Reflection on Howard Zinn’s “The People Speak”
J.W.
Logan and his “Letter to Defy”. Performed
by Benjamin Bratt. I found this to be a
beautifully thought out poetic statement of compelling truth.
The
recitation of the “Women’s Declaration of Independence” read aloud by Rosario Dawson who does a
wonderful job of articulating the sincerity of this movement for all women.
Susan
B Anthony who was charged for Illegal voting gave an epic speech before jury
after casting her ballot to vote at a time women were prohibited by law to be
counted as a voice equal to men. She was
arrested and her revolutionary speech powerfully summons the parallel of equality
to be called upon in history and still today a reminder of women’s freedoms
worldwide. This is performed by
Christina Kirk.
Genora
Johnon Dollinger was part of the sit labor strikes. Marisa Tomei reads Dolliger’s written memoirs
of the day of the strike when police begin shooting and using tear gas against
the innocent unarmed suvilians. The part
where she reads and I quote, “I called down to the Police, Cowards! Shooting
into the bellies of unarmed men and firing at the mothers of children!”. And then she recites, “I thought the women
can break this up so I appealed to the women in the line. Break up those police
lines and come down here and stand behind your husbands, your brothers, your
uncles, and your sweethearts.” She goes
on to explain the success of ending the battle and how the police retreated. This speech really moves me to tears because
its such an example of the power of the masculine and feminine loving on
another through the hard times rather then being broken up and separated by
hardship. What a powerful story of women
rising to stand tall and proud of their great power against tyranny.
Bartolome
De Las Casas vividly accounts the times of Christopher Columbus and the truth
and the massacre of our nation first inhabitants of this land. This is performed by Viggo Mortensen.
One
of my favorite speeches from one of our true Nations Chiefs is from Chief
Joseph. Performed by Q’Orianka Kitcher
who seems to embody the spirit of the Chief in her powerful essence of reciting
this monologue speech. The speech is on
freedoms of living and told with such dignity that one cannot be fooled by the
untactful demeans of this governments treatment upon these great peoples. Perhaps this is one of the most powerful
speeches of all time and so I quote a few lines as these words are the evidence
of the intention of the Indians and how they could have been given superiority
of rulership of this nation and today we would not be faced with the wars
ongoing in our times now.
“When
he white man treats the Indians as they treat eachother, then we shall have no
more war. We shall be all alike,
brothers of one father and one mother, with one sky above us, and one country
around us, and one government for all then the great spirit chief who rules
above will smile upon this land and will send rain to wash the bloody spills
made by man’s hands.”
Another
great speech is that from Emma Goldman, performed by Sandra Oh on
“Patriotism”. This speech has the right
touch of sarcasim and wit that an elegant woman can pull off to get her point
across on the ignorance of this government over us.
Marian
Wright Edelman was perhaps the greatest speech of a woman I ever heard as she
gets right to the point for “Children’s Rights”, one of the highest concerns of
awakened peoples is for that of the children, for once we have grown up enough
within can we truly see what the youth needs are in fact. Jasmine Guy performs
this speech that entails the words, and I quote, “Investing in children rather
then bombs, mothers rather then missiles.” and the great line of, “Democracy is
NOT a spectator sport.” This is a speech
worth remembering on “Human commitment”.
Howard
Zinn’s, “The People Speak”, is a documentary that circulates within the red pulsating
blood of its viewer, reminding us to submit our voice of wisdom and be the action
of change to create higher realities out of reach from dictatorship of the
wicked. No matter what your heritage,
you feel the empathy with all cultures whom have suffered the price of capitalism
of a democracy based on creating barriers to the poor and high rises for the
ones whom have already stuffed their pockets full of the gold they once killed
for. This film is based off Zinn’s book,
“A People’s History to the United States” and because this is one of the most
powerful documentaries I have witnessed to date., I will be reading more in
depth the words this brilliant man whom has composed an amazing detailed
timeline and resourceful speeches for students wishing to learn the truth in
this Nations history. This is a true
tribute to the voices of many whom have witnessed and exhilarated a plea of realization
to the un-nesessary suffering of human beings living in this world based on
government actions to tax, tyrannize, and brutalize the people into slavery
systems governed for the purpose of capital gain that still exists today. For example, Nestle bottled water, war for
oil, war over power, war over land that must hold a vortex to where the wicked
wish to hide with their “golden rings”.
This same vortex was the sacred homes to many who simply wished to pray,
dance, and be humbled to spirit giving life upon this planet. They, the native peoples of all colors and
creeds been exhiled from their sacred lands so that the push of political gun
power can gut the mother earth and pull from her her magical treaures so that
they can package it and sale it to a sytem of forced consumerism. I say that earth holds magic, for if people
could simply be revived to live and breathe the minerals freely in community,
respect would be taught again to keep pure, and great awakening could take
place for mankind would sense the shift in internal value being revived back to
life by the gold dust sand upon his skin as it blows freely in the wind and
emits freely from the rock. This our
natives knew. This the government took
and misused in a way that can not help the people to heal truly. The imbalance is obvious, and although we
have come in some ways to re establish our diverse and breathing cultures, we still
are striving to make the leap to reverse from this high percentage of what once
was prestige pure land, now covered in concrete, cars, bulldozers, and still
they, the government forces to take more.
Rivers are coated in oil, fish are poisoned by radioactive waste, drinking
tap water is drawn from beneath nuclear waste dumps here in NM. Chemical trails
send dust bombs from air craft as experimental tests down upon the heads of
human beings on a daily bases. The banks
keep getting richer and still humanity gets poorer. They gave our native tribes who were the true
founding fathers of this land, casinos to push gambling money, carcinogenic tabbacco
laced chemical smoking endorsed, and mind dulling alcohol pushed as a means to
recon the difference. Yet my heart sees
it more fit that the Gold be put back into the earth so that the people may
know the true mineral healing meaning to lie upon the earth and witness gold
dust, clean air, true blue skies, and children who walk the path of learning
from indigenous functioning of life rather then pushed into school mandatory
systems that devoid them of sacred knowledge that once was their birth rite.
Howard Zinn, I thank you for creating yet another legacy I can trail upon, and
be another voice to your great cause to wisdom and the awakening of
humanity.
I
had many favorite parts of this documentary where I felt the emotion of the
expressed speeches and songs. These are
a few that I felt deeply moved by, inspired by, and connected with.
J.W.
Logan and his “Letter to Defy”. Performed
by Benjamin Bratt. I found this to be a
beautifully thought out poetic statement of compelling truth.
The
recitation of the “Women’s Declaration of Independence” read aloud by Rosario Dawson who does a
wonderful job of articulating the sincerity of this movement for all women.
Susan
B Anthony who was charged for Illegal voting gave an epic speech before jury
after casting her ballot to vote at a time women were prohibited by law to be
counted as a voice equal to men. She was
arrested and her revolutionary speech powerfully summons the parallel of equality
to be called upon in history and still today a reminder of women’s freedoms
worldwide. This is performed by
Christina Kirk.
Genora
Johnon Dollinger was part of the sit labor strikes. Marisa Tomei reads Dolliger’s written memoirs
of the day of the strike when police begin shooting and using tear gas against
the innocent unarmed suvilians. The part
where she reads and I quote, “I called down to the Police, Cowards! Shooting
into the bellies of unarmed men and firing at the mothers of children!”. And then she recites, “I thought the women
can break this up so I appealed to the women in the line. Break up those police
lines and come down here and stand behind your husbands, your brothers, your
uncles, and your sweethearts.” She goes
on to explain the success of ending the battle and how the police retreated. This speech really moves me to tears because
its such an example of the power of the masculine and feminine loving on
another through the hard times rather then being broken up and separated by
hardship. What a powerful story of women
rising to stand tall and proud of their great power against tyranny.
Bartolome
De Las Casas vividly accounts the times of Christopher Columbus and the truth
and the massacre of our nation first inhabitants of this land. This is performed by Viggo Mortensen.
One
of my favorite speeches from one of our true Nations Chiefs is from Chief
Joseph. Performed by Q’Orianka Kitcher
who seems to embody the spirit of the Chief in her powerful essence of reciting
this monologue speech. The speech is on
freedoms of living and told with such dignity that one cannot be fooled by the
untactful demeans of this governments treatment upon these great peoples. Perhaps this is one of the most powerful
speeches of all time and so I quote a few lines as these words are the evidence
of the intention of the Indians and how they could have been given superiority
of rulership of this nation and today we would not be faced with the wars
ongoing in our times now.
“When
he white man treats the Indians as they treat eachother, then we shall have no
more war. We shall be all alike,
brothers of one father and one mother, with one sky above us, and one country
around us, and one government for all then the great spirit chief who rules
above will smile upon this land and will send rain to wash the bloody spills
made by man’s hands.”
Another
great speech is that from Emma Goldman, performed by Sandra Oh on
“Patriotism”. This speech has the right
touch of sarcasim and wit that an elegant woman can pull off to get her point
across on the ignorance of this government over us.
Marian
Wright Edelman was perhaps the greatest speech of a woman I ever heard as she
gets right to the point for “Children’s Rights”, one of the highest concerns of
awakened peoples is for that of the children, for once we have grown up enough
within can we truly see what the youth needs are in fact. Jasmine Guy performs
this speech that entails the words, and I quote, “Investing in children rather
then bombs, mothers rather then missiles.” and the great line of, “Democracy is
NOT a spectator sport.” This is a speech
worth remembering on “Human commitment”.
Now
for my favorite dramatic speech of all for its power to ignite change and call
action. “The Low Road” by Marge Percy is
performed by Stacyann Chin. She is an elegant
ball of fire and perfect example of theatrical ammunition of poetic muse against
government attempt to segregate and eliminate power from the people.
