Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Howard Zinn, 1922-2010


January 27, 2010 07:12 PM



By Mark Feeney and Bryan Marquard, Globe Staff


Howard Zinn, the Boston University historian and political activist who was an early opponent of US involvement in Vietnam and whose books, such as "A People's History of the United States," inspired young and old to rethink the way textbooks present the American experience, died today in Santa Monica, Calif, where he was traveling. He was 87.



His daughter, Myla Kabat-Zinn of Lexington, said he suffered a heart attack.


"He's made an amazing contribution to American intellectual and moral culture," Noam Chomsky, the left-wing activist and MIT professor, said tonight. "He's changed the conscience of America in a highly constructive way. I really can't think of anyone I can compare him to in this respect."






Howard Zinn Howard Zinn.








ARCHIVE | 4/1/08




Chomsky added that Dr. Zinn's writings "simply changed perspective and understanding for a whole generation. He opened up approaches to history that were novel and highly significant. Both by his actions, and his writings for 50 years, he played a powerful role in helping and in many ways inspiring the Civil rights movement and the anti-war movement."




For Dr. Zinn, activism was a natural extension of the revisionist brand of history he taught. "A People’s History of the United States" (1980), his best-known book, had for its heroes not the Founding Fathers -- many of them slaveholders and deeply attached to the status quo, as Dr. Zinn was quick to point out -- but rather the farmers of Shays' Rebellion and union organizers of the 1930s.


As he 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. This, of course, was a recipe for trouble."


Certainly, it was a recipe for rancor between Dr. Zinn and John Silber, former president of Boston University. Dr. Zinn, a leading critic of Silber, twice helped lead faculty votes to oust the BU president, who in turn once accused Dr. Zinn of arson (a charge he quickly retracted) and cited him as a prime example of teachers "who poison the well of academe."


Dr. Zinn was a cochairman of the strike committee when BU professors walked out in 1979. After the strike was settled, he and four colleagues were charged with violating their contract when they refused to cross a picket line of striking secretaries. The charges against "the BU Five" were soon dropped.


In 1997, Dr. Zinn slipped into popular culture when his writing made a cameo appearance in the film "Good Will Hunting." The title character, played by Matt Damon, lauds "A People’s History" and urges Robin Williams’s character to read it. Damon, who co-wrote the script, was a neighbor of the Zinns growing up.


"Howard had a great mind and was one of the great voices in the American political life," Ben Affleck, also a family friend growing up and Damon's co-star in "Good Will Hunting," said in a statement. "He taught me how valuable -- how necessary -- dissent was to democracy and to America itself. He taught that history was made by the everyman, not the elites. I was lucky enough to know him personally and I will carry with me what I learned from him -- and try to impart it to my own children -- in his memory."


Damon was later involved in a television version of the book, "The People Speak," which ran on the History Channel in 2009, and he narrated a 2004 biographical documentary, "Howard Zinn: You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train."


"Howard had a genius for the shape of public morality and for articulating the great alternative vision of peace as more than a dream," said James Carroll a columnist for the Globe's opinion pages whose friendship with Dr. Zinn dates to when Carroll was a Catholic chaplain at BU. "But above all, he had a genius for the practical meaning of love. That is what drew legions of the young to him and what made the wide circle of his friends so constantly amazed and grateful."


Dr. Zinn was born in New York City on Aug. 24, 1922, the son of Jewish immigrants, Edward Zinn, a waiter, and Jennie (Rabinowitz) Zinn, a housewife. He attended New York public schools and was working in the Brooklyn Navy Yard when he met Roslyn Shechter.


"She was working as a secretary," Dr. Zinn said in an interview with the Globe nearly two years ago. "We were both working in the same neighborhood, but we didn't know each other. A mutual friend asked me to deliver something to her. She opened the door, I saw her, and that was it."


He joined the Army Air Corps, and they courted through the mail before marrying in October 1944 while he was on his first furlough. She died in 2008.


During World War II, he served as a bombardier, was awarded the Air Medal, and attained the rank of second lieutenant.


After the war, Dr. Zinn worked at a series of menial jobs until entering New York University on the GI Bill as a 27-year-old freshman. He worked nights in a warehouse loading trucks to support his studies. He received his bachelor’s degree from NYU, followed by master’s and doctoral degrees in history from Columbia University.


Dr. Zinn was an instructor at Upsala College and lecturer at Brooklyn College before joining the faculty of Spelman College in Atlanta, in 1956. He served at the historically black women’s institution as chairman of the history department. Among his students were novelist Alice Walker, who called him "the best teacher I ever had," and Marian Wright Edelman, future head of the Children's Defense Fund.


During this time, Dr. Zinn became active in the civil rights movement. He served on the executive committee of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the most aggressive civil rights organization of the time, and participated in numerous demonstrations.


Dr. Zinn became an associate professor of political science at BU in 1964 and was named full professor in 1966.


The focus of his activism became the Vietnam War. Dr. Zinn spoke at many rallies and teach-ins and drew national attention when he and the Rev. Daniel Berrigan, another leading antiwar activist, went to Hanoi in 1968 to receive three prisoners released by the North Vietnamese.


Dr. Zinn’s involvement in the antiwar movement led to his publishing two books: "Vietnam: The Logic of Withdrawal" (1967) and "Disobedience and Democracy" (1968). He had previously published "LaGuardia in Congress" (1959), which had won the American Historical Association's Albert J. Beveridge Prize; "SNCC: The New Abolitionists" (1964); "The Southern Mystique" (1964); and "New Deal Thought" (1966).


He also was the author of "The Politics of History" (1970); "Postwar America" (1973); "Justice in Everyday Life" (1974); and "Declarations of Independence" (1990).


In 1988, Dr. Zinn took early retirement to concentrate on speaking and writing. The latter activity included writing for the stage. Dr. Zinn had two plays produced: "Emma," about the anarchist leader Emma Goldman, and "Daughter of Venus."


On his last day at BU, Dr. Zinn ended class 30 minutes early so he could join a picket line and urged the 500 students attending his lecture to come along. A hundred did.


"Howard was an old and very close friend," Chomsky said. "He was a person of real courage and integrity, warmth and humor. He was just a remarkable person."


Carroll called Dr. Zinn "simply one of the greatest Americans of our time. He will not be replaced -- or soon forgotten. How we loved him back."


In addition to his daughter, Dr. Zinn leaves a son, Jeff of Wellfleet; three granddaughters; and two grandsons.


Funeral plans were not available.

37 comments:

  1. The political scene is such a cult of personality and circus show.

    All the clowns, mutant personalities, showmen (& women), strongmen, geeks, pikers and piss ants play their ridiculous game of charades.

    I could only stomach a few minutes of the sickening passion play. Watching the posturing of the players is quite insightful. Listening to teleprompter speachifying is grotesque. The deifying of wretched men and women, applauding them like automatons, and giving them any attention whatsoever serves to corrupt them -- absolutely!

    No question power corrupts. We all oughta pull the plug on this power. I did.

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  2. I posted this to get feedback from my coto family. I was a huge admirer of Zinn up to just a few years ago.

    His refusal to speak out against 9/11 and discuss it as a false flag which bit by bit has destroyed americans civil liberties told me everything I needed to know about himself and Chomsky who said it doesn't matter who perpetrated 9/11 . Then he and Chomsky both turned around and endorsed Obama, the wall street/war candidate, for president. How fraudulent of these supposedly anti establishment men.

    Yep, some insight these guys turned out to have. Or were they merely gatekeepers all along? I think the later.

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  3. http://www.opednews.com/articles/Howard-Zinn-s-last-advice-by-Rabbi-Arthur-Wasko-100128-289.html

    What was Zinn getting ready to unleash? Sudden Heart attack, I think not.

    Maybe they were in fear. It's hard to excuse cowardice, but we should remember the message was still correct.





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  4. Excellent Puddy...makes us think.

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  5. I knew something was up about you posting this. You're just a natural born shit-stirrer.

    You know you're not supposed to talk bad about the dead. But I always thought that was a stupid unwritten rule. If they were bastards living, they don't turn into saints when they die. They're just dead bastards.

    And yes, 9/11 is the dividing line. I don't particularly relish absolutes, but when it comes to 9/11 its as close as I'll ever get to having one. 9/11 is, and will be the catalyst, you hide from that, there's really note much else I have to say to you. You could be a Mother Theressa equivalent, and you balk at 9/11, to me, you aint shit.

    So to hell with Zinn. He may have opened some eyes over the years to alternative ways of perceiving things, but like you, when he cowered and caved on 9/11 he joined the ranks of the those I perceive as my enemies.

    So what do we do here? Go to all the so-called progressive sites and piss in their Zinn tribute punchbowl?

    It's something for all good shit-stirrers to ponder.

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  6. Yep M, the 9/11 cover-up and remaining in the State of Denial is The Pivotal Event of our lives, the nation, and our futures.

    The broad daylight Bail-Out Heist and continuing denials by the likes of Obama, Paulson, Bernanke, Geithner, Goldman Sachs, Dodd, et.al. of any responsibility, complicity and knowledge is #2 on my list.

    The obfuscation and lies are as bold-faced as Bush and Cheney's rationalizations for War. Chock Iraq & Afghanistan up somewhere prominent on the list.

    Haiti may be found to be a sickening genocide in itself. It has all the ear-markings of New Orleans and environs, with bungling and MIA of local authorities coupled with U.S. standing down at the onset.

    BIG money is involved somewhere in this mix, and the rapid flybys of Bush, Clintons, and other foul vultures involved in the previously listed atrocities illicit a suspect stench. Seems when mass death is involved / and the prospect to make money with MICorpses, these fowls start circling and landing.

    Screw the lies that drip from their mouths. Their actions and how they benefit from the catastrophes tell the truth of the matter.

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  7. About the only advantage I see in the other crimes you've mentioned is that people tend to understand robbery easier than than can swallow mass murder by government of its own citizens.

    And again, I've said this before, its the sheer audacity and magnitude of 9/11 that works to keep it unbelievable to those that refuse to cross that cavern.

    But, boy, once you do, everything, and I mean everything looks different and one can never go back.

    I managed to get on C-SPAN today as the last caller and bring-up 9/11 once more. I asked that the commentator not be so easy to quell discussion of 9/11 and that they do some of their own independent investigation on the subject.

    All we can do is keep on keeping on.

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  8. How refreshing it is to be among honest folk who dare voice honest opinions. Revives hope in humanity.

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  9. I still don't buy Zinn. As far as I'm concerned he near totally negates anything he's done in the past by not taking on 9/11 for what it is, rather than spewing the official story of "they attacked us for our expansionism", just and edger version of they attacked us for our freedoms.

    When you have the voice that Zinn had and waste it covering up what is arguably the biggest crime yet, just what good are you? Certainly you're not doing the truth any favors.

    Trust is a very fragile thing. Once broken, it is near impossible to gain it back. Zinn broke that trust with his stance on 9/11, and traitors to me are more vile than those that are my obvious enemies.

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  10. We can never go back to "not knowing" once we know.

    We forever after watch the emperors of anarchy dance naked in all their repulsiveness.

    Their lies continue to pile up into the chem-trailed skies, like feedlot cows standing on their shit mounds, ascending higher and higher amongst their peers...yet, the same fate awaits them all.

    This is a Warning to The People!!!

    Listen, Learn, Organize, Prevent History Repeating

    Austria: 1938

    An account of the inexorable steps to disaster. Do you recognize any similarities to the present in America? NOW is the time to change the odds, to stop the madness.

    Please read:

    http://www.fourwinds10.com/siterun_data/history/european/news.php?q=1264700143

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  11. Should COTO folks like to read a "hold no punches" non-spin financial report (newsletter reports are free weekly) by noted expert Bob Chapman, here's the link. (This is a good one):

    http://theinternationalforecaster.com/International_Forecaster_Weekly/A_New_Approach_To_Regulating_Wall_Street_Could_Be_More_Than_Wishful_Thinking

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  12. Old age is also a bit to blame? After fighting the good fight for years and years, one may be tempted to an irrational hope, or afraid to see the immortal monster lurking behind the curtain while mortal men decay.

    We need -if not heroes- at least people we can admire for their insights and stand-up-ability. We shouldn't require them to be perfect, or infallible. None of us are.

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  13. As you say Mr M, "its the sheer audacity and magnitude of 9/11 that works to keep it unbelievable to those that refuse to cross that cavern."

    People so long for predictability and so fear change that they forge their own chains. 911 is just one of a long line of cover stories people have stretched their gullets to swallow. Our whole culture seems to be a mass version of the Stockholm syndrome.

    But I'm used to it. Forty+ years ago I realized that the worldview I'd been handed was a well-intentioned (?) crock, had a mini meltdown, then never looked back. Maybe it's easier on the young? Literature shows us there have always been a few who could see through the veil and left the porch light on for those who came after.

    Keep on keeping on! well said

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  14. I agree with most of what you say except that "hope for humanity" crap ... you can close that lid

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  15. Things are pretty dire when Volcker is considered a saluatory influence :) and of course they are, and he would be.

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  16. Like many in my generation, I thought Zinn was the end all and be all when it came to exposing the American empire and standing up for the common man. I adored the man.

    AND because he was such an activist all these years and always railed against the machine, I found it stunning that he didn't take up the 9/11 truth banner and run with it. Then instead of endorsing a third party candidate and exposing the political parties as one and the same, he endorses voting for the corporate candidate Obama.

    The man was sharp as a tack until the end. I don't think we can blame his lapse of reason on dementia or a mellowing out due to old age.

    Yes, he did wonderous things for the anti war movement and worker's rights and we will be forever grateful for that. However, when it came down to the most serious offense against the people of the U.S. by this government in his lifetime, he refused to speak out about it as if it had no bearing on the civil liberty trouncing events that have so blantaly unfolded since.

    To say that's disheartening and extremely disappointing is an understatement.

    All the same, may he rest in peace.

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  17. "So what do we do here? Go to all the so-called progressive sites and piss in their Zinn tribute punchbowl"

    Nah, waste of our time M. If they don't see a problem with Zinn and Chomsky's anti establishment credibility over 9/11 and Obama, then they don't wanna hear it..

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  18. Deb wrote: "I don’t think we can blame his lapse of reason on dementia or a mellowing out due to old age."

    I'm not suggesting either. What does happen sometimes is not mellowing, or old-timers- it's a loss of courage that comes with a loss of vigor. And it creeps up on people. I've known fierce people who were also old, but not too many.

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  19. If that's true laudy, that's very sad that he should end his life on that note.

    My ex mo in law is 92 and still rants about the crooked politicians..lol

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  20. Btw, JD Salinger died today at 91.

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  21. saw that- guess he stayed tough to the end. At least he stayed private!

    BTW they say old age is the biggest challenge in life.

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  22. Alrighty then fellow COTO (Citizens Of The Oppressed) folks:

    Bernanke Confirmed by Senate for Second Term at Fed With a 70-30 Vote. wtf

    Oh sorry. that last bit was just a little too much small print to express myself properly...

    WHAT THE FUCK!!!

    http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aFJH6lFpTFYs&pos=8

    Read down through the update and find some of the choice bits by accomplices like Obama.

    Need I repeat the maxim, "If these are our 'public servants' (friends), who needs enemies?"

    I called my senator and sent him an email saying "don't confirm". I feel so much better about myself. I'm doing my part to be an even bigger wanker -- Yakety Yak Goldman Sacks.

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  23. M.....Zinn's publically disregarding 9/11 could be many things. As you and many of us have accorded it fulcrum status, rightly so and understood, others who share it's significance may feel it is damn near impossible to 'share' with the many. I don't need to tell you how many folks 'don't get it', even that they 'don't get it'. You report here and we see daily how the many simply do not respond in any other way than how they've been conditioned to. Or not to.
    I talk to some folks that wonder what all the fuss is about the scanners, habeas,..hell, I was spit shocked today that one of my so-called hooked up realist buddies opened up our coffee siping with "Who's Zinn?
    By the calender I'm almost 60 M, and as laudyms talked about the challenge of old age (which I have yet to mentally enter) I must remind myself that the real challenge is to relax. Zinn perhaps had a bit of that later on. Remember, to him, 9/11 didn't compare to 'war' itself, the travesty of all human travesties. But as with all the other stuff we know and are skepticallly healthy enough to keep looking at, I think you'd agree that however imperfect Zinn was about 9/11, you can at least give him a nod for his voice.
    To me JFK, Bobby and MLK. That is my 9/11. Six years from which I have never recovered. Actually, after I spent the next 30 years being pissed at those who 'didn't get it', I finally let go and relaxed. Okay I said.
    Whoever the fuck you are, I don't want any.
    Don't let it eat you up M. Chew on it maybe, but spit it out.
    Humanity,...the good kind exists.

    peace

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  24. Good, I'm glad he was confirmed. The more these pricks act like the criminals they are the faster we'll get to the real business of tearing this system down.

    This is just more in-your-face activity from the elitists. Let them keep thinking they're untouchable. There's going to be a catalyst sooner than later, and it can only happen with them forcing the issue.

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  25. I don't disagree with you that he had his moment and effect, but with great responsibility, you carry a bigger burden.

    Zinn wasn't a longshoreman, he was a man of influence that supposedly built his reputation on seeking truth. Truth, was his trademark. Shedding light into dark, and viewing naked truth, warts and all.

    So for him to abandon that mission, at a time of it's most importance, for purposes beyond my understanding, leaves a bitter taste. For whatever the reason could have been, they weren't good enough.

    I don't care about the people that will never "get it", its those that can that need to be reached, and Zinn could have gone a long way to reaching them, and instead he aided the cover-up. He kept a vast portion of people that know who he is, and are influenced by him the excuse to allow the lie to continue, that might otherwise would have "gotten it". And now that they've been so invested for the past 8 years in the lie, it will be all the harder to reach them.

    So, I'll stay anger.

    But thank you very much for caring about my mental and physical health.

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  26. So many excellent post on this thread. Bravo JG

    Zinn spoke truth to power, but came up a tad bit short on 9/11, as does Chomsky. Courage? Both brilliant men though. Zinn R I P

    I stopped listening to both and must admit, Chomsky was on to something when he stated it doesn’t matter who perpetrated 9/11. It's been the same with JFK, most people know there were more than one gunman. So what's been done about it? Yeah! Not an F'n thing. Nadda! The same with 9/11. "Nothing!"

    Meanwhile over 80% of proles approve of Obama's speech. What does that tell you? The other twenty percent are COTO?

    We're living Orwell's 84' The reality is being molded to fit the NWO's pernicious policy. The sheep are clueless, waving their flags and supporting the troops, while being dumbed down by these feckless inane reality shows. That's if they're not too busy texting.

    Remember the mantra, "either you are with us or you are with the terrorists." Some though are starting to awaken from their slumber, and when enough do and take to the streets in protest, guess what? They'll be exterminated like F'n bugs.

    The po-lice are already preparing for civil unrest. One of my neighbor's who is in special training, as are hundreds of other police all across Amerika. They'll take on the civil unrest and as my neighbor put it "it'll be open season on "zombies."

    I do believe in Solar Flares, I do, I do, I do, believe in Solar Flares. It'll help clean the wretched filth that has accumulated on this tiny speck in the Cosmos which we dwell.

    And in March yet another batch of ARM's are set to readjust. Millions more into the streets, into their cardboard boxes and tent cities. Brought to you by . . . and by the makers of . . .

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbJQT2eDseA

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  27. I get your call M. And I like you all the more for it.
    thanx for caring about mine.
    peace

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  28. What am I still doing up? ...can't sleep.

    Full Moon covered in Chem-Trails tonight (2 planes every 5 minutes earlier in late afternoon and evening. Really bugs the shit out of me when I see another (non-white) jet flying parallel to the shit spewer at the same altitude. Don't these fuckers ever question their "missions"?)

    So I bring you a late night nugget of inspiration from one of my favorite writers -- Joe Bageant. Enjoy!

    "Cars fed on corn, people fed on horseshit"

    http://www.joebageant.com/joe/2010/01/the-tea-party.html

    There's more at www.joebageant.com

    Periodically, I get a "jones" for Joe's particularly spectacular southern-flavored insights. Usually pretty tasty.

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  29. What are Chemtrails? Lol!

    Aluminum and barium in the air, doo da, doo da, most people, they don't even care, oh da doo da day

    Simulated volcanoes and man-made 'sun blocks' can rescue the planet?

    Simulating a volcanic eruption by putting man-made aerosol particles into the atmosphere to reflect the Sun's heat? WOW! How neat!

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/simulated-volcanoes-and-manmade-sun-blocks-can-rescue-the-planet-1881336.html

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  30. Soon as I posted it, I thought that folks might object. But note I did say 'hope' rather than 'faith'.

    That's the problem with being a gullible innocent burdened from birth with cartloads of optimism, I suppose, wandering about all day talking to trees with idiotic blue gaze above lax daisy in pudgy hand, sighing resignedly that we can't all be sharp.

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  31. Never apologize for your temperment- it's not reasoned, it's genetic. (and you're probably lucky) We all take heart from knowing there are like-minded folks out there too.

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  32. I'm anxious to know if Kitty was speaking out the same way against Bush.

    Once again, ignorant americans show what slaves they are to the elites game of divide and conquer. Right vs Left. Left vs Right.

    What the repugnant reps and disgusting dems don't get is that we are all in this together and they need to stop arguing amongst themselves and unite against the real enemy and it has nothing to do with which political party you belong to.

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  33. De long tail chemtrail and de big black boss, Doo-dah! doo-dah!
    Dey fly de track and dey both cut across, Oh, da doo-dah-day!

    HAAARP to run all night!
    GWEN to run all day!
    I'll bet my money on de NWO,
    Most will bet on Obamay.

    De blind sheep sticken in a big mud hole, Doo-dah! doo-dah!
    Can't touch bottom wid a ten foot pole, Oh, da doo-dah-day!

    DEFENSE to run all night!
    FIAT PRINTING to run all day!
    I'll bet my money on de NWO,
    Most will bet on US of A.


    ~~~~ This is fun Munich ~~~~

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  34. "To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic, it is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness -- and if we do act, in however small a way, we don't have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now, as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself, a marvelous victory." - Howard Zinn

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  35. All Right Laudyms! NOW...You post something from your heart brother...search your soul for the words and the insight. We're here. We "need" solar flares of prescience. Cut to the quick, for the quick survive the slow.

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  36. lol..that's pretty good Patrick.

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  37. Sister, Boom.

    Laudy, too many throw the baby out with the bathwater regarding Zinn.

    I hated 911 and Katrina, but the grand scale of things the COMMITTEE has perpetrated much larger, much more agregious and sadistic acts against the children of color historically.

    As you said and I said fear or lack of courage can creep in later in life. You said it well. To think that Zinn, deep in his heart did not know the situation is unlikely to me. But nonetheless, he may have been coming to a turning point or epiphany at his untimely and unlikely natural death.

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