Ken Burns gave the commencement speech at Stanford in June. In that speech, he attacked Trump. Some students, like many of us, thought Hillary would easily win. One student thought Burns was too harsh and should have just celebrated their accomplishments. Hillary would easily win so why push us, why be so political, she thought. She changed her mind after the November debacle. She then wrote Burns and asked for advice:
Thank you, Mr. Burns, for speaking at Stanford’s commencement and for stripping down ceremonial gaieties in order to address the student body with candor, believing that we would not just listen but that we would act. I will not be helpless. I will not be silenced. I will not forget. I will be for our nation and its citizens. But I am still processing. Still hurting. Still learning.
I did not listen then, but I implore you now — what do I do?
He wrote back this month. Here is a snippet of what I found most important in his view of the way forward: engagement.
We must choose a middle ground: engagement. But the engagement we seek must understand that those people who did not vote as we did are not our enemy. In fact, true engagement is walking into the heart of that constituency, offering shared stories and real solutions rather than narratives that are calculated to divide, offering fellowship and unity, where fake news has helped stoke tribal angers.
snip
We must try to point out that even with a progressive president who taxed the wealthy, the gap between the haves and have-nots has grown; we can be assured now that this gap will only grow, not shrink. We must engage the business sector — corporate America will play a huge role in helping maintain our equilibrium, either by applying pressure to retrograde political forces or facing the pain of consumer boycotts.
We must try to remember that this level of vulgarity, of blatant lying, of demonizing whole groups of people, nearly always backfires, that real change will come when middle class whites, Hispanics and blacks realize they share more in common with each other than those in whose interest it is that they stay divided. This has been a successful strategy for generations in this country: why not blame the other, who might take your job, rather than blame the boss who laughs all the way to the bank.
snip
Just go forward. Engage. Don’t despair. Find likeminded people — not from your social circle, but everywhere. Change the opinions of others, not with ridicule, but reason. Finally, remember too that Barack Obama himself has said that the highest office in the land is not president, but citizen.
Be one.
With my sincerest best wishes,
Ken Burns
WaPo: A student asked Ken Burns what to do in Trump’s America. He gave her this advice.
He’s right.