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American Voices

Submitted by chris on Sat, 02/18/2006 - 10:56pm.

At the opening of the first StoryCorps recording booth in Grand Central Station, Studs Terkel said:

"...we shall begin celebrating the lives of the uncelebrated, those men and women ... the working men and women of this country ... who have made all the wheels go 'round..."

And with that, he helped launch an ambitious project to collect audio snapshots of the lives of ordinary Americans. Spend some time with a sampling from the current collection and I suspect you will be moved by the power of extraordinary words from ordinary people.

As I grow older, I am becoming more reflective, more aware of the value of history as a teacher, as a source of meaning. The StoryCorps project drives right to the heart of this awareness and I'm inspired to participate. Luckily, StoryCorp encourages everyone to make recordings and their website includes detailed instructions to help us along. I intend to avail myself of my wife's small home recording facility to experiment with the words of friends and family.

I invite you to check out StoryCorp for yourself. Perhaps you will be similarly inspired.

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