Howard Zinn Dies

[Pam]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationwo...,3882068.story

Howard Zinn, an author, teacher and political activist whose leftist "A People's History of the United States" became a million-selling alternative to mainstream texts ....died Wednesday. He was 87.

[maxx]

“If those in charge of our society - politicians, corporate executives, and owners of press and television - can dominate our ideas, they will be secure in their power. They will not need soldiers patrolling the streets. We will control ourselves.�
Howard Zinn

[Jimaz]

My first thought was who will replace him? The next was: No one. He was anything but an interchangeable part.

Rest in peace, Howard. You've more than earned your place in history.

[oldredfordette]

We are a poorer nation without Howard Zinn. Viva Howard, you were awesome.

One of my favorite days in my whole life was spent following Howard around Detroit. What a wonderful man.

[gibran]

We lost a great voice today..First Said,now Zinn...who next ? the voices of reason are getting old who can replace them?

At least we still have Chomsky and West...while not the only voices of the left they are/were a balnce for the RAnds of the world.

http://middleeast.about.com/b/2010/0...ls-purpose.htm

[rb336]

he challenged us to look deeper into the story than what we were told, especially in the classroom. that is the greatest gift an intellectual can leave a society. the buckleys of the world called him un-American on numerous occasions, just for daring to challenge the "official" version of history, although they and their followers could never show him wrong on any factual basis.

[maxx]

“I suggest that if you know history, then you might not be so easily fooled by the government when it tells you you must go to war for this or that reason -that history is a protective armor against being misled.
Howard Zinn


http://www.historyisaweapon.com/zinn...eshistory.html

[maxx]

The religious right like to say that the U.S. was founded on xtian principles, but I see a streak of communism in the incidents Zinn pointed out.

From Zinn's History of the U.S.:

During elections for the 1776 convention to frame a constitution for Pennsylvania, a Privates Committee urged voters to oppose "great and overgrown rich men .. . they will be too apt to be framing distinctions in society." The Privates Committee drew up a bill of rights for the convention, including the statement that "an enormous proportion of property vested in a few individuals is dangerous to the rights, and destructive of the common happiness, of mankind; and therefore every free state hath a right by its laws to discourage the possession of such property."

But then as G.B. Shaw said, " I am a Christian. That obliges me to be a communist."

[gibran]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ehc3V1g5pm0

Where are the alternative voices in educating our minds [[they are passing fast)...the likes of Zinn, Chomsky, Said [[RIP), Carter and West et al....

all we get is Beck, Palin, Rush, Kruatenhammer, Rove,Kristol, Horowitz et al...as so called experts that people are exposed to...fair and balanced..

[Mikeg]

Obama at One - Howard Zinn's last public commentary which appears in the Feb. 1, 2010 edition of The Nation:

TN: Looking back at President Obama's first year in office, what do you think the high point has been? And what has been your sharpest moment of disappointment?
HZ: I' ve been searching hard for a highlight. The only thing that comes close is some of Obama's rhetoric; I don't see any kind of a highlight in his actions and policies. As far as disappointments, I wasn't terribly disappointed because I didn't expect that much.......
I think people are dazzled by Obama's rhetoric, and that people ought to begin to understand that Obama is going to be a mediocre president--which means, in our time, a dangerous president--unless there is some national movement to push him in a better direction.

From America the Awful---Howard Zinn's History, by Ron Radosh:

Howard Zinn's death yesterday affords us the opportunity to evaluate the remarkable influence he has had on the American public's understanding of our nation's past........
Zinn ransacked the past to find alternative models for future struggles. That, of course, is not the job of the historian, but of the propagandist.....

RIP Howard Zinn, you are now history.

[gnome]

Zinn did his preaching from the left side of the plate and didn't shy from being decidedly leftist; for his commitment to his values I salute him as he has had an impact on a small sub-set of America. We should all raise a glass to a man who knew himself, and wanted others to do the same.

May flights of angels...

[gibran]

M here again is the whole qoute...not half of it.


I' ve been searching hard for a highlight. The only thing that comes close is some of Obama's rhetoric; I don't see any kind of a highlight in his actions and policies.
As far as disappointments, I wasn't terribly disappointed because I didn't expect that much. I expected him to be a traditional Democratic president. On foreign policy, that's hardly any different from a Republican--as nationalist, expansionist, imperial and warlike. So in that sense, there's no expectation and no disappointment. On domestic policy, traditionally Democratic presidents are more reformist, closer to the labor movement, more willing to pass legislation on behalf of ordinary people--and that's been true of Obama. But Democratic reforms have also been limited, cautious. Obama's no exception. On healthcare, for example, he starts out with a compromise, and when you start out with a compromise, you end with a compromise of a compromise, which is where we are now.
I thought that in the area of constitutional rights he would be better than he has been. That's the greatest disappointment, because Obama went to Harvard Law School and is presumably dedicated to constitutional rights. But he becomes president, and he's not making any significant step away from Bush policies. Sure, he keeps talking about closing Guantánamo, but he still treats the prisoners there as "suspected terrorists." They have not been tried and have not been found guilty. So when Obama proposes taking people out of Guantánamo and putting them into other prisons, he's not advancing the cause of constitutional rights very far. And then he's gone into court arguing for preventive detention, and he's continued the policy of sending suspects to countries where they very well may be tortured.
I think people are dazzled by Obama's rhetoric, and that people ought to begin to understand that Obama is going to be a mediocre president--which means, in our time, a dangerous president--unless there is some national movement to push him in a better direction. \\\

[gibran]

there is a strong voice against Zinn and his colleagues...the author of the quote is a protectionist of the right and a vanguard of Horowitz's attack on academics that break from the ranks of intelligencia that questions and criticized imperialism and doesn't cave to pressure from apologetics tied to agendas of the __________ fill in the blanks with neocon agendas and extremists views of foreign capitulation.

This is a time to celebrate the life of a great american, and not plaster articles of the folks that spent a career trying take him down, just google FrontPage Magaizneand look at Wik referencei..you will find a list of it's contribuers including the above reference's author....neocon central

[maxx]

“Dissent is the highest form of patriotism."
Howard Zinn

[Det_ard]

I dissent from the view that Howard Zinn was a great historian.

[gnome]

the quote "Dissent is the highest form of patriotism." has been attributed to several folk. Zinn's use of the phrase in 2002 is just one of several who have used the phrase.

http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/...of_patriotism/

[terryh]

Obama at One - Howard Zinn's last public commentary which appears in the Feb. 1, 2010 edition of The Nation:

From America the Awful---Howard Zinn's History, by Ron Radosh:

RIP Howard Zinn, you are now history.

Howard Zinn argued for the necessity of mass movements [[participation) to change public and foreign policy-joined the armed forces to fight facism and wasn't afraid to question military actions in World War 2........ I have to read more of his work, and assume at this point I probably wouldnt agree with him on Iraq and Afghanistan [[Ive switched back to the right on those battefronts) but he was obviously a great man and intellectual..

[barnesfoto]

I think people are dazzled by Obama's rhetoric, and that people ought to begin to understand that Obama is going to be a mediocre president--which means, in our time, a dangerous president--unless there is some national movement to push him in a better direction.

Well! A staunch leftist firebrand denounces the current president as mediocre?
Does this mean that all those comments about Obama being a "dangerous socialist" with a "far left agenda" currently being circulated by certain members of sick right wing cults are really hysterical nonsense? Just as the comments of right-wing nutjobs of 45 years ago about MLK being a "dangerous communist" were also nonsense?

Many of the movements that Zinn writes about were portrayed as dangerous and radical and "communist" at the time.

Zinn's critics forget that it was people portrayed as "dangerous radicals" by the ever hysterical American right that ended slavery, ended child labor, got women the right to vote, brought health and safety standards to the
meatpacking industry, gave us a 40 hour week and created the civil rights movement..just to name a few.

PS: Zinn's critics hold him high as a poster child for the idea that "left wing academics" dominate our nation's universities...
What do the critics of "Left-Wing Academics" have to say about the current employment of the intellectual architects of the Iraq War Fiasco as tenured academics in many of our nation's finest universities? Is this not a case of rewarding failure? [[see also:Failure, The ten worst ideas cooked up by academics, Neocons, Bill Kristol, Francis Fukuyama Robert Kagan, John Yoo)

[gibran]

ouch..those radical liberals...what next..a declaration of human rights?

[East Detroit]

ouch..those radical liberals...what next..a declaration of human rights?

As long as corporations are treated as humans. They have feeling$ too.

[maxx]

As Zinn wrote in his autobiography, "You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train" [[1994), "From the start, my teaching was infused with my own history. I would try to be fair to other points of view, but I wanted more than 'objectivity'; I wanted students to leave my classes not just better informed, but more prepared to relinquish the safety of silence, more prepared to speak up, to act against injustice wherever they saw it."

[gibran]

remember the term "corporate responsibility" or was that as quaint as "human rights legislation"....

[terryh]

Well! A staunch leftist firebrand denounces the current president as mediocre?
Does this mean that all those comments about Obama being a "dangerous socialist" with a "far left agenda" currently being circulated by certain members of sick right wing cults are really hysterical nonsense? Just as the comments of right-wing nutjobs of 45 years ago about MLK being a "dangerous communist" were also nonsense?

Many of the movements that Zinn writes about were portrayed as dangerous and radical and "communist" at the time.

Zinn's critics forget that it was people portrayed as "dangerous radicals" by the ever hysterical American right that ended slavery, ended child labor, got women the right to vote, brought health and safety standards to the
meatpacking industry, gave us a 40 hour week and created the civil rights movement..just to name a few.

PS: Zinn's critics hold him high as a poster child for the idea that "left wing academics" dominate our nation's universities...
What do the critics of "Left-Wing Academics" have to say about the current employment of the intellectual architects of the Iraq War Fiasco as tenured academics in many of our nation's finest universities? Is this not a case of rewarding failure? [[see also:Failure, The ten worst ideas cooked up by academics, Neocons, Bill Kristol, Francis Fukuyama Robert Kagan, John Yoo)

True Barnesfoto....the Democrats- I believe Im correct in writing, put too much emphasis on bi-parisanship.. this is one of many reasons third parties should be allowed to debate during elections...many great ideas and social movements started in third-altervative political parties..

[maxx]

http://www.progressive.org/wx012810.html
"Thank You, Howard Zinn, for being there during the civil rights movement, for teaching at Spelman, for walking the picket lines, and for inspiring such students as Alice Walker and Marian Wright Edelman..".

[oldredfordette]

Thank you Howard Zinn for helping me through a dark period of my life.