The man who taught us that history is the story of the people.  RIP  :\'( :\'( :\'(

The man who taught us that history is the story of the people.   RIP  :\'( :\'( :\'(

I just read about his death on a teenager's facebook site, which shows what an impact he had on people. :\'(

OH NO!!!!!


Here is Carlos with Howard a few years ago.


http://i706.photobucket.com/albums/ww64/CatwomanofV/Zinn/Zinn004.jpg


http://i706.photobucket.com/albums/ww64/CatwomanofV/Zinn/Zinn006.jpg



Cat

Carlos was downstairs. He just came up and when he came into the room, I said, "Some sad news" and he said, "Howard Zinn died." He was coming up to tell me and I was about to go downstairs to tell him.



Cat

Wicked cool he got to meet him.  I have a friend who was close to him.  The just did a "The People Speak" on History Channel, but I don't have cable. I am waiting for it to come out on DVD

The Peoples' History defines what history is and how it should be taught in the first chapter.  I often assigned it to my classes and it was always popular.  What a loss

The Peoples' History defines what history is and how it should be taught in the first chapter.  I often assigned it to my classes and it was always popular.  What a loss


"People's History" is the best American  history textbook I ever read.

I saw Dr. Zinn speak a few times.  I saw him at UMass after 9/11, it must have been 9/14 or so, because the estimated death toll was still at 6000.  Dr. Zinn was gave a rational treatment of the subject that had many in the audience afraid for their own lives.  He managed to comfort us without sugarcoating the speech with feel-good rhetoric.

I met Dr. Zinn once in 1990s, but only long enough to meet him, and shake his hand.  He was like a rock star around these parts.  He could fill the biggest auditorium at UMass no problem (except the Mullins Center, which is for sports). 

What impressed me most about Howard Zinn was he didn't let the bastards drive him into bitterness and cynicism.  Zinn saw so much of the hopes and dreams of the 20th century dashed.  He saw the national security state take control right after WWII.  He saw the military-industrial complex rev into action.  He saw JFK, Malcolm X, Dr. King, and RFK get assassinated.  He saw all the evildoings of the corrupt U.S. government in the past four decades from Watergate to Blackwater. 

At the post 9/11 speech, an audience member pointed out the way the bad guys seemed to win every time, and didn't he think it was hopeless?

Zinn smiled with that Buddha-like serenity he always bore, and said "Not at all; it's all the more reason to keep trying, and trying harder for justice.  It is true, we may never achieve the social justice we want, but if we give up, we can be certain of never achieving it.  As long as you try, and I try, and everybody in this room tries, there is hope.  There are few things in life more important than hope." (I'm paraphrasing here).  Zinn did not lose that Buddha serenity even when he spoke of his job in WWII as a bombardier and how he knew he caused people he never saw to burn to death in terror.  Zinn did not portray himself as a saint.

Zinn was a brilliant mind and a beautiful human being.  I knew he was an old man and he would soon leave this life to rejoin the Great Spirit.  Still, I have had one of the hardest weeks in several months.  I feel frightened about meeting the bare essentials for my own survival and terrified that the victorious fascist state is now upon us.  It was a kick in the head to hear Zinn died.  But I find some solace in remembering his words.  I thought of driving 20 miles north of hear to a high bridge and jumping sixty feet into the frigid river.  I was feeling that depressed, ashamed, and hopeless.  I remembered, Zinn's gentleness and his encouragement to keep up hope even for hope's sake and I found some solace--and even inspiration--there.

Thank you, Howard, for the gifts of knowledge and wisdom you gave us in your 89 years.  Maybe sometime I will see you in the afterlife.

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Howard wrote several other books, the latest a cartoon book that is partly autobiography and partly history.  It's very good.  But I think his best book is rather less known than Peoples History, it's call Declarations of Independence, and is a really good read.  And we still have Pete - who knows for how long.