We Americans Don't Seem to Learn From History

This week, I watched the first screening of PBS' Murder of a President  on American Experience, telling the story of US President James Garfield, his life, his deeply tragic assassination and death 200 days later.

It was fascinating to the point of riveting. Such great and deep history. Sad it isn't taught in our schools. Seems he was a brilliant man who fought for the people and even for the slaves of the nation, a very welcome rarety.

Too bad we don't still, to this day, have such Republicans.

Anyway, it pointed out to me, once more, how we Americans don't learn from history and I'll tell you why.

We all know our President Abraham Lincoln was shot and killed, also tragically and needlessly, in 1865, at the hands of a mad man.

At the time, Presidents didn't have security guards and protection. So the assassin came in, had access to the President and shot and killed him easily, if horribly enough.

You would think we would, as a nation, learn something from that, right? Like that we need to protect our presidents?

Nah.

We're Americans. Learn something?  Heck, no. Not from the past, not from recent history, nothing.

16 years later---sixteen whole, long years---then-President James Garfield, still unprotected, was headed to a train station, rather famously as it was in the newspaper, for pity's sake, so a crazy man came up and shot him, repeatedly. It didn't kill him instantly but soon enough, it was done.

No body guards. No protection. Nothing.

So a couple centuries later, do you think we'd learn anything from, say another countries military foray into another country?

Do you think we'd pay any attention to the world and international, military history of, say, France, that had attacked and fought the people of Vietnam?

Oh, hell, no.

Go ahead. Attack. Go in. Think you're going to win. Think you're going to win the people over. With bombs.

We all know how that went.

Couple decades later?

Not just one nation but two.

Iraq?  Afghanistan?

Oh, heck, yes, let's attack.

Forget that the British and Soviets both attacked and fought and were repelled and in effect beaten in these places and by these people.

Ignore it.  Go ahead and attack.

We're Americans.

We don't need to learn from history.

The "Downton Abbey" That's Never Told

For watchers of PBS' "Downton Abbey" and for anyone and everyone who might be interested in old British history, specifically the old, historical homes in which the wealthy lived.

I've been looking for a documentary or video on how the staff or "help" of these homes actually lived and worked and were treated.  I believe I found it.



Enough of that horrible, false, romantic, absurdly pretty view of the "help" that "Downton Abbey" shows.

It skewers history and insults intelligence.

The Next Important Documentary We Need to See

Get ye to the Tivoli

What our corporations---and our food--are doing to us, as a nation

A documentary from last year:



Get that?

"This is the first generation of American children expected to lead shorter lives than their parents."

And this:

"Over 95% of all Americans will be overweight or obese in 2 decades."

And "The government is subsidizing the obesity epidemic."

So you know.

So we know.

And act and react.

Important documentary coming soon

I was just made aware, last evening, of this new, as I said, important documentary that's coming out soon on the American diet and how sugar, especially, is so prevalent and dangerous in our nation and society:



I look forward to it.

A Liberal's dream

It may only be one evening and one night's entertainment but check it out:

Our black, "Liberal" president, first.

And he gives us this:

In Performance at the White House: Memphis Soul

 

It's on PBS, of course.

 

Then, it's followed by this on the same channel:

 

THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE - PBS

 

And it's by none other than Ken Burns.

 

Entertainment. The Blues. History. Education.

 

Mmmmm.

Excellent documentary tonight on HBO on the Catholic Church & their sexual assault and abuse cases

The trailer:



Besides spelling out what happened here, with over 200 children, it also apparently implicates now Pope Benedict XVI, formerly Cardinal Ratzinger.

These are stories that need, desperately, to be told.

On KCPT and PBS tonight at 9

There is an extremely important documentary on PBS this evening that lots and lots of Americans should see this evening at 9 pm.

In their own words: "FRONTLINE investigates why Wall Street CEO's have escaped prosecution for mortgage fraud:

The Untouchables | FRONTLINE | PBS

 

 

Did you see in the Star over the weekend, how a man poached deer locally and got a $150,000 bond he had to set?  Yes, it happened. Those are his accusations and that's what he's gotten so far.

 

These people fleeced thousands of people--America, really--for millions of dollars and they don't have so much as one charge against them.

 

This is important.

 

These are things we need to know.

Keeping corporations accountable

Again, from The Wall Street Journal earlier this week, there were two totally unrelated articles having to do with corporations and their responsibility to society.

The first has to do with a company, St. Jude Medical, creating heart defibrillators that had wires in them that burst out of their insulation so they ended up shocking the patients that had them. Here's the article and link:

St. Jude Riata Heart-Device Flaws Known for Years

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444223104578036752346768278.html?mod=e2tw

Nice, huh?

The thing is, the company sent out recalls on them but the doctors didn't report them to the patients, in most cases.

So say you had a heart defibrillator put in your chest and all of a sudden you started getting shocks from inside your body. Then, later, you find out your doctor just didn't tell you about it.

Real quick, there's two things about this.

First, you're angry--and likely scared as heck--that you have this thing you need to live in your body that your doctor put there years ago and it's giving you electric shocks no one can control.

That's bad enough.

Then, on top of that, it will continue to keep giving you those electric shocks until your doctor once again opens up your chest, disconnects it from your heart, takes it out and replaces it.

Here's the second article:

US Warns Motorists of Counterfeit, Faulty Air Bags

Ironically, it was right next to this, above story.

It seems people who work on cars have been replacing good, working air bags with ones that don't.

Sick.

People--mothers, fathers, sons, daughters--depend on their air bags to keep them at least a bit more safe in their cars, should they be in a car wreck, heaven forbid. They have some issue or problem with the bag, for one reason or another, depend on their local auto repair company to fix it and they put in one that isn't likely to work.

Again, fantastic. Fantastic in a sick, selfish, greedy, "free-market" Capitalism kind of way.

What this brings me to is that we, the people, the ones who end up in -these personally- and financially-exposed ways, need some kind of way to hold corporations and people responsible so if, in fact, these things happen, we are compensated for them and, just as importantly, there are punishments so others aren't tempted to cut their costs or to out-and-out cheat their customers and these types things don't happen again.

We're not shooting for a "perfect world" here by pushing for this. We're mere hoping and working for a more honest fair and working one.

So, if you think America really needs "tort reform" to help the country and get an keep our nation's company's costs down, you're badly, badly mistaken.

As a recommendation, if you haven't already seen it, go rent the documentary "Hot Coffee." (Link below).



It will really open your eyes.

Links: www.hotcoffeethemovie.com/

"AIDS in Black America"

If you're not watching the Major League Baseball Game tonight, out of Kauffman Stadium here in town, you might be the type person that, instead, would watch and want to watch the "Frontline" special on PBS "AIDS in Black America:



It's one of the biggest killers of Black Americans today. It's important we recognize where this came from, where we are and where it's going.

It begins this evening at 8 pm.

Link: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/endgame-aids-in-black-america/

Documentary coming out on climate change evidence

This is a new documentary that just came out of the Sundance Film Festival this year.

Apparently the man who shot it was formerly a global warming skeptic. What he saw and filmed changed his opinion on it completely.



You might watch for it. When it comes, it will likely be at the Tivoli Theater in Westport.

Important new documentary coming out

Fortunately, it is to be on HBO. That means some people, at least, will see it.

If it were at the theaters, it would get acclaim, some would see it but not enough people. And likely, too, it wouldn't be the people seeing it who should see it.

This way, if it's on HBO, in our homes, in our living rooms, we don't have to get up and go anywhere to take it in.

And there's more and cheaper food, too.

Upcoming documentary

Remember, 3/4 of the grocery store is utterly unnecessary. Vegetables, some meat and/or fish--if you eat it--some pasta(s) and the freshest breads you can get, either at home or the store. After that, a few condiments--maybe--some seasoning(s) and everything with as little sugar, if any at all, and as few ingredients as possible. Nothing processed. It's easy. Easier than it sounds, too. It's great for your health, great for your wasteline, far less expensive, potentially, simple and you'll feel terrific. Take back your food. Take back your body. Take back your life.

Roger Ebert on a Missouri Film Festival

The extremely well-known film writer and critic Roger Ebert posts today on Facebook and his blog today about a regional film festival here in Missouri: "This event at the University of Missouri is a good example of a film festival that has defined a role for itself, and built up a loyal audience over 10 years. Why spend a fortune to go to Cannes when there may be a terrific event like this nearby? Kevin Lee is a well-known blogger and was our correspondent at True/False." Link: http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120306/FILMFESTIVALS/120309991

Great Kansas City Arts news!

Great news, indeed! Kansas City's (actually, Prairie Village's) own Joyce DiDonato and the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts are going to be in a documentary on PBS. The working title is HOMECOMING: THE KANSAS CITY SYMPHONY PRESENTS JOYCE DIDONATO Their write-up on it: "Architect Moshe Safdie’s extraordinary new Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts provides the stunning backdrop for a 60-minute performance-documentary profiling the young, Grammy Award-winning musicians of the Kansas City Symphony, their vibrant artistic director and conductor Michael Stern, and the radiant, internationally celebrated mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato. A concert wrapped by documentary narratives, this Arts Festival special tracks Ms. DiDonato’s nostalgic return to her hometown, and her thrilling Kauffman Center debut, after a triumphant appearance with Placido Domingo at The Metropolitan Opera in New York. Together, Joyce DiDonato, Maestro Stern and the Kansas City Symphony create a musical program as grand and ambitious as the Kauffman Center itself. Produced by Kansas City Public Television (KCPT) in association with veteran PBS music producers James Arntz & John Paulson." Further proof to all the naysayers that building the Kauffman Center was somehow a bad idea. And thank you, thank you, thank you, to the Kauffman family, Julia and her parents, for this and the many gifts they've given Kansas City. As I've said before, we're eternally grateful. Links: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/blogsburger/53231413-53/arts-pbs-art-festival.html.csp; http://www.pbs.org/about/news/archive/2012/arts-summer-festival/

Great documentary on our American soldiers

If we truly care about our soldiers, the way we profess. Keep an eye out for it. It may come to the Tivoli Theater or another local one.

We need to see this movie

Seems The Beatles were correct. All we need is love. "The truth of who we are is that we are because we belong." --Bishop Desmond Tutu. Link: http://www.iamthedoc.com/

Corporations are killing us

 

Last night I did watch this documentary on HBO, "Hot Coffee", telling how corporations spent and are spending millions upon millions of dollars to advertise and market to us to get us to believe, in this case, we needed tort reform, all so they could reap many more millions of dollars in profits and benefits for themselves, all at our expense. They're buying--literally--our judges and justice system and cleaning us out. We're being played for suckers, folks, big time. Now, word out today shows a house in Wyoming that is "a single address in this sleepy city of 60,000 people..." where "more than 2,000 companies are registered." In this way, the corporations can, well just read: "A Reuters investigation has found the house at 2710 Thomes Avenue serves as a little Cayman Island on the Great Plains. It is the headquarters for Wyoming Corporate Services, a business-incorporation specialist that establishes firms which can be used as 'shell' companies, paper entities able to hide assets." I tell you, the corporations are playing us, they're using us, they're taking gross advantage of us and yes, they are exploiting and, in the end, killing us and tearing apart the country. We have to put a stop to them and these practices. Go, see this movie, "Hot Coffee". You'll be astounded at what you learn. It's yet more evidence that, if there were a hell, George W. Bush and Karl Rove would surely have to have one of the hottest places in it, reserved especially for them. Links: http://news.yahoo.com/special-report-little-house-secrets-great-plains-113759191.html; http://hotcoffeethemovie.com/

You ought to see this movie

 

We've been had. Big time. Again. By the corporations. A documentary is coming out this Monday on HBO you really ought to see--and for so many reasons. It is "Hot Coffee" and it's about how the corporations in this country have used and are using us, mostly through advertising, and they're turning our courts and so much of the country against us. Shocker, huh? Links: http://hotcoffeethemovie.com/; http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2011/06/24/hot-coffee-sue

Information and education time again, folks

Okay, you didn't get off your sofas and go see "Enron:  The Smartest Guys in the Room", as you should have so now, make sure you get up and go see this movie:  "Inside Job". 

For the love of pete, people, this is what's going on in your country.  It's also why you shouldn't vote back in the people who allowed this to happen.

Link:  http://www.sonyclassics.com/insidejob/