringing your student to victory. You must be very proud and very happy.
Thank you. Both she and her mom were delighted.
She worked very hard, and did everything I instructed her to do, so it validates me as well! :-)
Don’t forget the enslavement of the Japanese!
The infestation of the government by Russian communists
Teaching the arts can be rewarding!
I’ll never get rich, but I love what I do, and that is half the battle.
Thanks afraidfortherepublic. Defund PBS, defund NPR.
Self Proclaimed Yellow Dog Democrat Ken Burns Denies Political Bias in His Documentaries
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3203727/posts
Yeah, the arts is a calling. If you’re called, you answer and the money be damned. My entire life, I’m afraid.
Michael Moore?
Indeed.
But as long as i have a roof over my head and a car to shlepp sound equipment, I’ll be OK.
My father and Ronald Reagan were already serving in that 1930s military before Germany and Russia invaded Poland, and years before Pearl Harbor was attacked, Reagan was in a horse Cavalry Reserve unit, and my father was in the Navy, he was in Borneo when the Japanese attacked, and his long battles in, and then out of the Dutch East Indies was a nightmare, and one that his famous ship barely survived.
FDR described part of their saga, in a fireside chat.
""...I should like to tell you one or two stories about the men we have in our armed forces...," said President Franklin Roosevelt with that distinctive, patrician voice of authority most Americans had grown accustomed to. As he began another of his fireside chats on the evening of 29 April 1942, this, like all his other informal radio broadcasts, was a pep talk, beamed to a nation unaccustomed to defeat and reeling under the Japanese onslaught in the Pacific.
That evening President Roosevelt told a story of bravery and heroism--one of LCDR Corydon M. Wassell, a Navy doctor serving in Java, who risked his life to save others. Dr. Wassell arrived in Java in late January as allied forces were putting up a last line of defense for the Dutch East Indies and trying to hold Makassar Strait from the invaders. In trying battles that followed, USS Houston (CA-30) was lost and USS Marblehead (CL-12) severely damaged. With her steering gear shattered and large holes in her side, Marblehead staggered into port at Surabaja, Dutch East Indies, carrying wounded of her own and Houston's survivors. Dr. Wassell sorted the casualties and assigned them to several hospitals. Medical personnel later transferred patients to a town in the hills less accessible to the Japanese. Shortly afterward, Allied forces began evacuating to Australia. ADM Thomas C. Hart, Commander in Chief of the Asiatic Fleet, ordered Dr. Wassell to evacuate "all the wounded who can stand a hard trip."(1) Hence, Dr. Wassell sorted the patients and found 10 men, one being Marblehead's executive officer, LCDR William Goggins, who were too badly injured to be transferred. Concerned about their well being, Dr. Wassell opted to stay behind with them and await capture by the Japanese.
But instead of sitting idly by waiting for the enemy, Dr. Wassell made a desperate attempt to get the men out of Java and to safety."...........etc.
We didn't have the hardware at the beginning. It was a Herculean effort on the home front to build the tanks, jeeps, planes, and ships that were necessary to win. Everybody pitched in. My late father in law (who was too old to serve) built airplane parts in his basement in Detroit after he'd worked all day at a GE subsidiary. However, we had next to nothing in the beginning and lost much of our existing fleet at Pearl.
I had an uncle who was just out of boot camp and stationed at Pearl when the bombing started, and I lost 2 other uncles (Anapolis grads) to the war before it was over.
There is no denying that we had a vast operating base and population removed from the actual war, yet able to interject ourselves into the war at our own choosing, that was something that it is easy to argue, made the result inevitable if we were committed.
Wendell Wilkie.
He was an FDR clone despite being a Republican.
“And FDR knew who the enemy was, and went all-in for total victory. “
FDR went for Unconditional Surrender, which while it sounds appealing to most civilians is a very bad idea. Your enemy figures that he has everything to lose through surrender and it guarantees that the fighting will go on much longer than is necessary.
A minor objective for 2017: Get the Doofus off the Dime!
Remember the Cold War and enslaved Europe, and Korea and Vietnam, and the Evil empire?
FDR didn’t win total victory, I’m not even sure that we won WWII, the West didn’t survive FDr’s results, we are being erased from history and existence, and the future.
I have to agree with that. In fact, I've wondered how Germany would have behaved if a negotiated peace had been possible. Perhaps there would have been other attempts on Hitler's life (or a coup), and the war might have ended much earlier.
Nevertheless, I'll take FDR's unconditional surrender strategy over the LBJ/Bush II "hearts and minds" strategy any day.
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