BEST idea?

Are the National Parks America's BEST idea? I was thinking maybe frappuccinos, celebrity worship, or the declaration of independence, but I don't have 10 years and a film crew to prove it, do I?

So last night I went to the screening of clips from The National Parks: America's Best Idea. Could you tell? I realize that my opener may have made it sound like I didn't enjoy the film, but that's not true. It was very interesting, and I fully intend to watch it when it airs on MPBN in its entirety. I did, however, notice that, although I consider myself a patriot, its not in the Ken Burns mold.

Documentaries like that seem to have a feeling of golly-the-American-spirit-is-amazing-and-we're-sorry-about-slavery-and-the-Indians-and-all-that-and-we're-not-ignoring-it-but-lets-focus-on-how-awesome-we-are feeling to them. It works, too. I nearly cried at the Acadia bit, everything was beautiful, the whole thing made me proud, AND it was funny. What more could you want? Well, I like it when they say "Teddy Roosevelt was kind of a douchebag, but ALSO a badass and we love him anyway, and here's why:" I'm a Sarah Vowell kind of patriot, I guess.

I don't know how Sarah Vowell feels, not being in her head, but when I read her books I'm fascinated with every warped twist and turn in American history, and it makes me love it more, warts and all. Lincoln WAS awesome, no matter what else is true about him- so shouldn't we be honest and talk about how he was also emo, and maybe think "gee, I wish I could have given Abe a hug."?

I don't think there's anything wrong with talking about how Jefferson was a prissy backstabber and Adams was a pompous ass who took himself too seriously. Its EXCELLENT. They were real dudes, and I might not have liked them, had I known them- doesn't make their ideas or their writing less great.

GDub may be beyond criticism. He may have actually been perfect, other than the rotten teeth thing. I'm still looking into this one.

I guess that after all of this my point is that I love history, I just prefer it a little more tongue in cheek and a little more even handed. Yep, we rocked WWII. So did the Russians (albeit in their own way), and our refusal to talk about that was a good reason to be ticked at us. Wilson was progressive and formed the League of Nations (which pretty much failed, but was a nifty idea) but he was a bitch to women. Plus, have you seen pictures of him? He looked mean.

History is so great...and I think we have a lot of reasons to be proud. Basically, Ken and I agree...I would probably just say it in a different way. Also, I would probably insist on my narrator conveying disgust at the wealthy "cottagers" on Mount Desert Island who Gave Acadia to the Nation. Frakkin summer people.