HOWARD ZINN 1922-2010

I have had a bumper sticker on the trunk of my car for the last couple of years that read 'Zinn/Chomsky: Your 2008 White House'.  I came up with it because I wanted to make the point that it is visionary intellectuals that need to move us ahead in this world--how great would things be if these guys were put in the legitimate roles of authority in the White House.

The lawyers and related prick-like characters that fill the halls of Washington right now are evil in that they are selling away the country for their silly and inconsequential self-interests and small things like that are wasting our time and money while a lot of things remain as bad as ever. 

That was the greatest truth Zinn brought to me--the realization that there are very few actual bad guys out there.  The major evil comes to pass when the people in power allow a particular group to get things done to help them make money, without really looking at or caring about the consequences for the people involved.  Being a Senator is so commonly a 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' situation these days, where the thing in question is 'the consequences of the pork they pass, or the bills they kill, etc)  That type of ambivalence or indifference is the ugliest evil.

Howard Zinn passed away from a heart attack in Santa Monica, CA on January 27th.  He was 87.
I cannot do justice to those 87 years, but I wanted to do my small part to propogate the rememberance and spread his word.



A bombadier in WWII, he got out and went on to obtain his undergraduate degree and his Ph. D. from Columbia on the GI bill.  He went down to Atlanta to teach history at the predominantly black Spelman College from 1956-63--not the easiest time in America to be a radical advocate of civil rights.  In 1964 he took a position at Boston University (he spend most of the rest of his life in Mass) and retired in 1988.

He was a great activist--marching, speaking and writing against everything that is unjust.  Civil rights, Vietnam, Iraq, War and the military industrial complex in general, and really anything that crossed his path that had an element of class warfare or oppression of some sort--these were the things he fought tirelessly for and he was highly influential.

His greatest tangible contributions were
'A People's History of the United States', (1980) a solid look at America from the first European landing and
          the viewpoint is truthful and direct.  His other great work was
'You Can't Be Neutral On A Moving Train' (1994), which speaks to the need for active participation in the
          processes that are being manipulated from self-interested groups that will continue to profit with the  
          status quo and will work hard to maintain it.

Here is one of many great quotes that have come from all corners just in the last few weeks since his passing--this is Noam Chomsky:
"When action has been called for, one could always be confident that he would be on the front lines, an example and trustworthy guide."

Here is a link to start if you want to learn more--but really reading The People's History will do a lot more to explain Mr. Zinn to you ; it will be an eye-opening experience for sure.