Howard Zinn Lecture at UCONN (Part 1)

The historian Howard Zinn gave a lecture at the University of Connecticut discussing history, media, the Bush administration, and activism.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• history
• education
• howardzinn
• uconn
• activism

[diesel828]

RIP

[CHARESTHEHAMER]

According to Zinn, it was Mumia Abu-Jamals race and radicalism, as well as his persistent criticism of the Philadelphia police that got him on death row. Nothing about Abu-Jamals gun being found at the scene; nothing about the testimony of numerous witnesses pointing to him as the triggerman; nothing about additional witnesses reporting a confession by Abu-Jamal—it was Abu-Jamals dissenting voice that caused a jury of twelve to unanimously sentence him to death.

[flyhead2]

I answered your loaded and essentially irrelevant question despite the fact that you failed to refute any of Zinn's well-researched opinions or documented facts.

[CHARESTHEHAMER]

I don't think you said yes or no to the question.

Looks like you realized the problem posed by Zinn's books.

[flyhead2]

There is plenty of heroic romanticised and mythological 'history' written and spoken about the USA, which fits your ill-conceived analogy perfectly.

What Zinn does is to present a more prosaic and genuine view of actions undertaken by various governments. That you should become so Pavlovianly defensive of governments does not invite any rational discussion, especially when your criticism is purely demagogic and emotive in nature.

[CHARESTHEHAMER]

If I write a book about a man and all I talk about is his support of animal rights, clean living, and redistribution of wealth but I don't talk about his being pro-genicide am I lying?

[flyhead2]

Please point out any falsehoods or inaccurate statements that Howard has made. Or is the US a great place because it has a cool flag and monster-trucks?

[jimbobeire]

When people outside the US are asked about the greatest Americans, they don;t think of the ones who just wrapped themselves in the flag and did whatever the president asked. They think of MLK jr, Rosa Parks, Muhammed Ali, people who said 'this isn't good enough' I want better than this for my country.

[jimbobeire]

Yes I have and, as a non-American, reading his stuff, and hearing his talks makes me MORE grateful that American has freedom of speech and so many people brave enough to use it for change. If you think that pointing out a country's flaws in order to improve it is hateful, would you wish that everyone had just kept quiet and kept slavery, no votes for women, etc? It's people like Rumsfeld and Bush, Gonzales, who give America a bad name abroad. (I don't like Clinton either, but he IS popular)

[CHARESTHEHAMER]

Have you ever read anything he wrote?

about 80% of it can be summed up as "why america is a bad place to live" yet he never left.

[jimbobeire]

undermining his country? Are you one of those people for whom exposing the lies of government = attacking the nation? If people didn't question the powetful, you would have Queen Elizabeth 2nd on your money instead of those dead presidents. Not ONE freedom you have came from going along with what you were told by your rulers. Every right was pushed for, from the people, not simply dreamed up by presidents. That's as much time as I'll waste debating you. Have a nice life amigo.