howard zinn
having recently gotten a typical history degree from a typical university, i felt i needed a little more radical education before being proud of my degree. in fact, how could one get such a degree without ever having considered american history told from the perspective of the unpriviledged (the lower 99% of the population as zinn says)?
eight years turned out to be the perfect amount of time between readings. i picked the book up again when i realized i could not explain how the electoral college worked or how a president could be elected with only 45% of the votes in the country, or how mississippi could elect a governor who got only 49% of the votes, or why ralph nader constantly had to defend himself from those who said he was the "spoiler".
i can answer these questions now and i am ashamed that our system has been contorted such that the solutions to each of these situations are not the logical but the more bizarre of the possible solutions.
while i have not yet written "my congressman", this book leaves me with the feeling that there are actions i can take besides voting to express my content/discontent with governmental policies and that while my individual actions may be ignored, enough actions by enough folks cannot.
and not to be too vague or too "jaded", i have already started my list of policies that i believe should change and actions that i think should be encouraged, funded, implemented, etc for the betterment of the folks in our society...
anyone interested?
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4 comments:
Your posting was very coherent. This book is on my short list to read. I've read a couple of historical books this semester and realize that I really need to brush up on American history as part of my education. Anyway, yeah, I'm interested.
I would like to read that book. I'd also like to see your list!
And, BTW, I'm interested too.
here is a start:
1. elections should be decided by majority, not by plurality. this is why we are stuck with a two-party system.
2. money allocated for transportation infrastructure should at least partially fund creation of bicycle lanes. not only for recreation but for practicality.
3. vegetable production should be given similar subsidies as those given to corn, etc.
let me add that there is a movement for this first issue (re-instatement of the democratic principle of election by majority). 70% of memphis voters supported its use with their city elections this past november. fairvote.org
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