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Location: The Land Mass Between NOLA and Mobile, AL
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Edward Murrow, the seminal American journalist known for covering McCarthyism as well as for popularizing the tagline in the 50s and 60s of "good night, and good luck," popularized a series for NPR called "This I Believe." He wanted to get Americans, in the wake of the horrors of WWII, to express their beliefs in an extremely condensed form, a 500 word essay that would reflect how they understood themselves in the world in relationship to a defeated German Fascism, a flourishing Spanish Fascism that would last until 1976, the rise of the Soviet Union, and a myriad of other post WWII political factors.
While I'm no Edward Murrow, I'd like to propose a similar project today. The reason is that I think it would be a cool exercise to think about how, in our polorized political climate, we might start to tell each other stories that would eventually lead to our healing our fractured world. So I'm putting out a call for papers and comments to everyone, and these are the rules you must follow: you have to explain your belief and why it is important, and you have to translate that belief to people beyond your immediate audience, i.e., those whom you think will automatically agree with you. You should try to think about not only why your belief is important, but also why others should care about it. Don't call people names; just explain why the things that are important to you are important to you. Look at the original This I Believe Essays for examples, and be kind to your neighbors.
Edward Murrow, the seminal American journalist known for covering McCarthyism as well as for popularizing the tagline in the 50s and 60s of "good night, and good luck," popularized a series for NPR called "This I Believe." He wanted to get Americans, in the wake of the horrors of WWII, to express their beliefs in an extremely condensed form, a 500 word essay that would reflect how they understood themselves in the world in relationship to a defeated German Fascism, a flourishing Spanish Fascism that would last until 1976, the rise of the Soviet Union, and a myriad of other post WWII political factors.
While I'm no Edward Murrow, I'd like to propose a similar project today. The reason is that I think it would be a cool exercise to think about how, in our polorized political climate, we might start to tell each other stories that would eventually lead to our healing our fractured world. So I'm putting out a call for papers and comments to everyone, and these are the rules you must follow: you have to explain your belief and why it is important, and you have to translate that belief to people beyond your immediate audience, i.e., those whom you think will automatically agree with you. You should try to think about not only why your belief is important, but also why others should care about it. Don't call people names; just explain why the things that are important to you are important to you. Look at the original This I Believe Essays for examples, and be kind to your neighbors.
This is a cool idea- I do believe that most people on a one-to-one basis, no matter how disparate their beliefs, can at least respect where the other person is coming from (if not the belief itself).
It is going to take me a little time to write something thoughtful but I will post again once I do.
Question: are you asking people to comment on each other's stories or just to read them? Also, do you want just one issue or several per post?
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