I have just added a new article titled DISCLOSURE, http://thepurplemuse.com/id62.html, to my web site.  This article is my commentary on the incredible work of Dr. Steven M. Greer on the subject of Extra-Terrestrials, advanced technology and related illegal activities of the US government spanning decades.  It is imperative that everyone interested in helping to solve the major problems impacting our world today get involved in Dr. Greer's work. 

So far our political class has been unwilling to challenge the elites of the military-industrial complex controlling the most important information of our times.  The combined efforts of the citizens of the US will be needed to change the direction of our government and the world.

TPM

I just finished reading Howard Zinn's National Bestseller, A People's History of the United States.  Zinn's book was copyrighted a number of times between 1980 and 2003.  Anyone that wants to obtain a more complete appreciation the history of the United States should read Zinn's book.  While the book is labeled as a different view of US history, the book is actually a interwoven combination of history, social commentary and political theory.  Zinn focuses on the history of those groups, racial, ethnic and gender, that have been oppressed by rich and the powerful white European ancestry males during our history beginning with Columbus.  Zinn's socialist leanings are evident throughout the book, particularly during his commentary on the history of the 20th century in the United States. 

For those people that are not left leaning on the current US political scale, Zinn's very left leaning commentary may be bothersome, but it should not be.  The descriptions of troubling moments in our history that Zinn's includes in his book are true.  I have read or heard about many of these moments in other material in the past.  Zinn does all of us a favor by accumulating them in one book.  There is no doubt that many US leaders, political and business, have been involved in serious abuses of human rights since the beginning.  Zinn does a great job in pointing out the failings of many famous, well respected US leaders.  But Zinn's history doesn't account for the development of the economic prosperity that citizens of the US have experienced and why the US has been a magnet for immigrants from all over the world.  Zinn doesn't fully discuss how the US developed its economy into the strongest in the world.  Zinn doesn't discuss how the US has created more wealth for more people than any nation in the history of the world.  Zinn never acknowledges that the US government is the best of a number of bad options.  Zinn doesn't acknowledge that that there are no economically successful socialist nations.  There is no heterogeneous population of significant size anywhere in the world that has more freedom and economic opportunity than people have in the US.  Like many social activists Zinn doesn't appear to appreciate the positives, he is locked on what he perceives to be the negatives of the US. 

In the Afterward of the book Zinn states the following: "But there is no such thing as a pure fact, innocent of interpretation.  Behind every fact presented to the world - by a teacher, a writer, anyone - is a judgement.  The judgement that has been made is that this fact is important, and that other facts, omitted, are not important."  Zinn also states: "There were themes of profound importance to me which I found missing in the orthodox histories that dominated American culture.  The consequence of those omissions has been not simply to give a distorted view of the past but, more important, to mislead us all about the present."  These statements are absolutely true.  The fact that they are true is the reason why I recommend everyone read A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn. 

We all need to better understand how Americans got to where we are today  Zinn helps fill in some of the blanks.  Each of us needs to determine how we apply our knowledge of American history to our present and future.  My guess is that we all need to know more than we have learned to date.

TPM