“Human beings, whatever their backgrounds, are more open than we think, that their behavior cannot be confidently predicted from their past, that we are all creatures vulnerable to new thoughts, new attitudes. And while such vulnerability creates all sorts of possibilities, both good and bad, its very existence is exciting. It means that no human being should be written off, no change in thinking deemed impossible.”
―Howard Zinn
When have you been surprised by a change in someone’s thinking?
A change in my own thinking is the most vivid experience. When I was in the Peace Corps in Peru 62-64, my experience in intimate contact with Black people had been limited. During our training in Puerto Rico, in our outbound program, I was in groups of multicultural trainees, We roomed together, showered together, went into the countryside to tramp and depend on each other. It was at that point that I truly began to see that all of us were human beings and this changed the rest of my life. I still have symptoms of racism (having grown up in the 30s-6os), but they are greatly modified by my PC experience.