By Willie Nelson • Peace Research Institute
Howard Zinn gave one of his last public interviews with Bill Moyers on December 11, 2009. He died today, January 27, 2010, of a heart attack at the age of 87 while traveling in Santa Monica, California.
The single question that plagued him most of his adult life, the same that plagued me most of mine, seemed to be
Why Do People Put Up With So Much Abuse
From Their Government?
While the most famous of his more than 20 books, The People’s History Of The United States, appears to be a concise introduction to his thoughts, his other works get into the nitty-gritty of government abuse of the people until they rise up and stop it.
Howard Zinn hoped to reach out and influence people into demanding a more democratic, if not a truly democratic. government. He hoped, as I hope, that people will change things once they understand that it is in their power to do so.
We do not need to
put up with a government
doing things in our name
that we do not agree with.
Howard Zinn dedicated his adult working life to proving this point and educating others as to its truth. He realized that once enough people woke up to the truth then the entire political-economic environment can change over night.
We can have a peaceful world. I am sad that Howard Zinn did not live to see it.
First published on the Peace Research Institute.
