Also disrupted is how PBS does its business. Especially left adrift amid the increasing cacophony of belligerent partisan cable television, blogs, et al. - as network radio and TV news become shallower due to their commercial underfunding - will be rural regions where many depend on public radio and television to keep them alert to how infectious global inhumanities are impacting this country and their lives.

As the Republican assault on this essential public service continues, I think of what I and my children, through the years, have learned from PBS and NPR, including what's missing from most public schools - our own history:

Such as Ken Burns' documentaries that spent many hours giving us the flavor, texture and perspective of our own Civil War; a multi-part, much needed dramatic reassessment of John Adams' pivotal role in our history; and such other deeply absorbing educational programming as the very origins of human life. Even when our economy was flourishing, where was any of that to be seen substantively, if at all, on commercial television?