Media & Policy Center
Projects Health Care Public Space / Public Health America's Children And Thou Shalt Honor Getting Around Public Affairs Being Creative in Philadelphia Edens Lost & Found Edens Town Hall Meetings Public Affairs America's Family Farmers If I Were President Bitter Tears Transportation Envy Education Education For Social Action Which Way American Education?

The Media & Policy Center has received a significant grant to begin work on America's Family Farmers. Production of the series will begin in the summer of 2008.

Harry Wiland's 1969 film production Johnny Cash: The Man, His World, His Music will be broadcast as part of PBS's P.O.V. series on August 5, 2008. More on Harry's work with Johnny Cash can be found here.

Harry Wiland and Dale Bell have received California Greenworks' Environmental Leaders Award for their "...outstanding work in raising awareness for environmental sustainability through the PBS series Edens Lost & Found."

The first in a series of Edens Lost & Found Town Hall Meetings was held in Philadelphia early in 2008, and was broadcast by WHYY (Philadelphia PBS) in April. More details and excerpts from the broadcast are available here.

Harry Wiland and Dale Bell have been elected Ashoka Fellows and Purpose Prize Fellows.

Harry Wiland and Dale Bell win First and Third Prizes in NAAEE Environmental Film Festival.

Media & Policy Center: And Thou Shalt Honor

The original And Thou Shalt Honor project documented an exciting new stage in our cultural development. During the second half of the 20th century, advances in medical technology made it possible for individuals to survive for years with diseases and chronic conditions that would have made a rapid death just a few years before. Though laudable, this created a new population of persons in need of caregiving and, therefore, a new population of caregivers.

And Thou Shalt Honor introduced us to people serving as caregivers to loved ones, and showed us the challenges and rewards of their efforts. The project included a two-hour PBS special broadcast in October 2002, a book published by Rodale with foreword by Rosalynn Carter, 1,500 community-based grassroots coalitions, 58 national outreach partners, a 15-volume Caregiver Video Resource Library still in distribution through Aquarius Health Care Media, an interactive web site, additional films about the GreenHouse Project (Tupelo, Mississippi) and elder transportation alternatives (Getting Around), and a continuing 10-city series of local and regional caregiving town hall meetings, stressing local solutions and providers with local experts, televised through PBS stations into 17 states.

We are planning a new two-hour PBS outreach special that will focus on the importance of planning for future caregiving needs. This program will "turn back the clock" on some of the people profiled in And Thou Shalt Honor, and ask them and other actual and potential caregivers whether they "had a plan" or "have a plan" about how they would cope with the challenges and opportunities associated with the care of their loved ones. Subjects such as personal responsibility, consequences of not having a plan, financial planning, reverse mortgages, prevention and wellness, long term care insurance, and "family plans" will be raised as we again seek out those compelling stories among the 44 million — and increasing — caregivers in our country.

Visit the And Thou Shalt Honor web site at http://www.andthoushalthonor.org.

From the Media & Policy Center: And Thou Shalt Honor DVDs and books
Reviews of
And Thou Shalt Honor:

"Each year over 26 million Americans care for an adult family member who is chronically ill or disabled. We commend PBS for their dedication to this issue and hope you will find time to watch this important broadcast." — Hillary Rodham Clinton, Olympia J. Snowe, Barbara A. Mikulski, and John Breaux, United States Senate

"Hosted by actor Joe Mantegna, the program examines the plight of today's caregivers and the looming crisis facing baby boomers with elderly parents who one day will need to be cared for themselves." — The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"This two-hour production explores the issue of long-term caregiving by focusing on people who also must cope with the demands of family and jobs and find their ways through medical, financial and legal labyrinths." — The Washington Post

"And Thou Shalt Honor brings sensitivity and common sense to a complex and compelling subject." — Susan Friedman, Executive Director of The Grotta Foundation