Sharpiegate

"Let's talk about socialism. I think it's very important to bring back the idea of socialism into the national discussion to where it was at the turn of the [last] century before the Soviet Union gave it a bad name. Socialism had a good name in this country. Socialism had Eugene Debs. It had Clarence Darrow. It had Mother Jones. It had Emma Goldman. It had several million people reading socialist newspapers around the country. Socialism basically said, hey, let's have a kinder, gentler society. Let's share things. Let's have an economic system that produces things not because they're profitable for some corporation, but produces things that people need. People should not be retreating from the word socialism because you have to go beyond capitalism." - Howard Zinn (2009)

Today is Howard  Zinn's birthday!  Born in 1922, Zinn was a professor of history at Spelman College in Atlanta from 1956 to 1963.  At the end of the academic year in 1963, Zinn was fired from Spelman for insubordination by Albert Manley, the first African-American president of that college, who felt Zinn was radicalizing Spelman students.  In 1964, Zinn accepted a position at Boston University. A professor of political science, he taught at BU for 24 years before retiring in 1988. His classes on civil liberties were among the most popular at the university with as many as 400 students subscribing each semester to the non-required class. 

I took Poly Sci 101 at B.U. in 1977 under Murray Levin, a close associate of Zinn's (Levin's office was located right next door to Zinn's in the Political Science Department building). A progressive who once had been a member of the Communist Party, Levin was an unreconstructed radical throughout his academic career.  Levin specialized in teaching Marxist political theory to both undergrad and graduate students.  While attending Levin's twice-weekly classes, I also audited Zinn's weekly lectures on civil liberties.

Murray Levin passed in 1999 and Howard Zinn in 2010.  Impermanence is swift.  But Professors Levin and Zinn tuned my political sensibilities in ways similar to how R.D. Laing's Politics of Experience made me aware of the role psychedelics and mysticism can play in a balanced modern life.  

Side Bar: While at B.U., I had a student job in the College of Liberal Art's Administrative and Payroll Department.  Most of the time, I worked as a courier, delivering interdepartmental mail to the various offices around campus (which is why I'm aware of the proximity of Levin's office to Zinn's). But one day each month, Pay Day, I sat at the payroll desk and handed out the paychecks to each professor.  This was the 70s, years before direct deposit was common practice, and I had a smug sense of irony when my Marxist professors rolled by to pick up their monthly paychecks.  

Annals of Infrastructure: The local news confirmed that Sunday's power loss and downed electric lines were due to a red Jeep hitting the power pole early Sunday morning (i.e., late Saturday night).  But the repairs the work crews did on Sunday afternoon didn't hold, and the lines came back down again last night. Rolling over in bed shortly before the alarm clock was supposed to go off this morning, I noticed the digital display was flashing.  It appears the power was off for less than a hour sometime between 4:00 and 5:00 am.  I'm sure a lot of my neighbors were late for work this morning when their alarm clocks didn't go off at the appointed times. And now Collier Road is blocked to traffic again as repair crews are once again trying to fix the poles and lines. so they're going to be even later. It's local Work-From-Home Day!

From the Weather Desk:  With Henri still lingering over New England, the 2021 hurricane season is showing no signs of abating.  We now have three separate systems to watch, any of which might form into a tropical storm or hurricane, any of which might find a way to reach Atlanta.