Don't Mourn Organize

Last night, Roz and I watched the History Channel's The People Speak, a performance narrated and inspired by Howard Zinn and co-produced with actor Matt Damon.  The show is spiced with guest appearances from many actors and musicians.   It's well worth watching.  I think I'll buy the DVD.   My father recommended Howard Zinn's A Peoples' History of the US, sometime while I was an undergraduate.   Roz and I heard him speak some time around 1991 while we were on sabbatical in Watertown, MA.   He's one of the people I admire enough to fantasize about "being him."   Of course the liberal press (ex: Washington Post) has panned the show as heavy handed.  Zinn has a point of view that history is not just made by great leaders, but by common people.   For example in the show, he brings Roosevelt down a few notches as a hero saving the people from the depression, and argues that Roosevelt acted because of the demonstrations and direct actions of unionists, women, poor people, etc. forced the government to act.

Here's the site for the show:
http://www.history.com/
During the show, one section read was a portion from a Marge Piercy poem,    .....   Here's the most powerful stanza:

Two people can keep each other 
sane, can give support, conviction, 
love, massage, hope, sex. 
Three people are a delegation, 
a committee, a wedge. With four 
you can play bridge and start 
an organisation. With six 
you can rent a whole house, 
eat pie for dinner with no 
seconds, and hold a fund raising party. 
A dozen make a demonstration. 
A hundred fill a hall.
A thousand have solidarity and your own newsletter; 
ten thousand, power and your own paper; 
a hundred thousand, your own media;
ten million, your own country.

You can view the poem at:

http://www.margepiercy.com/sampling/The_Low_Road.htm

I love the way she conjoins the power of personal and political elements.