Howard Zinn wants teachers to bring in whatever materials they want to your child’s class room. He wants them to use their own judgement to teach whatever they think is appropriate. He wants them to subvert the rules regarding the approved curriculum at the school you are paying for. Of course, if Zinn’s advice is followed, there is nothing keeping a teacher from bringing materials related to Holocaust denial, or 9/11 conspiracies or creationism into the class room, as well. Unless Zinn is recommending only HIS enlightened view of history should be secretly brought into the classroom.
There are some very important people in our country who have aligned themselves with Zinn. With his philosophy. With his view of history. With his view of the United States. And, with his strategy for getting his message into the public schools outside of the legal construct of School Boards and State Departments of Education.
They made a film of his book. They walked the red carpet and they posed with the man they admired. He was the inspiration for their film and they spoke of him glowingly, almost like he was a hero. They began their film with him striding out alone onto a stage in a theatre full of admirers. It was his way of taking a curtain call (a standing ovation, by the way) before the show even began.
“They” are the elite Hollywood stars who believed they gave themselves intellectual and cultural relevance by aligning themselves with the man who made it his life work to tear down the traditional American narrative.
And now, after his death, his legacy is to move that effort, subversively into the public school room despite the curricula established by democratic process. In other words, he wants teachers to teach his lesson plans and go against the wishes of “the people” whom he claims to admire so much.
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Matt Damon and Josh Brolin gave this man a very glitzy and high profile platform on the History Channel. And they celebrated his words as a wise, breath of fresh air:
“We didn’t want to hear the words of the people in the White House, we wanted to hear the words of the people picketing the White House. The agitators, the anti-war protestors, the socialists and anarchists, in other words: The people who gave us whatever liberty and democracy we have in this country.”
Forget, for a moment, about Mr. Zinn. Forget that these are the tired and boring words of a bygone era. When shower-deprived protestors outside the Nixon White House were receiving whimsical admiration. When Leonard Bernstein feted the Black Panthers and John Phillips made people feel like everything was OK as long as it felt good. This is not about Mr. Zinn. He is old news.
This is about Matt Damon, Josh Brolin and all of the beautiful, well-paid actors who went out of their way to ensure that “The People Speak” was made, and distributed and now is available for your child to see in the school room you are paying for. And, the lesson plans that are being brought into that class room, hidden in a teacher’s satchel so as not to get the attention of a school administrator.
As Big Hollywood has previously revealed, the Zinn Education Project has been designed for the sole purpose of providing teachers a means to bring Zinn’s biased and subversive version of American history into the public schools using subterfuge and (in Zinn’s words) “Guerrilla warfare.”
And now, it is time for the stars who reaped the benefits of appearing on behalf of the celebrated historian to own these ideas too.
Mr. Damon, you enjoy a level of prestige by making a “serious” film like “The People Speak”. It gives you credibility in certain circles so that some people don’t regard you as just a dumb actor. So, now let’s put that to the test. Are you prepared to embrace your hero’s words? We hold you accountable for the actions of the Zinn Education Project. You must speak out and either denounce this subversion of the democratic process or you must embrace it.
Josh Brolin, you can’t just sit quietly under the guise of pseudo-intellectualism and reap the benefits of appearing so studied and so well read and so… concerned for the education of our children (as you expressed in so many interviews promoting this film) and not take a stand on Mr. Zinn’s advice to a future history teacher:
“Don’t obey the rules. Don’t be intimidated by what they tell you you must teach.”
Morgan Freeman, Viggo Mortensen, Marisa Tomei, Sean Penn, Rosario Dawson, Casey Affleck, Don Cheadle, David Straithern, Danny Glover, Kerry Washington, Benjamin Bratt, Sandra Oh, Jasmine Guy… you are all part of this. You went out of your way to be in this film. We know because Director Chris Moore told us:
” He went on to explain that as word spread about the project, the buzz grew and it became a cool thing to be associated with. He would field calls from actors who wanted to get in and he would respond to them: Go out and DO something. Get involved, be an activist for a cause.”
So, you got your wish and you were in this film… this film that was the “cool thing to do.” Now that you are “cool” you get to own all the baggage that comes with being “cool” in the world of Howard Zinn.
His words are now your words. Own them. Unless, you’d like to tell us otherwise?
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