Laughing with Howard Zinn

1. Prejudice

When I told my friends I was coming to Texas...

He paused, looking out at the hundreds of people in the auditorium. Then he continued.

Well, you know what they said!

He was in Texas, and the audience knew just what he was talking about. They laughed loudly.

There are a lot of prejudiced people, he said, pausing again, prejudiced people on the left!

And the audience laughed even louder.

2. Speak Up

From way back in the auditorium, we could see him easily as he stood at the podium.

Howard Zinn is a tall man with striking grey hair and distinct features, and his voice is clear, although at one point the moderator asked him to speak more directly into the microphone.

It had been 30 minutes since he was introduced. He had already covered a lot of ground. He stopped for a moment at this request, looked out at us, looked back at the moderator and other panel members sitting at the table on the stage and said in mock disbelief, They haven't heard a word I've said!

We laughed.

The truth is that from way back in the auditorium, we could hear him easily as well, and he knew it. So it all seemed quite funny. Then he looked out at us again, standing silently for a moment.

I will start over, he said.

And we laughed even harder.

---
Howard Zinn
Empire, Resistance, and the War in Iraq
Historians Against the War conference
University of Texas
Austin, Texas

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