Dozens of older Kansas Citians have begun telling their histories at
kcstories.com. Founded by writing teacher Michael Humphrey, the Thousand Stories project involves several public library systems and senior citizens' centers around the area, all of them encouraging old folks to write -- now. Humphreys teaches six-week courses based on journalistic principles, and then loads some of the resulting stories onto the Web site. "Born between the Industrial and Digital revolutions, older adults today comprise one of the most fascinating generations in history," the site notes. "They lived through a depression, at least one world war, the sudden death of a president-king and the assassination of a president-myth, an internal uprising for equality and peace and an external threat of world destruction, all while they shifted our center from rural to urban to suburban. They are our parents and grandparents, they are not immortal, and their stories should be kept." Recently the site's featured stories recalled days of tragedy -- the Pearl Harbor attack and the deaths of Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy -- that put our September 11 day of infamy into some much-needed perspective: They reminded readers that emotions felt in 1941 are the same as those felt in 2001, and that people, lots of them, survive.
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