Courage: Rosa Parks dead at 92
I’ve been asking questions for the past few days. All kinds of questions. Some of the questions appear to be aimed at others, but in truth, they’re mostly aimed at the guy in the mirror. The last few months have found me asking more questions of myself than at perhaps any other time in my life, and certainly in the past 15 years.
Today’s question for myself is this: do you have as much courage as Rosa Parks did?
What is important enough that you’d stand up, take your life in your hands, and insist on? Seriously, would you risk being beaten, jailed, even killed (because let’s be clear here – black people were killed for less than what Rosa Parks did) for your right to sit in a certain seat on a bus? Or would you play along? Would you play along if powerful people said it was for the good of the country? Would you play along if they threatened your family?
Our society seems to ask less of us with each passing day, and we damned sure demand as little of ourselves as possible. We’ll surrender liberty in exchange for empty promises of security, and nothing defines our national character quite so thoroughly as our willingness to trade the right to be educated and informed for the luxury of being entertained. And the people who are willing to die for something are all too often asked to do so for the worst of reasons. What Yeats said about Communism in 1921 turns out, ironically enough, to be more true about the culture that defeated Communism:
The best lack all convictions, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Rosa Parks, though, was possessed of the best convictions and each American alive today is the better for her passionate intensity.
I don’t know if I’m as brave as Parks was. While I like to hope I am, do I really believe it? But I do understand that thanks to people like her, countless millions of us have been spared the chilling need to find out the hard way how we stack up against the grit of one little black woman insisting on fairness in a mean, white place.
lullaby pit 
Interesting.. I was asking myself a similar question this morning.. not neccessarily spawned by the death, but just out of my fear that our civil rights are slowly disappearing.. so yeah.. I asked myself.. what would I be willing to do to fight for that? Hard question to ask.. even harder to answer!
Interesting.. I was asking myself a similar question this morning.. not neccessarily spawned by the death, but just out of my fear that our civil rights are slowly disappearing.. so yeah.. I asked myself.. what would I be willing to do to fight for that? Hard question to ask.. even harder to answer!
just in general, this is soemthing i have been contemplating – in the large scheme of things and the small. too many of us are raised to “make nice” and not make waves, and i wonder how far this collective sheep-behavior has led us from taking stands for what is wrong and sticking to our guns on them.
just in general, this is soemthing i have been contemplating – in the large scheme of things and the small. too many of us are raised to “make nice” and not make waves, and i wonder how far this collective sheep-behavior has led us from taking stands for what is wrong and sticking to our guns on them.
What struck me as most interesting was learning “The Myth of Rosa Parks” vs. the real Rosa Parks.
The myth that everyone tells usually includes these falsehoods:
– Rosa Parks was a little quiet black woman, not “an activist”.
– Rosa Parks was asked to give up her seat after the bus became full.
– Rosa Parks didn’t want to give up her seat because she was tired after a long day at work.
– Rosa Parks did this spontaneously, simply because she was tired and didn’t want to move.
– Rosa Parks was a lone individual, standing up for herself, alone, with no one else.
The truth … many of which are things I learned only today:
– Rosa Parks was one of the major activists in the African-American community ni Birmingham, AL.
– Rosa Parks was asked to move to the back of the bus when the bus really wasn’t all that crowded. (Presumably, so that whitey didn’t have to risk getting her cooties.)
– Rosa Parks knew damn well what she was doing. This was was a tactical move by the African American community, to challenge the “back-of-the-bus” law.
– Rosa had the backing and support of her fellow-activists. None of them may have known who would be the one to take a stand, but they were ready to rally behind whoever did.
– Rosa Parks did not refuse to move because she was physically tired. Rosa refused to move because she was tired of being treated like dirt.
Rosa wasn’t simply standing up (by sitting down!) for herself… she was standing up for everyone, by standing up for basic human dignity.
What struck me as most interesting was learning “The Myth of Rosa Parks” vs. the real Rosa Parks.
The myth that everyone tells usually includes these falsehoods:
– Rosa Parks was a little quiet black woman, not “an activist”.
– Rosa Parks was asked to give up her seat after the bus became full.
– Rosa Parks didn’t want to give up her seat because she was tired after a long day at work.
– Rosa Parks did this spontaneously, simply because she was tired and didn’t want to move.
– Rosa Parks was a lone individual, standing up for herself, alone, with no one else.
The truth … many of which are things I learned only today:
– Rosa Parks was one of the major activists in the African-American community ni Birmingham, AL.
– Rosa Parks was asked to move to the back of the bus when the bus really wasn’t all that crowded. (Presumably, so that whitey didn’t have to risk getting her cooties.)
– Rosa Parks knew damn well what she was doing. This was was a tactical move by the African American community, to challenge the “back-of-the-bus” law.
– Rosa had the backing and support of her fellow-activists. None of them may have known who would be the one to take a stand, but they were ready to rally behind whoever did.
– Rosa Parks did not refuse to move because she was physically tired. Rosa refused to move because she was tired of being treated like dirt.
Rosa wasn’t simply standing up (by sitting down!) for herself… she was standing up for everyone, by standing up for basic human dignity.
Right. Key: she KNEW what she was doing.
Right. Key: she KNEW what she was doing.