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Edited on Tue Oct-25-05 05:07 PM by ZombyWoof
"Make me an angel, that flies from Montgomery..." -- John Prine
On the cusp of a half century since that fateful December afternoon in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks is at rest, having served humanity with dignity and steely grace for 92 years.
For the considerable numbers of us who grew up in the shadow of the American civil rights movement, and in the decades since, it is all too easy to take for granted the sacrifices made by courageous Americans like Rosa Parks. It is nothing less than essential that we never lose perspective on the price of these struggles, and to be mindful that it really was not so long ago, in the arc of America's long and continuing march to freedom, that these advances for human rights and equality for all were hard won. For a white man like myself, I can never know what it was like, or is like, to endure the raw hatred, fearful acts of violence, or bear the brunt of intolerable ignorance as did our black sisters and brothers.
But in the absence of that personal firsthand knowledge, I can honor the memory of Rosa Parks and the entire civil rights movement by acknowledging the simple fact that if one of us isn't free, none of us are free. It is for the liberty of all people that we must be eternally vigilant. Honor the struggle, look back on it with pride and a sense of accomplishment, but do not rest. Do not be complacent.
Forging ahead against complacency - that is how Rosa Parks lived her life. From the brave young girl who resisted the taunts and threats of a fear-ridden white child, to the elder spokesperson for dignity and equality for her fellow human beings worldwide, her life was an extraordinary journey, replete with lessons for us all in how to live, and how to fight for what is right and noble and good.
The Civil Rights Era of the Twentieth Century was born on a bus, and fostered in churches, meeting halls, schools, and living rooms across the south. Disclipined organization, activism in the streets, boycotting, enduring arrests, jailings, lynchings and bombings of homes and places of worship - these were the defining prices extolled for equality and freedom. These were endured and fought for by patriots we can all admire and emulate.
Do not be complacent. It was not so long ago, that first day of December in Nineteen Hundred and Fifty-Five. In the crucible of the Deep South, only there could the hardest and best-fought victories be obtained, with liberty and justice for all.
For the angel made in Montgomery, thank you dear Rosa.
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