THE DESCENDENTS

I was watching PBS Sunday afternoon. The pldge drive is on. They had a show celebrating the 25^th Anniversary of Ken Burns outstanding 1990 documentary “The Civil War”.

I can’t begin to tell you how many times I’ve watched this documentary.

Hundreds, no doubt.

But it was in the presentation Sunday, the celebration, that a part really hit home that I hadn’t fully understood before.

Some people want to claim that the war began over states rights.

I’ll let them continue to think that if they like.

But by the end of the war it had become something else.

The war had become about freeing the 4 million black slaves in the south.

It was about what Lincoln had called a "new birth of freedom", and filling the promise of the declaration of independence that "all men are created equal".

And the point they made Sunday that I had missed before, even after watching the documentary all those times the last 20 years, is that it wasn’t just about those 4 million slaves.

More importantly, it was about THE DESCEDANTS of those 4 million slaves.

So with tears in my eyes I called the local PBS station to make a pledge.

Seventy Two bucks, and I get the book with the entire narration of the 12 hours Ken Burns Civil War Masterpiece, full of first person stories and outstanding photography like you’ve never seen.

“How much does that book cost off the shelf?” I asked the lady that took my call.

“I don’t know” she said “Maybe 20 bucks?”

“Ok then” I said, choked with emotion “W-w-why don’t you p-p-pput me down for an even 100 dollars instead of j-j-just the 72?“