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RE: [xmca] Howard Zinn passed away



I was very saddened to learn this morning of the death of Howard Zinn. He
was my advisor in Political Science
when I was an undergradute student at Boston University in the early 1970s.
We marched together in student
demonstrations against the Vietnam War at BU, and against army recruiting
on campus. I had the good fortune
to be in several of his senior seminars, and to experience him as both a
teacher and as a political activist.

What has struck me most over the years about Howard was his staunch and
consistent attitude and philosophy.
He never took his eyes off the prize. He never wavered in his actions,
speech, or vision of a better world--no
matter what political currents may have been fashionable at the time. I
have never known a more constant and
committed activist and thinker than he. His warm and positive manner, and
his simple, practical advice were
infectious, and after getting to know him as an activist, I unreservedly
adopted him as a model to emulate.

It will be difficult to follow his example now that  he's gone.

In solidarity,
Peter

Peter Feigenbaum, Ph.D.
Associate Director of Institutional Research
Fordham University
Thebaud Hall-202
Bronx, NY 10458

Phone: (718) 817-2243
Fax: (718) 817-3203
e-mail: pfeigenbaum@fordham.edu


                                                                           
             "Worthen, Helena                                              
             Harlow"                                                       
             <hworthen@illinoi                                          To 
             s.edu>                    "'eXtended Mind, Culture,           
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                                                                   Subject 
                                       RE: [xmca] Howard Zinn passed away  
             01/28/2010 10:55                                              
             AM                                                            
                                                                           
                                                                           
             Please respond to                                             
              "eXtended Mind,                                              
                 Culture,                                                  
                 Activity"                                                 
             <xmca@weber.ucsd.                                             
                   edu>                                                    
                                                                           
                                                                           




Hello -

I do labor education, meaning basic education about workers rights, labor
history, organizing, politics and economics for working people, based in
Illinois. Here, $15 an hour with a union contract is a good job if it's
full time. $10 an hour with no union, no contract, no benefits is still a
job worth hanging on to because you're likely to be the only person in your
extended family who has a job at all and therefore the only person who is
functioning in the formal cash economy (as compared to the informal
economy). "Scared" is a word that everyone is using -- no one is ashamed of
admitting that they're scared.

When we go to labor events -- union meetings, conferences, classes -- we
bring boxes of books and lay them out on a book table for people to thumb
through and skim, and buy if they have any money. When someone comes up and
say, "Where should I start?" the answer is Howard Zinn's People's History.
This is a book that makes the light go on in people's eyes. The two kinds
of people for whom this book seems to have the most profound impact is
older workers who have put in a lifetime of work and are now, age 55 or so,
facing layoffs with no health insurance, too young to collect social
security or be on medicare; and young people who are discovering that there
are no decent jobs out there, period. They read this book and they
understand how it got to be this way.

Zinn is someone who did enough -- if you ask about someone's life, did they
do enough? He did enough.  The edited books, plays, films, etc etc  --
somehow or other, he got enough stuff out there so that it really has made
and will continue to make a difference, for years to come.

Helena


Helena Worthen
Clinical Associate Professor
Labor Education Program University of Illinois
504 East Armory, Champaign, IL 61820
217-244-4095
hworthen@illinois.edu
communicate/coordinate/cooperate/collaborate

-----Original Message-----
From: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu] On
Behalf Of ulvi icil
Sent: Thursday, January 28, 2010 5:35 AM
To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
Subject: [xmca] Howard Zinn passed away

May be some of us , not only but especially US citizens , can share with
us briefly their thoughts on (their reading on) Zinn.

Ulvi
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