RANT & CHAT - No Politics

[ergo sum]

Without emancipation, the war was nothing but meaningless carnage. It required a war to make the Constitution that of a real, united nation. And it's still being fought. The Civil War is not over as long as some are living in houses and others on the street.
In his somewhat loose interpretation of Parkman, Burns said he wanted the Civil War on film to "resonate." I assume that by "resonate" he means it should have current social and moral relevance. But there is no reason to speculate on something about which Burns himself was quite vocal in interviews. Talking to Charlie McDowell (the voice of Sam Watkins, the Confederate soldier featured in the film), Burns said that Fields' comments quoted above were his favorite part of the film. The issues she raised were the ones which had
animated the pursuit of the film. Barbara Fields covered the initial reason we fought--to extend to all men the promise that all men are created equal. The history of our country is one of tension between growth and civil rights. The Civil War murdered hundreds of thousands of people to extend [equality] to black men, and now we've extended it to women, and to black women, and immigrants, and now we're struggling with the handicapped and the homosexuals and how we try to expand and invigorate the American democracy.
http://www.regent.edu/acad/schcom/rojc/melton.html