I did not know much history when I became a bombardier in the U. S. Air Force in … - Howard Zinn

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All I can tell you is that you cannot make choices in your own career, either career choices or choices when you're actually working as an actor, based on trying to downplay or live up to a comparison with somebody else. You just can't do that. You have to do your own work based on your own gut, your own instincts, and your own life.

Howard Zinn

I did not know much history when I became a bombardier in the U. S. Air Force in World War II. Only after the War did I see that we, like the Nazis, had committed atrocities. . . Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Dresden, my own bombing missions. And when I studied history after the War, I learned from reading on my own, not from my university classes, about the history of U. S. expansion and imperialism.

Air, Became, Dresden, Imperialism, Reading, War

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Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is that people all over the world have obeyed the dictates of leaders…and millions have been killed because of this obedience…Our problem is that people are obedient allover the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves… (and) the grand thieves are running the country. That’s our problem.

Civil, Country, Cruelty, Death, Disobedience, Inspirational

To be hopeful in bad times is based on the fact that human history is not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act. And if we do act, in however small a way, we don't have to wait for some grand Utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.

Courage, Future, Hope, Hopeful, Kindness

There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people.

Enough, Flag, Patriotic, Peace, People, War

If patriotism were defined, not as blind obedience to government, not as submissive worship to flags and anthems, but rather as love of one's country, one's fellow citizens (all over the world), as loyalty to the principles of justice and democracy, then patriotism would require us to disobey our government, when it violated those principles.

Country, Flags, Government, Justice, Loyalty, Require

Education can, and should be, dangerous.

Dangerous, Education, Should