Democracy Now has a great tribute to Howard Zinn, including Noam Chomsky, Alice Walker, Naomi Klein, and Anthony Arnove.

Update: Daniel Ellsberg: A Memory of Howard Zinn.

I just learned that my friend Howard Zinn died today. Earlier this morning, I was being interviewed by the Boston Phoenix, in connection with the release in Boston February of a documentary in which he is featured prominently. The interviewer asked me who my own heroes were, and I had no hesitation in answering, first, “Howard Zinn.”

Just weeks ago after watching the film on December 7, I woke up the next morning thinking that I had never told him how much he meant to me. For once in my life, I acted on that thought in a timely way. I sent him an e-mail in which I said, among other things, what I had often told others about him: that he was,” in my opinion, the best human being I’ve ever known. The best example of what a human can be, and can do with their life.”

Update II: It’s worth remembering that Howard Zinn was one of the first scholars to come out in support of Ward Churchill during our fair state’s latest round of neo-Stalinist witchhunts. This was his statement:

I have declared my support of Ward Churchill because to defend him is to defend the principle of academic freedom, the idea that no one should lose his or her job or status in education because of factors outside of teaching and scholarship.  Those factors — political, ideological — are evident in his case, and they are joined by a mean-spiritedness which does not belong in an academic or any other environment.  The attack on Ward Churchill comes at a time in our nation’s history when constitutional rights are under attack by the national government, when war threatens the lives and well-being of all,  and therefore we need the marketplace of  ideas to be as open as possible.  If we want to live in a democracy we must protect that openness. That is why defending Ward Churchill has an importance far beyond his particular situation.

I don’t think I can overstate how refreshing it was to see academics like Zinn and Chomsky jump into the fray, while the vast majority of academics, especially locally, were scattering as quickly as they could.