Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns condemns proposed Florida bill

Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns condemns proposed Florida bill

Mar 10 2023

Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns has joined a rising chorus of condemnation against a proposed Florida bill that seeks to muzzle intellectual freedom in colleges and universities.

House Bill 999 is a sly hodgepodge of contradictory dictums designed to bleach the study of American history and deny the persistence of racism. “General education core courses may not suppress or distort significant historical events,” the bill states, pleasantly enough. But then it also mandates that these courses may not “include a curriculum that teaches identity politics, such as Critical Race Theory, or defines American history as contrary to the creation of a new nation based on universal principles stated in the Declaration of Independence.”

… “America’s greatness stems not from its suppression of our complicated history but our willingness to engage and understand it,” Burns wrote. “Each generation has helped further bring to life the values articulated in the Declaration and made more perfect in Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. Our contribution should not be to silence those trying to understand the past more fully.”

More News Stories