ken burns

Dear Bari,
I want to thank you for sitting down with world-renowned storyteller Ken Burns to discuss his latest film on America's role in the Holocaust. I want to thank you in particular for giving us, your audience, the opportunity to hear yet another monologue about how morally reprehensible it was for the United States to have been first on the list of sovereign nations to accept Jewish refugees from Europe. My heart was touched to hear how abjectly awful Ken feels in 2023 about the fact that so many more Jewish lives could have been saved in 1944. Emotions welled up in me as I listened to Ken wax poetic about how the weight of the atrocities bore down upon his shoulders, about how his conscience will be forever riddled with the guilt of stopping short of the full salvation of the people of Israel as they faced the depths of evil. I was left speechless as Ken enlightened us by sharing his thoughts about the power of the narrative to change minds, about how it's not political, about how all he's trying to do is make the world better by telling us how bad we've been to one another until now. After all, who are we deplorables to stand athwart the shining light of Ken's conscience, casting a shadow over an otherwise pure and righteous vision of a future devoid of hate and bigotry?

For the Ken Burnses of the world, there is never enough justice - only the gnawing, incessant guilt of the savior who should have saved more souls.