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Howard Zinn’s Mirror
Nine years ago, when a group of 9/11 family members including me began speaking out against our nation's militaristic response to the September 11th attacks, it was a very different time. It was a fearful time, not just because we lost family at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and on Flight 93, but also because America had become a fearful place. One of the people who made that time considerably less scary was Howard Zinn.
I had little idea who Zinn was until November, 2001, when a friend suggested I attend a speech he was giving at Elon University in North Carolina. After securing the assignment with a local newspaper, I schooled myself in Zinn's writings, did the requisite phone interview and attended his speech, which was entitled, "Bringing Democracy Alive." I was a receptive audience for his message, and had my first experience of historian as rock star. The auditorium was packed, the mood was electric and lively, and Zinn adroitly responded to questions of all kinds, including one he must have heard a thousand times: "Why do you still live in the United States, if you criticize the things the United States has done?"
"I'm not criticizing the United States," Zinn replied. "I'm criticizing the government of the United States. Patriotism means that you support the principles of the government. To criticize the government is the most American thing you can do."
Those were important words to me, and came at a crucial time. Only two weeks later, I joined other 9/11 family members in "a walk for healing and peace" from the Pentagon to the site of the World Trade Center where my brother had died on 9/11. The anti-war walk was organized by Kathy Kelly, then of Voices in the Wilderness, and with the family members I met there we would go on to create an organization called September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows.
After Zinn's speech at Elon, I handed him an envelope with some of the writing I had published since 9/11--an op-ed in Philadelphia, a first-person article in Durham, an anti-war quote I had made to the local newspaper running my brother's obituary. I was searching for some direction, some validation for my feelings. A poll taken in the days immediately after 9/11 showed that nearly half of Americans had misgivings about the bombing of Afghanistan if it would result in significant civilian casualties. I shared those sentiments, but as I watched the CNN graphics heralding "America's New War" and the bombing began, it became clear that I was going to part ways with the actions of my government. This was new territory for me, but Zinn's words proved to be a much-needed guiding light.
In subsequent months and years, as members of our group spoke out against the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and shared our desire to spare other innocent families the losses we had incurred that terrible day, Zinn took notice of what we were doing. He quoted some of us in his book, Terrorism and War, mentioned our work in his column in The Progressive, and even enshrined the words of 9/11 family members Phyllis and Orlando Rodriguez and Rita Lasar in Voices of A People's History of the United States.
By acknowledging what we were doing, and putting it into the larger context of people's movements throughout American history, Zinn gave me the personal validation and direction that I had been looking for back at Elon. He made me realize that what we were doing was not un-American or unpatriotic, and for that matter was not even unique or new. Instead, we were participating in the highest calling of American citizens: To claim our authentic voice. To speak truth to power. To remember that the government is our invention, rather than the other way around.
It was a powerful realization, and one that I carry with me after Zinn's death last week.
Pete Fornatale wrote a book about Woodstock's 40th anniversary last year, and in it he quotes a guru at the time musing about the flower children who were swarming to the festival: "They are all searching for the necklace that's around their necks. Eventually they'll look in the mirror and see it."
It's easy to feel helpless about the feckless Obama, the reckless Supreme Court, and the ruthless corporate politics of our day, but Zinn continues to hold up a mirror to the power that we already possess to make change: the potency of our words, the strength of our convictions, and the long history of activism and resistance that is our birthright. The necklace is already around our necks, and it has always been. Perhaps the greatest thanks we can give to Howard Zinn is to see it--and to act.
25 Comments so far
Show All"Perhaps the greatest thanks we can give to Howard Zinn is to see it--and to act." -- David Potorti
Thank you for writing this article, which contains a very important message, a reminder -- about finding our voices, and stepping up to challenge our government -- which, in truth, does belong to us, "we the people."
"It's easy to feel helpless about the feckless Obama, the reckless Supreme Court, and the ruthless corporate politics of our day, but Zinn continues to hold up a mirror to the power that we already possess to make change: the potency of our words, the strength of our convictions, and the long history of activism and resistance that is our birthright." -- David Potorti
"Agitate! Agitate! Agitate!" -- Howard Zinn
"Agitate! Agitate! Agitate!" -- Howard Zinn
Reminds me of the old quote, "Pray, but move your feet."
We read these reminders from the best folks we know, but what do we do to live up to these words, these mirrors? How do we agitate and move our feet? Do we wait for others, for the collective, to rise up, or do we start the riot ourselves?
I'm pretty sure I know what Howard Zinn would have said.
Agitation isn't always needed to make the change but sometimes it can be a greater helper when everything else fails. Sometimes it is necessary to nudge people to move if they want something but can't it easy.
A fantastic article of compassion and empathy from someone who should show none for the 9/11 bombings.
Kind of makes you think. If a family member of one who was killed in 9/11 shows this level of understanding, what right did the rest of the United States, who were affected in no way, have to send any military attack against Bin Laden anywhere?
Answer - none, the correct response to the 9/11 attack was a limited United Nations police action to find Bin Laden, not the Iraq War, Afghanistan War, Pakistani drone bombings, or Yemeni anti-terrorist trainings.
Thank you Mr. Portorti for an inside look from someone who was affected much more greatly than virtually the rest of the US.
"Answer - none, the correct response to the 9/11 attack was a limited United Nations police action to find Bin Laden, not the Iraq War, Afghanistan War, Pakistani drone bombings, or Yemeni anti-terrorist trainings." -- Mookie
I agree with your answer!
Kay, people like, Zinn, Mookie, so many others are MY reminders why I have come to LOVE americans...inspite of so much that can be criticised.
the older i grow - the more i have become a "hugger" -- and if I ever met people i knew like you are and others here...i would BEG to be allowed to hug people like you!!!
hehe.
Mookie, you are absolutely, profoundly correct in your own "answer" to your question:
NONE. NO RIGHT whatsoever.
the american knee-jerk reaction - to 9/11 and later under its influence or the influence of the "fearful" mentality - whether because that mentality was incited BY the attack or played UPON and ENCOURAGED by the institutions (media, pundits, political reality, government, culture, etc.) -- was, imo, ITSELF an expression of a LATENT american social LUST for BLOOD...no different really from that which moved criminals to kill people...such as with 9/11.
in its own way - american general public reaction to be "vengeful" -- while ignoring or being ignorant of what REALLY led to 9/11 -- which is clearly american EMPIRE - was as bloodthirsty and as callous as the perpetration of 9/11 upon america.
it is like a "national" level of a version of the Roman "gladiatorial" combats - to satisfy the bloodlust , masked as "revenge" or more "nobly" as "war against terror" -
in which the AUDIENCE - the american public - participates from the safety of the "homeland" while PRETENDING that it is REALLY in danger from "terrorists"...lurking in every corner and about to destroy every town and home in america....
even if that is far from reality...and so , using the excuse of "they attacked us for our freedom and way of life".....
agreed to a WAR STATE condition....which, imo, is the state that HAS been LURKING in the american consciousness all along, just waiting to be tapped through FEAR - once it is ignited by an ATTACK such as with 9/11.
in a way - this is how psychotic american mentality has become....albeit with exceptions such as those exemplified by thinking people and conscientuous ones like ZINN and these families who lost loved ones but RESISTED the BLOOD LUST response.
the rest of america that participated in this support for the blood lust justified as "war on terror" - really , without personally having been in danger or even EVER will be , except from their OWN fascistic governance and economic structure of corporatism , simply INTERNALIZED and PERSONALIZED the suffering of those who actually lost loved ones -- and then pretended to themselves that "WE" were attacked - simply as a matter of out-of-control nationalism "our freedom, OUR way of life"...
and turned their horror at the tragedy into a justification of turning ON their OWN bloodlust that was lurking beneath the surface.
how is this evident?
just look at the society itself and its entertainments:
FOOTBALL - a VERY , VERY brutal , bloody, maiming game of overgrown children...
as simply one example...
great interest in the airing of laundry publicly, humiliating people, "catching and punishing" , the cruelty of the prison system, the need to PUNISH, and of course the national character of having a love affair with GUNS, with Ammunition, with Bombs, with explosions, with "victory", with "shooting"
9/11 -- more than being a tragedy for those killed and their loved ones was really - to many americans - a thinly veiled EXCUSE to allow themselves to have a "higher" form of "entertainment" which they would NOT admit to be "entertainment" ---but is really one - such as SEEING and WATCHING IRAQ destroyed in a "Shock and awe" ...to show american POWER...and "beat the bad guys"....
as another extension of american VIOLENCE and Vicious WAR making games.
so -- you ARE right - the rest of america really did NOT have any right.
Finally, some Efficacious MIRRORSPEAK! HEAR!! HEAR!!!
This tribute to Howard Zinn is well deserved and he was an inspiration to all.
AD
There's more of us than there are of them. It's a matter of people realizing that and doing something about it.
Referring to:
"It's easy to feel helpless about the feckless Obama, the reckless Supreme Court, and the ruthless corporate politics of our day, but Zinn continues to hold up a mirror to the power that we already possess to make change: the potency of our words, the strength of our convictions, and the long history of activism and resistance that is our birthright. The necklace is already around our necks, and it has always been. Perhaps the greatest thanks we can give to Howard Zinn is to see it--and to act. "
A variation on the necklace story...
A man was walking by a pond and saw a beautiful jeweled necklace in the water, so he dove in to get it, but as soon as he dove in, it disappeared. he tried this a number of times, and the result was always the same. Finally he looked up, and saw that the necklace was hanging from a tree branch, and so he got it after all.
A beautiful lesson for all of us, and along with the necklace in the persons of Howard Zinn, Kathy Kelly, article author David Potorti and September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows.
Since 1968 I have worn a medallion with the inscription "War Is Not Healthy for Children and Other Living Things," sold as a fund-raiser by a group called "Another Mother for Peace," Beverly Hills, California.
When I just read that again, I thought of Cindy Sheehan who was an e-mail buddy for about 9 months after her son Casey was killed, and then "the Spirit" moved her as I knew it would and heard it coming in her words. She is part of history now and still an active part.
My medallion is weather-worn and finger-worn now as I fidget with it at times of stress or rub it like a "worry stone." It's been cross-country, L.A. to D.C., with The Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament in 1986; it's been to jail; and somewhere in Golden, Colorado, is a woman, middle-aged by now, who ran after me after a stay at her and her partner's cabin home for dinner and a little rest. She put in my hand a Tibetan temple bell. It has been attached to the medallion chain ever since.
After Vietnam, after Reagan and Gorbachev shook hands over agreement on a non-proliferation treaty, there was a little breathing time, but not much.
And here we are now in what I consider the most dangerous and precarious moment for all of the human species. It is more insane, more vicious, more callous, more stupid than at any time I can remember.
War is still not healthy for children and other living things, but there seems to be such mindlessness in killing anything and everything that gets in the way of power and profits and potential profits, and trumped up enemies seem to be lurking under every rock and pebble to justify a new attack, a new war, a new occupation. And children, it seems, have become a dime a dozen as they are counted among the corpses from the latest drone bombings or F-16 White Phosphorous bombings.
The fervor that drove us all to action in such major numbers in the '60's and the 70's and mid-'80's seems to be a hoarse whisper of what it was. But that may simply be that the radio and television news and the news services are so controlled that even a Two-Million-Person March would only get a nano-second of coverage if that were possible at all.
However, Howard Zinn was/is right. "Agitate. Agitate. Agitate." "Organize. Organize. Organize." And there are many, many ways to do that -- the idea of Gandhi's Non-violent Uncooperation ... is loaded with possibilities, for example. See some old Charlie Chaplin silent films for pointers. ; - ))) I believe a time is coming when a lot more of us are going to be wide awake and moved to action.
And somewhere Howard Zinn will be cheering us on.
peace, cm
Beautiful post.
I second that!
In his lifetime Howard Zinn wrote hundreds of thousands of inspiring words, expressing the best of human ideals and most of all rephrasing and championing the Golden Rule. Many of Dr. Zinn's essays have become famous. You can't be neutral on a moving train.
I want to remind readers of his book for draft age males about the Vietnam War, and not simply advising but nearly begging my generation not to take part. He persuaded me, bless his heart. In that small antiwar book is a long forgotten piece of ROTFL hilarity. Howard Zinn adopted the point of view of one of Lyndon Johnson's grade school teachers in Texas. She writes a letter to Lyndon (President Johnson) and admonishes him for his foolishness and badness. When I first read the piece I laughed till I cried.
Depending upon your beliefs, Howard Zinn is undergoing a terrible reunion. It is with those persons whose lives he took =in the service of his country= as a B-29 bombardier in World War Two. He will be asking them: "Did I do enough to undo what I did?" Pray for him.
It's great -- and sad too -- that it took Zinn's death to bring out so many passionate reminisces as we've seen on CD the last week. Just as it is tragic for the world that the Fawning Corporate Media not only ignored for the most part (unless stuck in a back section) his death as they did his life and what Howard stood for.
But let us not forget. I'm rereading People's History at:
http://www.historyisaweapon.com/zinnapeopleshistory.html
And as many Zinn articles as I can find.
Zinn lives on!
(and check out http://www.howardzinn.org/ )
Gary
"Around 1776, certain important people in the English colonies made a discovery that would prove enormously useful for the next two hundred years. They found that by creating a nation, a symbol, a legal unity called the United States, they could take over land, profits, and political power from favorites of the British Empire. In the process, they could hold back a number of potential rebellions and create a consensus of popular support for the rule of a new, privileged leadership. "
-- Howard Zinn, "Tyranny is Tyranny," A People's History of the United States, revised edition
This is a Beautifully written expression of the highest values - by the author David Potorti.
Despite his great loss in 9/11 -- he has held true to his humanity ....before and after meeting Zinn....and if nothing else...that is greatest consolation upon the loss of his relative.
HOWARD ZINN - the great man and leader and historian is gone...but his spirit and the spirit of TRUE liberty and humanity lives ON in americans and people LIKE DAVID POTORTI.
it's David Potorti, as well as Howard Zinn and many others that always reminds me of that story in the old testament of the Bible...it has instructiveness in it:
the story of Sodom and Gomorrah..where the Angel of Death supposedly was sent by god to destroy the "sinful" cities...
and a man implored the angel not to do it. the angel said:
"find me ten good people...and i shall spare the cities"......
the man still could not find any,...even after the angel allowed:
"find me even ONE good person..and i shall spare the city".......
if for nothing else, if americans have allowed themselves to be so corrupted by their own fears and self-idolatry....if for the sake of a "few good people" like Zinn and Potorta....
if there were a GOD that were to send angels to destroy "america"...america could be spared for the sake of these "good people".
Speaking truth to power, being forgiving of trespasses and wishing to find solutions other then violence, wanting to make a better world where all can live in peace and be secured from violence and poverty and wanting our respective Governments to respect and advance these ideals is NOT an American trait. It is not a Canadian trait. It is not a Chinese trait. It is not an Afghani trait. It is not unique to one people.
It is something peoples the world over strive for and have strived for since the dawn of time.
It is something humans should all strive for.
There are certainly those who would oppose this, but neither are they limited to a single country or people.
While articial borders seem to keep us apart, we have to recognize that these ideals transcend borders and we should give more loyalty to those ideals then to Flag and Country.
SO Beautifully said, GWNorth. thank you for those words and reminders.
I've see progressive criticism of Noam Chomsky, of Amy Goodman, of all our heroes...
but never one of Howard Zinn.
If you're not an agitator, you're not a progressive according to some. Civil disobedience was his strong suit that makes it harder to put progressive criticism on him.
Thank you Howard Zinn,..for the inspiration that has helped guide me for more than 40 years. You have made a positive contribution to the meaning of political activism and confrontation...a difference in the lives of many...you will not be forgotten by those of us who joined you in redefining the meaning of patriotism...
imo.....most americans, if given the choice, with CLEAR evidence and reality -- will NOT look "in the mirror" held up by Howard Zinn and his like...
why?
the state of america proves (including american's general torpor and even readiness to ignore their own complicity in the state of things that are harmful) that most americans are in reality, frightened that what they will see, the reflection is of something that is DEFORMED.
and to have to admit that the carefully propped up beliefs are less true than they prefer to believe:
that "freedom and democracy" hardly really exist as they claim in the USA
that "we are fighting over there for freedom" is not really true -- but to protect america's unearned and unjustified hegemony in which americans TAKE part in their own daily lives
that "fairness is as american as apple pie" is really just words...as they themselves can see in their own lives, labor, practices, economics, politics
that "exceptionally hardworking americans" is NOT that exceptional and that peasants elsewhere work ten times more with ten times LESS resources with ten times less benefit..
etc...imo, this is the real reason most americans will not, or thus far, have FAILED to confront the dark realities of america's own existence and role in the world and their own lives.
the REFLECTION in the mirror - would be like that of "THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY".
twisted and deformed.
May we all resemble these remarks everyday all day.
Howard Zinn; I barely knew who you were until you died.