Within 24 hours, Howard Zinn and J.D. Salinger die, and Steve Jobs announces the iPad (which — menstrual jokes aside — may or may not revolutionize how we interact with the written word). I’m too busy trying to meet end-of-month writing deadlines to meditate on these odd conjunctions. And perhaps writing is the best way to respond to all three events.
For now, I can say that Howard Zinn influenced me more than Salinger. I will always be grateful to The People’s History of the United States for guiding me through teaching six years of high school history.
