Thank you Howard Zinn!

Our nation lost an amazing teacher yesterday when Howard Zinn suffered a fatal heart attack. I drew this picture on July 17th, 2001 when I was fortunate enough to have Howard Zinn as a professor for the day during a graduate school practicum in Boston.

My whole morning has been hijacked by my need to reflect, opening my old journal - rereading, rediscovering, and finding a renewed sense of encouragement to be the change I want to see in this world.

In case you don't know who Zinn is, or only know about him through People's History of the United States, click here to go to an article where there are three different videos of him speaking.

I think I am pleased to make one discovery today - that Zinn just wrote an article called "Obama at One" in the February 1, 2010 edition of The Nation. In it Zinn says,
"I' ve been searching hard for a highlight. The only thing that comes close is some of Obama's rhetoric; I don't see any kind of a highlight in his actions and policies....

I think people are dazzled by Obama's rhetoric, and that people ought to begin to understand that Obama is going to be a mediocre president--which means, in our time, a dangerous president--unless there is some national movement to push him in a better direction."

So thank you Mr. Zinn.

I think I will start pushing.