Dear Professor Zinn

Asbarez
Jan 29th, 2010

BY HRAG YEDALIAN

`Dear Professor Zinn.’

That’s how all of my emails to him began. Sometimes, I would be more
`casual’ and address him only as `Professor.’ I could never muster up
the courage to call him by his first name – I never found it
appropriate. I simply had too much respect for him, and always felt
compelled to include some sort of `title.’ `Professor’ was the one I
settled on.

The last time I emailed him was on July 15, 2008. A dear friend of
mine was working on a project and discovered that Zinn would be in Los
Angeles for a few days, and wanted to know if he would be available
for an on-camera interview. I told my friend I would be happy to ask.
I sent an email at 9:24 p.m Pacific Standard Time, and got a response
from him exactly an hour and six minutes later. It was 1:30 a.m. in
Massachusetts and the 85 year old man was on his computer, responding
to emails. In typical Zinn fashion, he was open and always willing to
help. The text of his email read:

Dear Hrag:

Have your friend call me on my cell phone. 617-680-6077.

Best wishes,
Howard

He had never heard of my friend or his fledging experimental project
before, but wanted to lend a hand. He was asking to receive a call on
his cell from a complete stranger even though his schedule was packed
beyond belief. I wish I could claim that he was willing to help
because I asked, but, I don’t think that was the case. He was simply
being himself: kind, warm, and giving. I had never before met an
individual who personified the term `good’ the way that he did.
Goodness radiated off of him, and I am certain that even those who
disagreed with his social and political ideas viewed him as an
exemplary human being.

The author of over twenty books, Zinn was a prominent historian who
changed the way American history was perceived and studied. His best
known publication, `A People’s History of the United States,’ has sold
over one million copies. It is this book that ties my generation (a
generation that was born a decade after the end of the turbulent
1960s) to Zinn, as it has become required reading in many high school
and college classrooms all across the United States. But, to those who
lived through and remember the earlier decades, Zinn stood out as a
seminal figure in the Civil Rights and anti-war movements. And, while
many activists who served as the poster-boys and girls of the 60s
faded and disappeared altogether with the end of the era, Zinn’s voice
persisted and was heard up until his death on Wednesday, January 27.
He would have turned 88 years old in August.

I had the privilege of meeting the Professor during the summer of
2003, while working on a documentary about legendary civil rights
attorney Charles R. Garry (Garabed Garabedian). Having learned that I
was seeking to include Zinn in the film, one of my interviewees said,
`Oh! Let me give you his phone number.’ I dialed the number and, after
several rings, an answering machine connected. I was completely
shocked – I had no clue that the phone number I had dialed was to his
home phone line! I did my best to hide my nervousness, but I’m certain
that my cracking voice gave it all away. I left the message not
knowing if he would be interested in my project, or, if, quite
frankly, he would even respond to my call. But, less than two hours
later, my cell phone lit up, and the caller ID read: `Howard Zinn.’

`We are looking for Howard Zinn’s office,’ I told the student-worker
at the front desk of Zinn’s department at Boston University. We had
arrived a little early, and the Professor had alerted the staff to
unlock his office door so that we could set-up our gear. This was the
first time I learned about Zinn’s unwavering habit called `Trust.’ He
simply trusted people, and appeared not to care about the
circumstances. He always said `yes,’ and was never the least bit
calculating. He trusted us to be in his office – unsupervised – and,
after his arrival, gave me all the time I needed to complete the
interview. He seemed to ignore the fact that I was a first time
filmmaker and treated the process with the same amount of respect he
would have given to, let’s say, a journalist with the New York Times.

Perhaps, he may have respected what I was doing a little more, because
he saw a 22 year-old attempting to piece together a `Movement’ film
with a non-existent budget. In any case, he did a good job overlooking
the fact that, up until the end of the interview, my voice was still
cracking. He listened to what I was saying – not how it came out.

After the film was completed, I sent him a copy and waited for his
thoughts. He wrote: `Thanks, Hrag, for sending a copy of THE PEOPLE’S
ADVOCATE. My wife and I watched it, fascinated, and, despite the grim
events throughout the film, inspired by Garry and his magnificent
attempts to fight injustice on so many different fronts.’ He only had
one criticism, which he later told me: the fonts used in the title
sequences of the film were too small and hard to read. With so much he
could have nit-picked about, he chose the most practical problem the
film possessed. Again, he was a kind man and saw the best in
everything. (I promptly corrected the `readability’ issue for the
film-festival version of the documentary.)

Although there are many things I remember from my interactions with
him, I will never forget the one attribute that I found most
endearing: his penchant to respond to emails with lightning fast
speed. Most people find that it’s common courtesy to respond to an
email within 24 hours of its receipt. The Professor seemed to believe
that the 1-hour mark is a more suiting cut off point. Here are some
examples:

Email sent at 5:02 p.m. His response received at 5:53 p.m.
Another sent at 3:46 p.m. Email received at 3:55 p.m.
A response issued at 5:38 p.m. to an email I sent at 5:34 p.m.
And, his personal best: sent at 12:36 p.m. received at 12:38 p.m.

I was really convinced that the Professor was truly an anomaly in this
regard, until I realized that it ran `in the family.’ One day, I sent
an email to Zinn’s dear friend and long-time colleague, Noam Chomsky.
The email was submitted at 9:17 p.m. I got a thorough response
twenty-one minutes later. It was past mid-night where he lived. I fell
in love with him immediately because he too seemed to operate along
the `Zinn guidelines’ I had been fortunate to be exposed to.

The Professor will be deeply missed by all the people he touched
through the generosity of his heart. He was truly a complete and
wonderful human being.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress