Write it down
By Patrick Kelley
Originally published 03:10 p.m., September 24, 2007
Updated 03:10 p.m., September 24, 2007
Ken Burns says his new documentary series on PBS, “The War,” was made just in time. If he had waited any longer before beginning the project six years ago, many of the veterans of World War II who lent their voices and their recollections to the documentary would have died before he could record their stories. Those voices and those stories would have been lost forever.
Years ago, Burns made another tremendously moving documentary about an American war, “The Civil War.” More than 100 years after the end of the war, that filmmaker used still photographs, letters and diaries to give a voice to the soldiers and their families who lived through that era. Fortunately, many of those source materials have survived.
When it comes to telling the story of current generations, there will be few letters and few diaries to carry their stories and voices into the future.
It is a sad irony that in the era of camera phones, instant messaging and e-mail — a time when no event seems to go unrecorded and no thought unexpressed, so little information about people’s lives will survive their death.
So much that is recorded vanishes almost instantly — the phone photos that are sent off into the ether, then deleted, the e-mails erased, the messages wiped from the screen as soon as they are typed. Those images and words that are preserved are committed to magnetic or optical storage that has a limited life span.
Generations to come are likely to know less about their ancestors of this generation than about their ancestors of the pre-electronic era. Recollections of great events and small, family stories and individual biographies will be lost unless a conscious effort is made to preserve them.
Preserving the story of these terms is not a matter of burying time capsules, engraving words on granite or casting them in bronze. It is much simpler than that.
Just write the story down.
The stories that are most likely to survive are those written or printed on good paper and entrusted to children and grandchildren.
The famous and the infamous have other people to tell their stories, which will survive in books. But most people will never have a biographer. The only way their stories will survive is if they record them themselves.
And someday, those stories may be as meaningful to a new generation as the recollections of Ken Burns’ World War II veterans.
rox_alan (anonymous) says...
Yes it is so sad that many of our veterans of the WWII are passing away and we don't have the stories of their service to our country. My grandpa served in WWII and he barely would say anything about it. We barely got enough information when my daughter was doing a project for school but other than that he wouldn't say anything what he experienced it has gone with him now. It will always be a reminder that he left this world and didn't want to express or say what he went through. I'm sure he saw things that he would just want to forget but these stories do need to be told to future generations. So glad that you got some of these stories. A job well done and look forward to seeing it on PBS when it comes on.
September 24, 2007 at 5:40 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
create (anonymous) says...
Good idea, write it down. Unfortunately, for some, it isn't always easy to obtain the information. My husband held the Distinguished Flying Cross, but never wanted to talk about it. It took years for him to finally open up, and only then to our teen daughter who used the interview for a writing assignment in school.
Use good paper, of course, but if you want to further preserve your story or your veteran's story, here is where you can do it on the web where a government collection site is located. All stories are worth telling. Just being in uniform and fighting for your country makes you a hero. This link was offered on the PBS website in conjunction with Ken Burns' documentary.
www.loc.gov/vets/
September 25, 2007 at 10:48 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )