Reflecting, Sharing, Learning

My Vietnam Decision: Roundtable discussion led by Jim Marshall

Athens-Clarke County Library2025 Baxter Street • Athens, Georgia

706 613 3650 x343

Saturday, April 7, 2:00 pm

Come to the library on Saturday, April 7 at 2:00 pm for a  moderated, round-table discussion with several local men on the different choices young men had in the 1960s/70s, and the choices they made about going to war. 

As the Vietnam war ripped apart Southeast Asia, it also eviscerated the American psyche and drove this country crazy with pain. To a generation of Americans, it is ancient history, as distant as World War II was to their parents; the war ended over 40 years ago, but it still smolders in the thoughts of those who remember it firsthand. This program will feature a variety of perspectives, including those who went to Vietnam because they thought it was their patriotic duty, and those who resisted the draft on moral grounds.

Moderator Dr. James D. Marshall is a retired Professor of Language and Literacy Education at the University of Georgia. He received his PhD in Language, Literacy, and Culture from Stanford University.

We are happy to present half a dozen new videos which are now online for your viewing pleasure! There are videos of two RSL programs from the last year: Athens Then & Now, and The Adventures of Making a Documentary of a Famous Dead Person, featuring Gary Doster and Dr John Campbell. There is also a video of the slide talk by artists James Barnes and Broderick Flanigan, a community discussion about Athens’ Confederate monument, a ceremony honoring Athens historian Charlotte Thomas Marshall, and the presentation of the Library of The Year award.

What a Difference 100 Years Can Make! Gary Doster shares his voluminous collection of photos and postcards of Athens in this video showing houses and scenes around town that no longer exist, followed by photos of what the location looks like now. It is a trip by postcard through the distant and more recent past, accompanied by reminiscences and commentary.

Dr John Campbell from the University of Canterbury discusses his adventures in the making of a documentary of a famous dead person - Ernest Rutherford, New Zealand’s acclaimed father of nuclear physics. Rutherford radically altered our understanding of nature by explaining radioactivity as the spontaneous disintegration of atoms, dated the age of the Earth, determining the nuclear structure of the atom, and became the world's first successful alchemist by converting nitrogen into oxygen.

This video features artwork by James Barnes and Broderick Flanigan, along with their thoughts and commentary during a slide talk held at the library on December 17, 2017. James Barnes is a local artist who loves to draw—at McDonalds, at Starbucks, on the sidewalk, at the library. James carries his work hanging over his shoulder or rolled up in his backpack, alongside his pens. Broderick Flanigan grew up in Athens and has made a life as an artist, mentor, and activist. He advocates for the needs of low-income people in Athens, and he mentors teens with weekly art classes.