Image courtesy Arkansas Times
We need to refute the idea that our nation is different from, morally superior to, the other imperial powers of world history.
We need to assert our allegiance to the human race, and not to any one nation.
From progressive.org, forwarded by Isa Daudpota. So relevant not just to USA and the time it was written, but today and elsewhere too.
Howard Zinn’s July 4th Wisdom
4-5 min read
Editor’s Note: The late historian and Progressive columnist Howard Zinn shared these words with us back in 2006. His message is still just as compelling A World War II bombardier, Zinn was the author of the best-selling book A People’s History of the United States.
On this July 4, we would do well to renounce nationalism and all its symbols: its flags, its pledges of allegiance, its anthems, its insistence in song that God must single out America to be blessed.
Is not nationalism—that devotion to a flag, an anthem, a boundary so fierce it engenders mass murder—one of the great evils of our time, along with racism, along with religious hatred?
These ways of thinking—cultivated, nurtured, indoctrinated from childhood on— have been useful to those in power, and deadly for those out of power.
Filed under: Education, fascism, History, Human rights, Violence in the name of religion | Tagged: history, Howard Zinn, indigenous people, July 4, massacre, US foreign policy | Leave a comment »
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