When I first started reading this book I found it a bit confusing especially since we started from the afterword and then at chapter one. However, when I began chapter one like mostly everyone in class I was not able to let go of it. In many aspects I feel like this book is going to help me open my eyes to new realities of the world that I did not know before.
Moving in to more fun, in the interview article with Zinn and Bigelow I was just so stunned at how much more cruel realities happen between the big world powers and small countries that sometimes go unknown because they are so small that no one even knows they exist. For example Haiti was brought up in the interview and I believe this was really important because I too remember in the history books only having one small paragraph about their independence. I did not see anything about how much we have neglected to help them and how polarized our incomes are compared to them (Haiti is the one of the poorest countries in the world and the U.S is one of the richest, yet we do nothing to help (Bigelow, 2010)).
Motivating words from Zinn:
"movements begin with discouragement..."
I liked how toward the end of the interview a 6th grade teacher brought up the subject of discouragement about her students maybe seeing so much of it and being affected by it. I love how he put this subject into perspective showing the different times in history where a group of people felt discouraged for multiple times during their struggle for change and sometimes some died in the act of such a struggle, BUT, the movement did not end, that is the reason we have the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments, because the people did not give up! This is one of the most encouraging words I have heard truly, I feel like Zinn is opening doors to truth and also opening them wider for me to realize that on my own I might not be able to change what I want to but I can with a larger strong group that won't give up til the end.
Zinn you are my hero!
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