In putting together his Vietnam War series over a 10-year period, filmmaker Ken Burns said he hopes to start a national conversation on the war. That hasn’t happened yet, although we’re only three episodes in (the entire series is online). Critics have applauded the series but, anecdotally, the buzz hasn’t taken hold.
It’s not because people aren’t watching.
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We’re three episodes in to Ken Burns’ outstanding series, The Vietnam War, and among the more compelling debates to come from its airing is the question of whether there really is no such thing as a ‘single truth’ in war. Read more →
The Chilcot Report, Britain’s investigation into the Iraq War, was released this morning, and it’s too big for reporters at The Guardian to go through alone. Read more →
The lost boys escaped the war between north and south region of Sudan. The north was primarily Muslim, the south Christian. Most of the boys were orphaned by the killings. About 90 percent of the boys have become American citizens since arriving in the county, the paper says, and more than 60 have graduated from college. Read more →
It’s been five months since Chris Ring jumped into Lake Itasca and started swimming. He’s been swimming most every day since. Read more →
It’s Veterans Day, of course, so everyone is saying all the things they should be saying on a day to honor people who served in the military, many of them forced to do so by the threat of prison time if they didn’t.
It’s also a day when we might remind ourselves that are words are empty in the face of reality contained in a recent investigation this week from Colorado Public Radio that didn’t get anywhere near the attention it deserved.
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It’s taking Chris Ring, the Navy veteran who is swimming the length of the Mississippi River in a show of support for the families of soldiers killed in combat, a bit longer than expected because he’s running into so many families. He’s fine with that. Read more →
Back in the day when our Vietnam experience made the United States skittish about going to war, this date in 1968 is a big reason why. Read more →
It was odd staging when President Obama announced a new war for the United States today. He did so on the lawn of the White House rather than behind a desk in the Oval Office. Read more →
The developing civil war in Iraq is raising the question anew: “How much of the decision to get involved in Iraq again should involve the fact that the U.S. has already lost more than 4,000 soldiers there?” Read more →
This is a perfect example of why news organizations in the U.S. are so anxious for the FAA to adopt regulations allowing them to use drone cameras to report news events.
A picture is worth a thousand words and sometimes 999 of the words are wrong. This tweet raced across the Internet this week. It showed a boy “all alone” in the desert, fleeing the violence of Syria. It was based on a picture distributed by a U.N. agency. Here 4 year old Marwan, who was Read more →
A discovered WWII diary found in a Minnesota basement helps a Louisiana family recall a lost airman. Read more →
Where now in the archdiocese scandal, a school throws food away intended for hungry children, the return of a Purple Heart, fracking fights back, and the Minnesota that keeps going in the cold and snow. Read more →
If you race the Arrowhead 135, you’re in for trouble; Who is Cory Remsburg; Minnesota’s not-so-super transportation; the Napkin Notes Dad; and farewell, comma! Read more →
Bob Collins