Rosa Parks passes away

[ralphwiggum 6]

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/10/25/parks.obit/index.html

Quote[/b] ](CNN) -- Rosa Parks, whose act of civil disobedience in 1955 inspired the modern civil rights movement, died Monday in Detroit, Michigan. She was 92.

Parks' moment in history began in December 1955 when she refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man in Montgomery, Alabama.

Her arrest triggered a 381-day boycott of the bus system by blacks that was organized by a 26-year-old Baptist minister, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

The boycott led to a court ruling desegregating public transportation in Montgomery, but it wasn't until the 1964 Civil Rights Act that all public accommodations nationwide were desegregated.

Facing regular threats and having lost her department store job because of her activism, Parks moved from Alabama to Detroit in 1957. She later joined the staff of U.S. Rep. John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat.

Conyers, who first met Parks during the early days of the civil rights struggle, recalled Monday that she worked on his original congressional staff when he first was elected to the House of Representatives in 1964.

"I think that she, as the mother of the new civil rights movement, has left an impact not just on the nation, but on the world," he told CNN in a telephone interview. "She was a real apostle of the nonviolence movement."

He remembered her as someone who never raised her voice -- an eloquent voice of the civil rights movement.

"You treated her with deference because she was so quiet, so serene -- just a very special person," he said, adding that "there was only one" Rosa Parks.

Gregory Reed, a longtime friend and attorney, said Parks died between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. of natural causes. He called Parks "a lady of great courage."

Parks co-founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development to help young people pursue educational opportunities, get them registered to vote and work toward racial peace.

"As long as there is unemployment, war, crime and all things that go to the infliction of man's inhumanity to man, regardless -- there is much to be done, and people need to work together," she once said.

Even into her 80s, she was active on the lecture circuit, speaking at civil rights groups and accepting awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1996 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 1999.

"This medal is encouragement for all of us to continue until all have rights," she said at the June 1999 ceremony for the latter medal.

Parks was the subject of the documentary "Mighty Times: The Legacy of Rosa Parks," which received a 2002 Oscar nomination for best documentary short.

In April, Parks and rap duo OutKast settled a lawsuit over the use of her name on a CD released in 1998

May she rest in peace and her legacy not forgotten. Thank you Rosa, for your bravery.

[sanctuary 19]

My deep respects and best prayers for her.

May you rest in peace Rosa Parks.

[brataccas 0]

92? thats a damn good age

[booradley60 0]

This comes on the heels of a dedication ceremony of a memorial to the 4 girls killed in a church bombing in Birmingham. Strangely enough, this made me think of George Wallace. I walked by Foster Auditorum today where he made the infamous stand in the schoolhouse door and remembered seeing his body lying in state in the Capitol when he died in 1998. I hope she will receive as much reverence as he did. It seems to me she is far more deserving. Anyway, you can't go anywhere in downtown Montgomery it seems without running across a memorial to the Civil Rights Movement. She will not be forgotten.

[Balschoiw 0]

This lady definately had some "balls".

She was at risk of getting killed at the time she did decide to sit on a "white´s only" seat.

Impressive.

[xawery 0]

She was at risk of getting killed at the time she did decide to sit on a "white´s only" seat.

Actually, she was sitting in the "colored" section, at least initially. The "colored' and "white" sections were demarcated by a movable sign. The driver moved the sign behind her and demanded she vacate her seat for a white man. Only then did she refuse.

Still, this detail does not detract from her courage. Especially since the driver of that bus was well-known for his antipathy towards blacks.

[Tigershark_BAS 0]

Anyone see the Eulogy Bill Clinton gave at her funeral.

Politics aside, he is an excellent public speaker and paid wonderful tribute to her memory.

[theavonlady 2]

This lady is one mouse that roared!

Even my older children, all born and raised here in Israel, knew who she was, when the news of her passing away came out.

[DracoPaladore 0]

A person we carefully researched in both of my law classes during high school. Truly a courageous person, and I hope that future generations will remember her.

[Jinef 2]

Before I go to sleep I am going to be grumpy and cynical for a bit.

Well, when I heard all this Rosa Parks stuff my thoughts were:

"Ok ummm ... a lot of countries abolished slavery before the US even existed 300 years ago ..."

However 50 years ago there is still rampant racism and double standards in the USA ...

So I thought Rosa Parks wasn't immensely brave, she just exercised the rights she should have been given 300 years ago along with the rest of the 'civilised' countries.

Possibly ... in another 100 years there will be another funeral. Celebrating another 'revolution' of human rights ...

Who is going to refuse pay medical bills, who is going to wake up to the uncivilised profiteering? Who will realise that being administered medical care is something that should just fucking happen in a civilised society. Payment should not come into the equation.

Who is going to refuse to be under surveillance?

Who is going to refuse to be held without trial?

Who is going to refuse to be searched by police officers who cannot charge you?

These gigantic publicity stunts confuse the common people because they think "Well Gee, Look how it was then, nothing like now..."

Well in fact boys and girls there is a long long way to go ....

To add insult to injury countries which are now abolishing these 'unfair' values and are adopting more egalitarian values slowly at their own pace are then attacked by the US for 'human rights violations'.

It is quite simply like this: "50 years ago we stopped being complete arseholes to black women, you are 30 years behind us you uncivilised scum. Let us teach you a lesson with this tank..."

..... Oh well thanks Mr. USA but with all due respect you can go perform fellatio on a penguin.

Jinef's latest idea:

New option on the tax form.

When you submit your taxes you have several boxes you can mark. You must mark at least 2 boxes, but you may mark more. Boxes are:

Box 1: Military Defence

Box 2: Social Services

Box 3: Public Health

Box 4: Education System

Box 5: Administration

Box 6: Politician's Wages/Expenses

Box 7: State Construction

You can basically decide where your taxes go.

Only complete fuckwits would tick boxes 1,6.

The majority would tick boxes 2,3,4.

A few people who believe the government knows best would tick all of them.

Meaning you can elect a shitty government however without money a government can't do fuck all. So you simply hold your money at ransom by giving teachers and nurses 200,000 a year and politicians 100 a week.

The Military would have to rely on actually training it's soldiers and not just giving them 5000 dollars of kit each. It could only operate at full strength in a defense capacity and simply cannot afford to go roaming around the world shooting other people for shits and giggles.

Regards, the annoying tit who keeps chatting shit ....

[shinRaiden 0]

Then you don't understand the legacy of Rosa Parks, and you don't understand the price and value of your own liberty, which is the moral and intellectual freedom's of humanity.

Humans 'chained' as slaves were treated in many cases as bad as numbered property, while animals on the same farm were afforded names. There's a crucial idealogical principle there, and it has had disasterous effects on both the former slave and slaveowner populations in different ways.

The Emancipation Proclamation, the following Constitutional Amendment, Voting Rights Act's, and other Civil Rights acts did not 'free' the slaves. The court cases such as Brown vs. Board of Education did not 'free' the slaves.

Rather, it's individuals such as Fredrick Douglass, George Washington Carver, Thurgood Marshall, and especially Dr. King who opened their own eyes and said "I am a human being, I have worth, purpose, and dignity, and no one can deny me that."

But those were great leaders, many of people had not accepted or understood that themselves. Their fathers picked cotten, they picked cotten, their children would pick cotten, and that's all that existed. The enslavement of the mind is far more insidious and evil than any physical torture concievable, hence the greatest horrors in the Holocaust where those slaughtered were denied their humanity and culled as worthless property.

This is the legacy of Rosa Parks. One woman, a nobody really, opened her eyes and said "enough, I am a human". She attended meetings, learned about laws and progessive developments, learned about activism, supported those who were the unnamed and oft-forgoten pioneers, then she made a choice. For herself. For her family. For her community. For her nation. For humanity.

Rosa Park's chains of legal slavery were dissolved one link at a time over the preceeding centuries. But Rosa Parks was enslaved with an iron fetter in her mind, until she chose. When she sat down, a nation stood up, and dropped the chains they held unlocked.

[Bordoy 0]

Jinef's latest idea:

New option on the tax form.

When you submit your taxes you have several boxes you can mark. You must mark at least 2 boxes, but you may mark more. Boxes are:

Box 1: Military Defence

Box 2: Social Services

Box 3: Public Health

Box 4: Education System

Box 5: Administration

Box 6: Politician's Wages/Expenses

Box 7: State Construction

You can basically decide where your taxes go.

Only complete fuckwits would tick boxes 1 , 6

The majority would tick boxes 2,3,4.

A few people who believe the government knows best would tick all of them.

Meaning you can elect a shitty government however without money a government can't do fuck all. So you simply hold your money at ransom by giving teachers and nurses 200,000 a year and politicians 100 a week.

The Military would have to rely on actually training it's soldiers and not just giving them 5000 dollars of kit each. It could only operate at full strength in a defense capacity and simply cannot afford to go roaming around the world shooting other people for shits and giggles.

Regards, the annoying tit who keeps chatting shit ....

Well thats me then.

Anyway worse idea yet

[Thunderbird 0]

May she rest in peace, I think she's amazing and very brave to have gone through that and pulled through and achieved so much. I think she deserves respect for her individualism and her fierce refusal to be exploited by others.

Best Regards

Thunderbird84

[Jinef 2]

Bordoy:

Yeah really bad idea Bordoy, actually having a democracy ... At least it would actually be possible to control tax money, unlike referendums on everything which would just be stupid.

I understand that you are in the British military so giving yourself a higher pay check or a rifle that works is simply logical, however maintaining a nuclear missile capacity and top of the range strike fighters is just bloody expensive and not neccessary. The British Military could run a perfectly adequate defence force with only half the budget it gets now with little impact on it's main fighting element: the stupid grunt with a rifle.

ShinRaiden:

If I did conform to what the media wants me to say and didn't care for what is actually going on I would probably have posted something like this:

"Oh yey for Rosa Parks, she was so great. I am so glad we have all these freedoms now, hurrah for liberty and freedom. We are so civilised."

However as you so rightly say I do not understand the 'legacy' of Rosa Parks, I don't understand the value of the freedoms and liberty. If I did understand I would obviously have to resort to posting cynical criticism of these stupid symbolic events which, if anything, show how far we have yet to go and what utter filth the human race is.

While you probably look at the effects of Hurricane Katrina and think "Oh those poor people".

I look at it and think "I hope it gets worse, really worse." I hope the levees break again. I hope another big one comes in and kicks the shit out of New Orleans next year.

Why? I have no sympathy for the human at all. I hate to see what we do to this planet. I hate to see what we do to each other. I want to see the human race either attempt being 'civilised' and creating a utopian society or be destroyed.

[Bordoy 0]

Quote[/b] ]Bordoy:

Yeah really bad idea Bordoy, actually having a democracy ... At least it would actually be possible to control tax money, unlike referendums on everything which would just be stupid.

I understand that you are in the British military so giving yourself a higher pay check or a rifle that works is simply logical, however maintaining a nuclear missile capacity and top of the range strike fighters is just bloody expensive and not neccessary. The British Military could run a perfectly adequate defence force with only half the budget it gets now with little impact on it's main fighting element: the stupid grunt with a rifle.

1: I think you missed my smiley, yes?

2: I'm not in the military.

3: I take offence to your last 6 words as my brother is/was 'the stupid grunt'.

4: If Argentina was to invade the falklands again, we would lose without foriegn help.

5: The Eurofighter was a joint venture between 4 nations to curb costs.

6: The firemen are complaiging of being put in danger on Å50,000 a year, yet a soldier starts on a mere Å12,000

7: Why curb military costs, when they are being used in more conflicts now then before and more widely spread over the world.

8: If no one ticks the 'Politicians wages' box, then who is going to be stupid enough to get a job that pays Å0, unless your currently on the street. We would get (slightly) worse politicians then we do now.

[ralphwiggum 6]

ok that's it. Jinef, consider yourself PRed.