What happened to the chat from approx 1:33pm to 1:50pm???

Mister Burns, I am looking forward to your program on our National Parks. As a child my parents made sure we saw our great country, I have been from the Falls of Niagra to the oceans of California and every where in between. My experience with Niagra Falls was breathtaking to say the least. We could hear the falls from miles away before we ever saw them and the falls themselves were the most fantastic thing I have ever seen. Just imagining what I would see as a small child was nothing in comparison to the vision I saw after days of anticipation. The roar of the water and the distance from the top of the falls to the bottom left me breathless. Then my parents took us to the Ontario side to see the fall and we just couldn't believe that America had such beauty. Then a few years later my parents took us to the Grand Canyon. I remember being so delighted to get to see this grand place that my parents had talked about. When we got there I was afraid to get out of the car, the hole was so big I was afraid it would swollow me up. I remember dad making me get out of the car and when I did my knees just went to jelly. I was so afraid, I remember crawling to the edge!! It was so frightening and yet so magnificent I couldn't help but look over the edge. Only to see a plain that looked so tiny flying in the canyon!! It is truely a magnificent sight. Our country is the most beautiful in the world. I am so glad that you are doing a documentary on our National parks! We have the most spectacular places to visit in the world and I know that only you can tell our story with the beauty and magesty that it deserves!! Thank you for showing our country in the best light possible. A lot of country's don't care for us, but that is just because they don't know how beautiful it really is. We still have the photographs that we took from your visits to the falls, and the grand canyon. We have traveled to the painted desert and the Carlsbad caverns. I know you will make the most fantastic story of our National parks and cant wait to see your production. Only You can do it justice. Thanks for letting the world know just how great our country is!! ...............Thank you Linda Moody. Oklahoma City, Okla

I spent several years in the mid 1970's as an Arizona Tour Guide. I had the amazing honor of witnessing people from all over the world as they stood, for the first time, on the rim of the Grand Canyon. Stunned into silence, as this sight can not be properly captured by a measley camera, previously chatty tourists fell into a reverie that I can only describe as divine communinion. I'm not a church goer. Though raised as a Catholic,I have chosen to live my life engaged in the world with my own personal connection to the Creator of all things. People at National Parks,especially the Grand Canyon, no matter their beliefs, all enter the open air cathedrals and all stand in awe of the power of creation. For this reason alone, our National Parks must be protected. They ignite a miniature revolution within each of us that pulls forward our humanity at its best. I had the honor, in my tour guiding days, to act as host to the late Michael Nadel, a gentle soul who was Editor Emeritus of Wilderness Magazine. He was a guest on my very first solo tour and we had many hours of amazing talks about the natural world. We were in a shop on the rim of the canyon and found a beautiful poster they used to sell there with a John Muir quote and that has stayed with me all these long years. Here it is:
"Light. I know not a single word fine enough for Light. Its currents pour, but it is a heavy material word not applicable to holy, beamless, bodiless, inaudible floods of light."

This would be a perfect quote to hear, read by Morgon Freeman, while your cameras sore through light and shadow into the canyon.

I look forward to watching your film. All the best
Mimi DiFrancesca Heberlein
mimidifrancesca@gmail.com

I live in Oklahoma. I hear your announcement on our PBS channel, OETA, about wanting stories from Sooners who lived through the Dust Bowl. I met a man this weekend who qualifies. I have his permission to contact you. His name is Thayer Johnson. He is 80 years old. His family moved to California in 1941, and he still lives there. He had not heard about your documentary, and may contact you himself, but I didn't want him to forget.
Here are his particulars:
Thayer Johnson
3305 Tabora Drive
Antioch CA 94509
aliceandtj@comcast.com

Mr. Burns,
I live in Anchorage Ak. Having seen enough of your work I think you might enjoy the yearly salmon run. The Ak. run starts late spring on the Copper River. From there it progresses north. Forget the commercial fisherman. Take a good look at the celebration and disappointment of the subsistence fishery. These people celebrate the return of brother fish. All races of the state who have been a resident of one year or more fish. Together we fish. It is hard work. I often describe a good run as circus maximus. I think this is something that would make a good film. You would enjoy seeing this with you friends.
Thank you,
Steve

A friend of mine (85 years old) has experiences to share and is wondering if you are offering any compensation to those who help you with this material. Thank you.

I am posting this comment as a means of providing Mr. Ken Burns a contact of a person who lived, experienced and survived the Dust Bowl days of the 1930's in the Oklahoma panhandle.

That person is my mother, Margaret Lindley, who was born September 4, 1921 at the Long Farms, which is located 4 miles north of Optima, Oklahoma. This farm location is in Texas County Oklahoma of the Oklahoma panhandle.

She has excellent photos of the clouds of the dirt that often came rolling in during the 1930's. She also has some interesting stories that she can share about those days of her life. She still lives at the farm location 4 miles north of Optima,Oklahoma.

She will be 87 years old this September 4, 2009. Her phone number is 580-652-2672. I have also provide this information to PBS channel OETA in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Mr. Burns your numerous documentaries and historical DVD's, have always been enlighting and informative about the lands and nation in which we live, as well as the peoples who live here in this great nation.

I hope your interviews with people who have survived the 1930's and Dust Bowl days will provide the authenticity you are wanting to present in this documentary about the era of the Dust Bowl days.

Sincerely,
Phil Lindley
1513 S. Parker St.
Amarillo, Texas 79102

My mother also lived threw this time. She was born in Oklahoma. My mother has a video tape of pictures and films that was made by a man she knowes from New Mexico I believe. She also has a life time of stories ans exoeriences about the Dust Bowl era. Please contact me and I can arrange the info. Thank-you, Gary R. Roles. Pueblo,Colorado

When do you expect that you'll finally get around to doing a film on the period of reconstruction? It remains to this day one of the most misunderstood yet crutially significant chapters of our national history.

My grandmother is 104 this year and lived in the Denver area during the Dust Bowl years. She is mentally alert and remembers a treasure trove of information regarding the 1930's in Denver as well as many other things. I have mentioned the documentary to her and she wouldn't mind if you spoke to her. She is currently residing in southern California. Should you want to contact this remarkable woman, please contact me via email and I will give you the phone number to call her directly. Thank you.

Dearest Mr. Burns,
You are an extraordinary filmmaker, and I truly appreciate your incredible contribution to the cultural awareness that our country has been endowed with by your films about our nation's history. However, Americans today also need to know about the special places that still need to be set aside today for future generations to enjoy. These America lands are treasures that belong not only to the living today, but to those not yet born. These lands rival the most amazing parks, monuments and other protected use designations set by our Federal and State governments.
We cannot be satisfied with the actions of previous generations to protect these amazing American lands that belong to all of us, and would thoughtlessly be obliterated by the greed of a small minority. Today's remaining dwindling subset of natural spaces, which are pressured by the forces of exploitation of the ever-growing requirements of the extractive industries, also need to be documented by a visual artist and story teller of your extraordinary vision. It is my sincere hope that your next project will focus on the natural America that Theodore Roosevelt never saw, but would be astonished to know still exists in our modern nation, before all of it is vanquished to industrial mining practices solely to benefit the corporate motives of a selfish few.

Thanks again for the beauty and truth with which you have endowed our society. Please contact me at http://www.ourcolorado.org to learn more about these places that we must preserve for future generations.

Monday, September 14, 2009.
This has nothing to do with the fact that I came from a memorial service for an older friend this afternoon or the fact that I’ll be attending my forty fifth high school reunion this weekend; but the coming of this reunion and the passing of my friend has got me to thinking about my own life. (So I guess it has something to do with it .) What really got me thinking about my age was watching the preview of the National Park documentary by Ken Burns. When I grew up, camping in northern Wisconsin was our family vacation. Those camping trips are the best memories of my childhood. A few months ago I found the lake we camped on, on Google Earth. Even though it’s 55 yers later I can’t tell you the name of the lake because the fishing and the beach sand and clear water were so great, I still want to keep it a secret. And now I’m getting close to the time I should retire and like many others, my retirement funds went backward instead of forward. So I’m planning to work a few years longer. After watching the National Parks preview, I got a little depressed. I have been an outdoors person all my life and I began thinking that if I had to work until seventy, would I still be able to see all the Parks that I haven’t been to? I don’t know. I’ve been to many of the famous Parks in the West and a few in the East but there is so much more to see. I’m really looking forward to the show, but know that if I don’t have the time or ablilty to see more Parks it will be the biggest disappointment of my life.
Gary Stonewall

Please look up the story on Sloans Lake. Edgewater, Colorado. Wonderful
true story how farmer Sloan went out to dig a well on his treeless land. 150 years ago and hit an underground aquifer and 200 acres of water came up over nite. Well documented see the Library in Denver Re: Sloans Lake AKA: Sloans Leak Great story. Could make an entire documentary.
Most locals have long forgotten. Still
gushing 150 years latter.

Truly interesting!!!!
Love you Documentaries!
GodBlessYou Karen

Mr. Burns your documentary series have been an essential part of our family's carefully considered television viewing. Countless hours of discussion, emotional bonding, and education of later generations are always part of the Ken Burns experience. However, I've noted on several of your promotional appearances for the Parks series an unnecessary political commentary. If you started your research and initial production 10 yrs. ago...and filmed over the past 6 yrs. any decline that you found in the parks' condition wouldn't be the result of the last administration's policies. Given the timeframe, any decline would more likely have been the result of an administration prior to the past 8 yrs. That said...why the insertion of political commentary to begin with? When I heard of this documentary I was quite excited...but when I listened to your comments on Letterman and again this morning on Martha Stewart, I'm less inclined to view this series, not wanting to listen to what I now suspect is going to be content tainted by the childish, relentless snarking about the last administration by the left. Am pretty surprised and disappointed by Mr. Burns' positioning of what should be a wonderful story.