Ken Burns is an American treasure. He is a filmmaker who is using the artistry of moving images, still pictures, black white and color film, along with vocal rhythm and timbre to tell America's richest stories.

Like a baseball pitcher mowing down batter after batter in the lineup on the way to a no-hitter, Ken Burns is systematically picking off stories and telling them in a fashion that combines entertainment with education in a way that simply cannot be topped. He is creating benchmarks in American Education and telling them one by one in a slow and methodical manner that makes his fans and the millions of members of his audience wish that he could live forever.

His gifts as a filmmaker illustrate his overall mastery of communication. As such, he is a powerful, if not somewhat verbose, public speaker who is among the most sought-after and prized speakers on the college graduation circuit.

If your college, university or other entity is interested in speaking with Mr Burns about appearing at your event, you may contact his preferred speaker's bureau at McKinney Associates.

In May 2006, Burns gave a graduation speech entitled, "A Vanguard Against this New Separatism” at Georgetown University in Washington, DC.

Here are a few choice excepts quoted directly from the speech's text.

" . . . I have now had some experience with this speech-making business, but many years ago when I was first asked to address graduating students, I was in a real panic. I spoke to a number of friends who had had some practice with this sort of thing to try ease my anxiety about what to say. Their advice and collective wisdom was very helpful. Then and now. One said to avoid clichés like the plague. Another gave the best advice for me and for you: 'Be yourself.' But then, one especially blunt friend said, 'By all means, don't tell them their future lies ahead of them. That's the worst.'"

It is interesting that a man who has created his entire professional career on looking at the past has evolved into one of the most popular speakers for graduation, a time when pundits are asked to consider the students' future.

It is more true than not that the best philosophers for the future who are the experts in the forces and events of the past.