Forget Butker. Ken Burns' Brandeis Commencement Speech is Much Better

I’m glad that you put “in my opinion” after you said brilliant speech. Interesting how this clown preaches and rambles on about all or nothing, black or white, right or wrong and then takes all three of those rods at the same time with his political bullshit.

 

Glad you posted and I will try to get the whole thing in eventually. But the start is comical to be honest. This guy self describes himself as a "yellow dog democrat" yet in the beginning of this speech he wants to act/imply he is willing to listen to ideas and thoughts he disagrees with or is uncomfortable with.

Butker offered a much better beginning...

We will see if this guy gets better.

 

Derp derp derp. Don't know why I hadn't done this before... But welcome to my ignore list.

 

Let me save you 15 minutes or so; he doesn’t. He spewed the implications that you noted for about 15-20 before he trashed “the presumptive Republican nominee”. He’s so willing to be open minded he couldn’t even refer to him by name.

 

Thank you.

 

Don’t we all have enough information on the presumptive Republican nominee to form our own opinion by now? How much “open-mindedness” does one need to have? He’s been front page, regardless of what “page” you read, for 8 years!!

 

Yes, and I think we all know that he is not an existential threat, as the speaker claims. But he claims that with an open mind, of course.

 

Lol Trump is 100% an existential threat.

 

you often claim patriotism and respect for the military.

here are two very accomplished military men who both worked closely with djt. are they wrong too?

Exclusive: John Kelly goes on the record to confirm several disturbing stories about Trump | CNN Politics
John Kelly, the longest-serving White House chief of staff for Donald Trump, offered his harshest criticism yet of the former president in an exclusive statement to CNN.

Kelly set the record straight with on-the-record confirmation of a number of damning stories about statements Trump made behind closed doors attacking US service members and veterans, listing a number of objectionable comments Kelly witnessed Trump make firsthand.

“What can I add that has not already been said?” Kelly said, when asked if he wanted to weigh in on his former boss in light of recent comments made by other former Trump officials. “A person that thinks those who defend their country in uniform, or are shot down or seriously wounded in combat, or spend years being tortured as POWs are all ‘suckers’ because ‘there is nothing in it for them.’ A person that did not want to be seen in the presence of military amputees because ‘it doesn’t look good for me.’ A person who demonstrated open contempt for a Gold Star family – for all Gold Star families – on TV during the 2016 campaign, and rants that our most precious heroes who gave their lives in America’s defense are ‘losers’ and wouldn’t visit their graves in France.

James Mattis Denounces Trump as Threat to Constitution - The Atlantic

James Mattis, the esteemed Marine general who resigned as secretary of defense in December 2018 to protest Donald Trump’s Syria policy, has, ever since, kept studiously silent about Trump’s performance as president. But he has now broken his silence, writing an extraordinary broadside in which he denounces the president for dividing the nation, and accuses him of ordering the U.S. military to violate the constitutional rights of American citizens.

“I have watched this week’s unfolding events, angry and appalled,” Mattis writes. “The words ‘Equal Justice Under Law’ are carved in the pediment of the United States Supreme Court. This is precisely what protesters are rightly demanding. It is a wholesome and unifying demand—one that all of us should be able to get behind. We must not be distracted by a small number of lawbreakers. The protests are defined by tens of thousands of people of conscience who are insisting that we live up to our values—our values as people and our values as a nation.” He goes on, “We must reject and hold accountable those in office who would make a mockery of our Constitution.”

 

I suspect that was/is the case…

 

Seemed like good advice:

Be curious, not cool.

Insecurity makes liars of us all.

Remember, none of us get out of here alive.

The inevitable vicissitudes of life, no matter how well gated our communities, will visit us all.

Grief is a part of life, and if you explore its painful precincts, it will make you stronger.

Do good things, help others.

Leadership is humility and generosity squared.

Remember the opposite of faith is not doubt. Doubt is central to faith. The opposite of faith is certainty.

The kinship of the soul begins with your own at times withering self-examination.

Try to change that unchangeable human nature of Ecclesiastes, but start with you.

"Nothing so needs reforming," Mark Twain once chided us, "As other people's habits."

Don't confuse success with excellence.

Do not descend too deeply into specialism. Educate all of your parts, you will be healthier.

Do not get stuck in one place. "Travel is fatal to prejudice," Twain also said.

Be in nature, which is always perfect and where nothing is binary. Its sheer majesty may remind you of your own atomic insignificance, as one observer put it, but in the inscrutable and paradoxical ways.

Choose honor over hypocrisy, virtue over vulgarity, discipline over dissipation, character over cleverness, sacrifice over self-indulgence.

Do not lose your enthusiasm, in its Greek etymology the word enthusiasm means simply, "god in us".

Serve your country.

Insist that we fight the right wars.

Denounce oppression everywhere.

Women should be in the kitchen. Ok. I made this last one up if anyone made it here.

 

I’ll ask Mrs City to go upside your head with a cast iron pan.

 

Honestly the way she cooks Id rather take a cast iron to the head. My family took out a restraining order that keeps her 30 feet from any kitchen.

 

Ken Burns is a clown all of a sudden? Wow.

 

I don’t even know who he is. I take it from the speech that he makes films.

So yes, since this speech is all I know about him, he is definitely a clown. Probably with a masters from FSU.

 

Unfortunate how you not only dismiss, but throw shade upon a person you obviously know nothing about. I know Ken Burns from his acclaimed documentary on jazz. Here's a bit more. Please take just a moment to inform yourself.
Ken Burns

Burns’s documentaries have spanned the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries, starting with a one-hour film about the Brooklyn Bridge, which aired in 1982. His films have recounted the lives of Thomas Jefferson, Huey Long, Jack Johnson, Thomas Hart Benton, Frank Lloyd Wright, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. They have explored the familial triangle of two presidents and one first lady named Roosevelt. They have combed the wreckage of the Civil War and World War II, finding sacrifice, purpose, and redemption. Burns has explored the singular and the mainstream in American culture, making films about the Statue of Liberty, the Shakers, Prohibition, the Dust Bowl, early radio, jazz, national parks, the West, and baseball. In all, he has made 27 documentaries, 15 supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Currently finishing an 18-hour documentary about the Vietnam War, he and his co-producers and co-directors are also working on a film devoted to country music and a biography about Ernest Hemingway, and have recently completed a film on Jackie Robinson that aired in April on PBS.

On three occasions he has received the coveted Erik Barnouw award from the Organization of American Historians and has received 30 honorary degrees. Burns’s films have won 14 Emmys and three Peabody Awards. In 2008 Burns received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

Looks like he has a bachelor's degree in film studies. I do not see any grad studies.

 

His cardinal sin was daring to find fault with dear leader. I have enjoyed his documentaries over the years. The one on country music comes to mind.