Good TV for the Land of the Free

I very well may be one of the last people on the continent to see this amazing series, but I have to give a shout out anyway! If you have not yet seen it, you simply must. This is one that HBO got right. It is so well done! From the script, to the casting, to the direction, and most appealingly, the acting, there just isn't a bad moment. Paul Giamatti is fantastic, and Laura Linney as Abigail Adams absolutely shines.

It's a seven part-er, but I tell you, once you begin you won't be able to stop, so just go ahead and rent all three discs at once. Or better yet, just buy the whole doggone thing because it's a keeper. It has had me talking with anyone who's seen it.

Our founding fathers were complex people. They were genius, inspired, and visionary but at the same time humanly flawed; thanks to David McCullaugh's well researched and amazingly written book, we see it all in this series. We see personality conflicts, personal failures, and yet, most importantly, as Mr. McCullough explains, "how character manifests itself during crisis."

Believe me, I have come away from it bettered in my appreciation and understanding of our nation's birth, and maybe, most hopefully, I'll be a better American because of it.

As Mr. McCullogh said:

"History shows us how to behave. History teaches, reinforces what we believe in, what we stand for, and what we ought to be willing to stand up for. History is-or should be-the bedrock of patriotism, not the chest-pounding kind of patriotism but the real thing, love of country.

At their core, the lessons of history are largely lessons in appreciation. Everything we have, all our great institutions, hospitals, universities, libraries, this city, our laws, our music, art, poetry, our freedoms, everything is because somebody went before us and did the hard work, provided the creative energy, provided the money, provided the belief. Do we disregard that?

Indifference to history isn't just ignorant, it's rude. It's a form of ingratitude.

I'm convinced that history encourages, as nothing else does, a sense of proportion about life, gives us a sense of the relative scale of our own brief time on earth and how valuable that is.

What history teaches it teaches mainly by example. It inspires courage and tolerance. It encourages a sense of humor. It is an aid to navigation in perilous times. We are living now in an era of momentous change, of huge transitions in all aspects of life-here, nationwide, worldwide-and this creates great pressures and tensions. But history shows that times of change are the times when we are most likely to learn. This nation was founded on change. We should embrace the possibilities in these exciting times and hold to a steady course, because we have a sense of navigation, a sense of what we've been through in times past and who we are."

--An excerpt from David McCullough's 1995 acceptance speech for the DISTINGUISHED CONTRIBUTION TO AMERICAN LETTERS AWARD.

For his entire speech go here.