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,
Sent by: Activity'" <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
xmca-
bounces@webe cc
r.ucsd.edu
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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