Howard Zinn, dead at 87
Howard Zinn died Wednesday, January 26, 2010.
When I think about why Zinn is so important to me, I think of how he often describes his own experience, his own complicity, his own gradual understanding of “what’s going on” (eg as WWII Air Force bomber, bombing people he couldn’t see, including the first napalm drops ever to be used in war, bombs that killed German soldiers AND french civilians), which is what I do when I speak about racism and white privilege.
I remember reading Carol Hymowitz and Michaele Weissman’s 1978 A History of Women in America and realizing: ah, so women, 50% of the population, are part of history too, and the story of what most of us were doing over our country’s history is worthy of documentation.
That’s what Zinn did in his The People’s History of the United States. But he went further: he showed people seeking justice, building democracy, resisting warmongering. He was both fierce and funny – and people listened and were moved to action.
Howard would get up in front of an audience of 100 or 1000, with scraps of paper in his hands, mostly news items from the morning’s paper — and then he’d talk. He’d ponder aloud the deep import of such small news items, dig out the falsities and name the power dynamics. He would appear amused — and was always amusing — but also fierce in his belief that ordinary people are powerful and their voice must and will be heard.
When Zinn spoke at our book party in 2005, he focussed on the increasing challenges for writers in the face of wartime censorship. He also encouraged writers to send 700-word oped pieces for the Progressive Media Project, which distributes them to publications around the country.
Here’s a quote from his memoir, You Can’t be Neutral on a Moving Train:
No pitifully small picket line,
no poorly attended meeting,
no tossing out of an idea
to an audience and even to an individual,
should be scorned as insignifiant.
The power of a bold idea uttered publicly
in defiance of dominant opinion
cannot be easily measured.
Those special people who speak out
in such a way as to shake up
not only the self-assurance of their enemies
but the complacency of their friends
are precious catalysts for change.
National Writers Union Treasurer and Boston Chapter Steering Committee member Jeanne Harnois posted on her blog a small incident from our 2005 book party
http://steadyblue.wordpress.com/2010/01/27/howard-zinn-omg/
Howard Zinn died Wednesday, January 26, 2010.
When I think about why Zinn is so important to me, I think of how he often describes his own experience, his own complicity, his own gradual understanding of “what’s going on” (eg as WWII Air Force bomber, bombing people he couldn’t see, including the first napalm drops ever to be used in war, bombs that killed German soldiers AND french civilians), which is what I do when I speak about racism and white privilege.
I remember reading Carol Hymowitz and Michaele Weissman’s 1978 A History of Women in America and realizing: ah, so women, 50% of the population, are part of history too, and the story of what most of us were doing over our country’s history is worthy of documentation.
That’s what Zinn did in his The People’s History of the United States. But he went further: he showed people seeking justice, building democracy, resisting warmongering. He was both fierce and funny – and people listened and were moved to action.
Howard would get up in front of an audience of 100 or 1000, with scraps of paper in his hands, mostly news items from the morning’s paper — and then he’d talk. He’d ponder aloud the deep import of such small news items, dig out the falsities and name the power dynamics. He would appear amused — and was always amusing — but also fierce in his belief that ordinary people are powerful and their voice must and will be heard.
When Zinn spoke at our book party in 2005, he focussed on the increasing challenges for writers in the face of wartime censorship. He also encouraged writers to send 700-word oped pieces for the Progressive Media Project, which distributes them to publications around the country.
Here’s a quote from his memoir, You Can’t be Neutral on a Moving Train:
No pitifully small picket line,
no poorly attended meeting,
no tossing out of an idea
to an audience and even to an individual,
should be scorned as insignifiant.
The power of a bold idea uttered publicly
in defiance of dominant opinion
cannot be easily measured.
Those special people who speak out
in such a way as to shake up
not only the self-assurance of their enemies
but the complacency of their friends
are precious catalysts for change.
National Writers Union Treasurer and Boston Chapter Steering Committee member Jeanne Harnois posted on her blog a small incident from our 2005 book party
http://steadyblue.wordpress.com/2010/01/27/howard-zinn-omg/