Howard Zinn: thinking about Obama and our dreams

At Historians against War conference, 2006

Our job is not to give him a blank check or simply be cheerleaders. It was good that we were cheerleaders while he was running for office, but it's not good to be cheerleaders now. Because we want the country to go beyond where it has been in the past. We want to make a clean break from what it has been in the past. ...

Some people might say, "Well, what do you expect?" And the answer is that we expect a lot.

People say, "What, are you a dreamer?" And the answer is, yes, we're dreamers. We want it all. We want a peaceful world. We want an egalitarian world. We don't want war. We don't want capitalism. We want a decent society.

We better hold on to that dream -- because if we don't, we’ll sink closer and closer to this reality that we have, and that we don't want.

Alternet, May 2009

The activist historian, who managed to somehow mesh unflinching integrity with hope, will be missed.