What a real liberal looks like....

I actually teared up in the car listening to Democracy Now! (which isn't that shocking really), but it did surprise me a little. Not that I have even read a great deal by the man, unfortunately. But what I have read has always struck me as being incredibly kind, wise, diligent, and powerful. Howard Zinn was my idea of what a liberal should look like. Although he led a great life up to the age of 87 as an activist, historian, and educator, it is still a great loss for our country and our world.

A portrait by the amazing artist Robert Shetterly

"To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places-and there are so many-where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction. And if we do act, in however small a way, we don't have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory." Howard Zinn