"Mad" Miles
11-05-2010, 02:14 PM
Bill Moyers lays it all out. Well worth the read.
Bill Moyers: "Welcome to the Plutocracy!" (https://www.truth-out.org/bill-moyers-money-fights-hard-and-it-fights-dirty64766)
Wednesday 03 November 2010
by: Bill Moyers, t r u t h o u t | Speech
(https://www.truth-out.org/bill-moyers-money-fights-hard-and-it-fights-dirty64766) https://www.truth-out.org/files/images/110310moyers.jpg
Bill Moyers. (Photo: Martin Voelker)
Bill Moyers speech at Boston University on October 29, 2010, as a part of the Howard Zinn Lecture Series.
I was honored when you asked me to join in celebrating Howard Zinn’s life and legacy. I was also surprised. I am a journalist, not a historian. The difference between a journalist and an historian is that the historian knows the difference. George Bernard Shaw once complained that journalists are seemingly unable to discriminate between a bicycle accident and the collapse of civilization. In fact, some epic history can start out as a minor incident. A young man named Paris ran off with a beautiful woman who was married to someone else, and the civilization of Troy began to unwind. A middle-aged black seamstress, riding in a Montgomery bus, had tired feet, and an ugly social order began to collapse. A night guard at an office complex in Washington D.C. found masking tape on a doorjamb, and the presidency of Richard Nixon began to unwind. What journalist, writing on deadline, could have imagined the walloping kick that Rosa Park’s tired feet would give to Jim Crow? What pundit could have fantasized that a third-rate burglary on a dark night could change the course of politics? The historian’s work is to help us disentangle the wreck of the Schwinn from cataclysm. Howard famously helped us see how big change can start with small acts.
(Snip.)
https://www.truth-out.org/bill-moyers-money-fights-hard-and-it-fights-dirty64766
By the way, Rosa Parks didn't refuse to move because she was "tired after a long day at work". That's a myth. She was secretary to the head of the NAACP. And her act was a conscious act of civil disobedience that was part of a well planned campaign. The story told to school children diminishes her role as an activist with a very conscious plan.
Other than that inaccuracy, I find everything else Mr. Moyers said to be right on.
Bill Moyers: "Welcome to the Plutocracy!" (https://www.truth-out.org/bill-moyers-money-fights-hard-and-it-fights-dirty64766)
Wednesday 03 November 2010
by: Bill Moyers, t r u t h o u t | Speech
(https://www.truth-out.org/bill-moyers-money-fights-hard-and-it-fights-dirty64766) https://www.truth-out.org/files/images/110310moyers.jpg
Bill Moyers. (Photo: Martin Voelker)
Bill Moyers speech at Boston University on October 29, 2010, as a part of the Howard Zinn Lecture Series.
I was honored when you asked me to join in celebrating Howard Zinn’s life and legacy. I was also surprised. I am a journalist, not a historian. The difference between a journalist and an historian is that the historian knows the difference. George Bernard Shaw once complained that journalists are seemingly unable to discriminate between a bicycle accident and the collapse of civilization. In fact, some epic history can start out as a minor incident. A young man named Paris ran off with a beautiful woman who was married to someone else, and the civilization of Troy began to unwind. A middle-aged black seamstress, riding in a Montgomery bus, had tired feet, and an ugly social order began to collapse. A night guard at an office complex in Washington D.C. found masking tape on a doorjamb, and the presidency of Richard Nixon began to unwind. What journalist, writing on deadline, could have imagined the walloping kick that Rosa Park’s tired feet would give to Jim Crow? What pundit could have fantasized that a third-rate burglary on a dark night could change the course of politics? The historian’s work is to help us disentangle the wreck of the Schwinn from cataclysm. Howard famously helped us see how big change can start with small acts.
(Snip.)
https://www.truth-out.org/bill-moyers-money-fights-hard-and-it-fights-dirty64766
By the way, Rosa Parks didn't refuse to move because she was "tired after a long day at work". That's a myth. She was secretary to the head of the NAACP. And her act was a conscious act of civil disobedience that was part of a well planned campaign. The story told to school children diminishes her role as an activist with a very conscious plan.
Other than that inaccuracy, I find everything else Mr. Moyers said to be right on.