The Vietnam War and Why It Still Matters

For those us that were alive and aware in the 60’s and 70’s there was no greater division than Vietnam. Perhaps, other than the Civil War it was America's greatest division. Isn’t it ironic then that for the past several nights, after folks have been watching Maddow or Hannity, reading Drudge or the New York Times, that we have come together in the unity of watching Ken Burns and Lynn Novick’s The Vietnam War

When Burns and Novick set out on this project, they might of had a sense, but certainly could not have know exactly how divided we would become today. And yet his Vietnam documentary might be a kind of shock therapy, as it takes us back to the events that once before, tore us apart.

Thousands of worlds have been written about The Vietnam War, but some of the most profound and wise have come from Alyssa Rosenberg at The Washington Post.
She had access to Burns and Novick in the process of his making the film and has interviewed and written extensively on it.

My WhoWhatWhy.org conversation with Alyssa Rosenberg:

The Central Park Five

1989 New York was a time in which social systems were breaking down. The crime rate was peaking, crack was a serious epidemic, racial animus was strong and it was safer for black and latino teenagers to hang out in Central Park, than to hang out on the mean streets of their own neighborhoods.

Amidst this atmosphere, the body of a white woman was found in the park; beaten, raped and left for dead.

This is the backdrop for what would become one of New York and the country's most infamous crimes; what was dubbed at the time as the Central Park jogger.  Sarah Burns has written The Central Park Five: The Untold Story Behind One of New York City's Most Infamous Crimes.

Tonight her documentary, produced with her father Ken Burn, airs on PBS.

My conversation with Sarah Burns, from last April:

Click here to listen on your iphone or ipad