Howard Zinn

An interesting article on Howard Zinn from the latest High Plains Reader (www.hpr1.com):
"The Zen of Zinn: A Legacy of Social Justice
Zinn, like Zen, always chose a path to personal enlightenment that emphasized direct experience rather than theoretical knowledge. As he said in his autobiographical book “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. This, of course, was a recipe for trouble.”

Dr. Howard Zinn’s chosen path in life certainly did cause him a lot of trouble, from getting him fired for insubordination for his protest work in 1963, to accusations of arson. But it was also what set Zinn apart. It was working as a professor at an all-black women’s college; it was protesting the Vietnam war; it was authoring books such as “Disobedience and Democracy” (1968), “Justice in Everyday Life” (1974), and “A People’s History of the United States” (1980). What set him apart was challenging the status quo, setting the ideas of democracy and freedom, as we know them, on their ears. Zinn asked us to meditate on history, the world, and our own neighborhoods. He asked us to consider facts about our nation’s history we were not used to, and demanded more from us as a nation of thinking people.

His latest contribution, focusing on a history of America not seen through the eyes of the victors, but seen through the eyes of activists, the downtrodden, the defeated, the dissenters of the time. This unique and unusual view made “The People Speak” one of the most innovative History Channel programs aired to date. With a lineup of actors of the likes of Matt Damon, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Viggo Mortensen, the program was a well-produced combination of entertainment and unsettling realities from the pages of our shared history.

As a historian, Zinn was fascinated by the turn of events of our time. Having dedicated a great deal of his life to opposing war, he was simultaneously disturbed by our continued occupation of Iraq and the war in Afghanistan, and captivated by the change in the political climate of our time. It must have been exhilarating for an activist like Zinn to see a community organizer as president of the “land of the free.”

Zinn may well be one of the most transformative figures of our time, and one of the greatest losses as well. At a time when the our country is still reeling from the twin tower attacks; steeped in two wars and beginning to show the promise of change in foreign policy with the historical election of Obama, the death of Howard Zinn is all the more poignant.

It’s as if a superhero of our time is gone. Do we exaggerate? Think about it. His legacy to us: that we should continue to improve our communities and root out injustice wherever it may be.

Sounds a lot like a superhero to us."