My wife Lynn and I just finished watching Ken Burns. new PBS documentary, \u201cThe American Revolution.\u201d It\u2019s six episodes and runs for 12 hours.<\/p>\n
I saw about 8-9 hours.\u00a0There\u2019s something about the voice of narrator Peter Coyote \u2014 combined with the soft sound of violins and the camera\u2019s slow pan over still drawings \u2014 that put me out every evening after about 45 minutes.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t for lack of interest.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m an American Revolution nerd. I\u2019ve tromped across every major battlefield or point of interest in the Northeast and most in the South and have a bookshelf full of books. I\u2019ve been waiting for this series to be released for at least a year.<\/p>\n
The documentary is thorough, engaging and \u2014 as is customary for Burns \u2014 tells the story through a first-rate cast of historians and gives voice to the written word of Revolutionary era luminaries, soldiers, and common citizens through an ensemble of gifted actors.<\/p>\n
A film buff, Lynn loved guessing the actors behind the voices.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s Mandy Patinkin doing Benjamin Franklin,\u201d Lynn said extremely excited, startling me awake.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho\u2019s Mandy Patinkin?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA singer and actor. He was in Princess Bride and Criminal Minds.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nothing registered. Confused, I could only offer,\u201d Why do they have Benjamin Franklin talking during the Battle of Long Island?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Battle of Long Island ended a while ago,\u201d she said. \u201cWashington has retreated to White Plains.\u201d<\/p>\n
I slept through the Battle of Long Island and Harlem Heights. Two of my favorites. Damn Peter Coyote got me again.<\/p>\n
I turn 60 years old in a few weeks \u2014 and, apparently, have become my grandfather, who also had a deep love for and interest in history, especially that of Bethlehem and the Lehigh Valley. He marveled at what earlier generations endured and accomplished with so little.<\/p>\n
I so wished he were still around recently while reading Rick Atkinson\u2019s second volume in his American Revolution trilogy, \u201cThe Fate of the Day,\u201d when I came upon sizable passages referencing the role of Bethlehem and Allentown during the Revolution.<\/p>\n
Moravian Bethlehem\u2019s role caring for the wounded and dying of the Battles of Brandywine and Germantown, the convalescence of Generals Lafayette and Pulaski, and both cities protection of the Liberty Bell and George Washington\u2019s papers during the British occupation of Philadelphia typically go unmentioned in non-local histories of the war.<\/p>\n
Atkinson, who is the most featured historian in the new Burns series, taking on a role like that of Shelby Foote in Burns\u2019 groundbreaking Civil War series, is quite familiar with Lehigh Valley\u2019s contributions to the cause.\u00a0My grandfather would be so pleased with the region getting its due.<\/p>\n
The series \u2014 nine years in the making, one year longer than the Revolutionary War \u2014 seems to have come out at the perfect time. It doesn\u2019t matter how often you fall asleep; there\u2019s no way to miss the degree of hardship, suffering and pain it took by soldiers and citizens to create our nation.<\/p>\n
To understand America\u2019s founding and its Revolution is to have gratitude and to give thanks to those who lived then and who supported the cause of freedom. The suffering of soldiers and the pain and pillage of citizens is often unfathomable.<\/p>\n
It also provides a sad understanding that the people of this country have long been divided in their beliefs. The Revolution was as much a civil war at home between those loyal to keeping things the same and those driving change as it was a world war among the colonial powers of Europe. Caught in the middle were the Indigenous people of North America and those enslaved seeking a way to find their own freedom.<\/p>\n
And there was a lot of walking. More walking than a Fitbit of today could record. Those soldiers who\u2019ve longed for a day of a mere 10,000 steps.<\/p>\n
When the opportunity arose to trap the British army at the port of Yorktown, Virginia, with the French fleet securing the harbor from escape, Washington\u2019s army had to get there \u2014 on foot from Morristown, N.J.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlright men, we\u2019re heading down to Yorktown. Hang tough. It\u2019s only about 400 miles. We\u2019ll be there in a month.\u201d<\/p>\n
There were no paved roads. No bridges over streams or rivers. No change of socks and, often, no shoes. There was no take out. No Grubhub. No Amazon orders. They couldn\u2019t text mom or their wives. Often, there wasn\u2019t even mail. They came home when they did, if they did.<\/p>\n
There was often no supply chain or provision. Armies foraged for what they ate. There are many accounts of soldiers going three or four days on broth or nothing at all. Many just walked away and went home \u2014 or stole from farms and households. Not everyone was a hero \u2014 and not everyone fought for the cause for eight years. They were human.<\/p>\n
A different type of human than today. Life was shorter and harder. They didn\u2019t know the creature comforts and convenience that they would suffer and die to create for their children\u2019s children\u2019s children.<\/p>\n
Our lives are built upon the work and suffering and dying of those that came before. The least we could do is be thankful for it \u2014 and to focus on what unites us as Americans and stop creating false divisions. The new Ken Burns series helps to remind us.<\/p>\n
During this season of giving thanks, turn it on and enjoy it \u2014 and try to stay awake.<\/p>\n
This is a contributed opinion column. Don Cunningham is the president and CEO of the Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corp. He can be reached at news@lehighvalley.org.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"My wife Lynn and I just finished watching Ken Burns. new PBS documentary, \u201cThe American Revolution.\u201d It\u2019s six…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48407,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,60,182,139,432],"class_list":{"0":"post-48406","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bethlehem","8":"tag-bethlehem","9":"tag-bethlehem-headlines","10":"tag-bethlehem-news","11":"tag-business","12":"tag-local-news","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-top-stories-tmc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48406\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}