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If you join a fight for social justice you may win or lose, but just by being part of the struggle, you win, and your life will be better for it.

Howard Zinn

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Howard Zinn
Age: 87 †
Born: 1922
Born: August 24
Died: 2010
Died: January 27
Film Director
Historian
Historian Of The Modern Age
Human Rights Activist
Journalist
Labor Historian
Pacifist
Peace Activist
Playwright
Brooklyn
New York
Better
Struggle
Life
Justice
World
Winning
Fighting
Social
Join
Action
Fight
Part
Lose
May
Loses

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If the gods had intended for people to vote, they would have given us candidates.
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The democratic principle, enunciated in the words of the Declaration of Independence, declared that government was secondary, that the people who established it were primary. Thus, the future of democracy depended on the people, and their growing consciousness of what was the decent way to relate to their fellow human beings all over the world.
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I knew that a historian (or a journalist, or anyone telling a story) was forced to choose, out of an infinite number of facts, what to present, what to omit. And that decision inevitably would reflect, whether consciously or not, the interests of the historian.
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There was something horrifying in the realization that, in this twenty-first century of what we call 'civilization,' we have carved up what we claim is one world into 200 artificially created entities we call 'nations' and armed to apprehend or kill anyone who crosses a boundary.
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One certain effect of war is to diminish freedom of expression. Patriotism becomes the order of the day, and those who question the war are seen as traitors, to be silenced and imprisoned.
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The mountain of history books under which we all stand leans so heavily in the other direction-so tremblingly respectful of states and statesmen and so disrespectful, by inattention, to people's movements-that we need some counterforce to avoid being crushed into submission.
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I had always insisted that a good education was a synthesis of book learning and involvement in social action, that each enriched the other. I wanted my students to know that the accumulation of knowledge, while fascinating in itself, is not sufficient as long as so many people in the world have no opportunity to experience that fascination.
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If what your country is doing seems to you practically and morally wrong, is dissent the highest form of patriotism?
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When we organize with one another, when we get involved, when we stand up and speak out together, we can create a power no government can suppress.
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Group meditation according to Jon Kabat
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Tyranny is Tyranny, let it come from whom it may.
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One certain effect of war is to diminish freedom of expression.
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Before God and high heaven, is there a law for one man which is not a law for every other man?
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Terrorism and war have something in common. They both involve the killing of innocent people to achieve what the killers believe is a good end.
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But by this time I was acutely conscious of the gap between law and justice. I knew that the letter of the law was not as important as who held the power in any real-life situation.
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The term 'just war' is an internal contradiction. War is inherently unjust, and the great challenge of our time is how to deal with evil, tyranny and oppression without killing huge numbers of people.
Howard Zinn
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The future is an infinite succession of presents.
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Every word you utter to another human being has an effect, but you don't know it. If people begin to understand that change comes about as a result of a million tiny acts that seem totally insignificant, well then, they wouldn't hesitate to take those tiny acts.
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Crosses and gallows - that deadly historic juxtaposition.
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In between war and passivity, there are a thousand possibilities.
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