Brokaw responds to criticisms about his book

[Shana A]

http://www.bilerico.com/2008/01/brokaw_responds_to_criticisms_about_his.php

Brokaw responds to criticisms about his book
Filed by: Alex Blaze
January 16, 2008 4:32 PM

Finally.

The NBC journalist released a straight-washed history book on the years between 1963 and '74 back in November. No references to Stonewall, the DSM dropping "homosexuality" and taking on "gender identity disorder" in 1973, or a whole list of other events, like the coining of the term "gay", the first gay demonstrations, or the Compton's Cafeteria riot.

[tekla]

If Alex feels all that strongly about it, she should write a book about it then.  Brokaw left the entire field open.

[SusanK]

The book is subtitled, "Personal Reflections...", so what's not to understand? Tom Brokaw wasn't a child of the 60's, but the 50's like my brother, and who had no concept of what the whole era was about. I watched the TV version of the show and it was a waste, a highlight reel of what he thinks is important except he missed everything. It was a slick, washed-over show to sell something the 60's generation went, "Huh?" And I should know, been there done some of that. He was a white kid/adult who never got it, so if she wants to tell her personal story, go for it. Tom sold the book and his show to convince people like him the WWII generation (his previous book) was the best and the 60's generation was a bust. What he didn't realize, the 60's generation ended the Vietnam War as well as we were part of one of the most pivotal year in recent history, 1968. He only reported it but never seemed to grasp it.

[cindianna_jones]

I'm not sure that I understand the problem with Brokaw's book.

Pick up the proverbial pen and write your own!  I did.

Cindi

[SusanK]

Pick up the proverbial pen and write your own!  I did.

And so you did, and congratulations. As for your Website, if I can wander off-topic a bit, there are some broken links, those to the archives and about. A small thing since the blog page displays all the entries so far. I usually recommend people limit the number of entries to a few to lower the load time and allow people to navigate to older ones.

As for suicide, you wrote, "Suicide is a reaction to the external forces we face and live with. It is a reaction to those around us. It is not an act we do for ourselves." This is true for many who contemplate, attempt or succeed suicide, but not for all, and fewer, I believe, than those who do contemplate, attempt or succeed suicide from internalized reasons, such as self-hate or failure. The solution is the same, life, but it's harder to get through to these people life is better than death. Changing the external situation won't change the internal feelings. They have to see it and have a change of heart.

Just my thoughts.