Crooks and Liars points to an interesting speech by Howard Zinn at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Here’s a snippet:

Well, do you get the feeling sometime that you’re living in an occupied country? Very often that’s a feeling I get when I wake up in the morning. I think, “I’m living in an occupied country. A small group of aliens have taken over the country and are trying to do with it what they will, you know, and really are.” I mean, they are alien to me. I mean, those people who are coming across the border from Mexico, they are not alien to me, you see. You know, Muslims who come to this country to live, they are not alien to me, you see. These demonstrations, these wonderful demonstrations that we have seen very recently on behalf of immigrant rights, say, and you’ve seen those signs saying, you know, “No human being is alien.” And I think that’s true. Except for the people in Washington, you see.

The rest is quite a long argument about the interests of governments and the interests of the people. If you’re not a lefty, it will probably cause much wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth.

Many people know of Howard Zinn from the mention of his book by Matt Damon’s character to Robin Williams’ character in Good Will Hunting:

Jesus…You wanna read a real History book, read Howard Zinn’s People of the United States, that book will fuckin’ knock you on your ass.

Me, I’m slightly more familiar. I actually attended a class of Zinn’s something like 30 years or so ago while we were both at Boston University. I wish I could say I appreciated it, but back then I was a punk kid who mostly was majoring in 12-oz curls at the Dugout Cafe.

I for one hope that we can bring about the change Zinn talks about at the end of his speech:

Everything we do is important. Every little thing we do, every picket line we walk on, every letter we write, every act of civil disobedience we engage in, any recruiter that we talk to, any parent that we talk to, any GI that we talk to, any young person that we talk to, anything we do in class, outside of class, everything we do in the direction of a different world is important, even though at the moment they seem futile, because that’s how change comes about. Change comes about when millions of people do little things, which at certain points in history come together, and then something good and something important happens.

I’m not a parent, but I am an aunt. My nieces and nephew (and your nieces and nephews and grandchildren and so on) deserve a better future than I’m afraid we’re going to be leaving them with.