Judging by the last few days’ letters to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Trumped-up controversy over NFL players protesting racial injustice has angered that segment of our country’s population that disapproves of civil disobedience. Trust the late historian Howard Zinn to have the perfect response. (Thanks to columnist Will McCorkle for reminding me of this quote.)

Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is that people all over the world have obeyed the dictates of leaders . . . and millions have been killed because of this obedience. . . Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves . . . (and) the grand thieves are running the country. That’s our problem.

In this video, Matt Damon reads longer excerpts from the speech from which this passage was drawn. Dr. Zinn delivered it in 1970, when Americans were protesting the Vietnam War.

Of course, it’s more than a little incongruous to hear a speech condemning (among other things) wealth inequality read by an actor who earns $20 million or more for making a single film.