On December 1st, 1955, Rosa Parks, a seamstress living in Montgomery, Alabama refused to give up her seat on a Public Bus to a white man. This event sparked the Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott – a critical piece of the civil rights fight.
Any of you bloggers have acts of courage you want to report on? I still remember TSTBGOP’s great letter to the editor of the Eagle about Parks. Maybe on this date, he’d be kind enough to reprint it for us.
Welcome bloggers… to those with acts of courage to report, and to those without.
PrairiePopulistsAndProgressives.net 
Good morning!
A special thanks to Iggy for today’s Public Square. I really appreciate the help!
I’m starting to get back to normal today. The last of the company has a noon flight. Five days of travel followed by five days of house guests left me a tad behind. All thoroughly enjoyable, but I’m ready for some of that ‘normal.’ Onward and upward. I’ll need to catch up on news too. Seems the world continuing spinning without me. Does that mean me paying attention is of little importance?
“I’m starting to get back to normal today.”
Let me know how you do that? I have never figured it out…..
My normal would be different than your normal which would be different than normal for anyone else…
I should have said normal routine, huh?
🙂
Thought some might get a kick out of this:
http://airamerica.com/really/11-30-2009/some-definitions-conservatives/
When I checked our local paper on line this morning I found this. Our Editor often has such thought provoking ramblings. I too kind of share his interest in the origins of words and how they change from the original meanings. Like “Fetching” today if I were to say to a woman she looks fetching. She would take it as a compliment. But if said with its original meaning in mind maybe not so. In the original meaning I am telling her she looks like I would want to have sex with her. She is the slang term fxxx-able!
By Kent Bush
Augusta Gazette
Fri Nov 27, 2009, 06:21 AM CST
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Augusta, Kan. –
As someone who writes a lot, it may come as no surprise to readers that I love words. I love to know the origins of common phrases and words that aren’t obvious.
This is not something new to me. I took four years of Latin in high school even though I was planning on being an engineer.
I have noticed a lot of people using the word “debunked” recently. Facts about the bailout get debunked. Beliefs about the health care proposal are debunked.
I caught myself chasing a mental rabbit and wondering why no one ever “bunked” anything. They debunk everything.
So I chased that rabbit as far as it would go. Obviously, debunk implies that you are taking away the bunk. Bunk in this usage means ludicrously false statements.
But where did that meaning of “bunk” come from? That’s an interesting story.
Felix Walker was a representative in Congress in 1820 when Missouri was being considered for inclusion as a state. He represented Buncombe County, North Carolina and he wanted to make sure his constituents’ voices were heard.
He gave a long and roiling speech called “A speech from Buncombe.”
Not surprisingly, his colleagues weren’t swayed or impressed by his words of wisdom. He became the butt of jokes when a representative’s speech was overblown they often were chided for “speaking to Buncombe.” Over the course of several recordings of the word, it often was misspelled Bunkum. Then, like all good slang words, it was shortened.
So any speech that is nonsensical or of little worth is now called simply bunk. To overcome those arguments, you debunk them. So now you know.
I’ll see if I still have the item I wrote about Rosa Parks. Well no luck which is unusal for me. My wife accuses me of saving everything I write including shopping lists. Sorry…
TSTBGOP,
Is there any chance it is somewhere on the other blog in their archives? Do you remember the month and year you wrote it?
I did a search of the other blog and could not find where the Rosa Parks letter had been posted there. It was published in the Eagle on 10/26/2005. Will see if it can be obtained from there without too much expense.
Searched high and low and could not find a copy of the Rosa Parks letter. Did find an old thread on the other blog where everyone was commenting on the “meet-up” that T.C. organized. It sounded like a good one.
Iggy it is a blessing/curse for me, after writing something I can remember at least the jest of it.
But not the words and sentences, it is kind of blessing though.
When I read something years later, it is new to me and I can be impressed by it.
Or think who was that dummy that wrote that?
But these maybe new thoughts on the actions and outcomes of that brave lady.
Imagine living in a world where the simple thing of the color of your skin.
Causes you to suffer and feel less then a human in your world.
Something you did not have a choice in the matter and can not correct or change to please others.
To make your life better and that of your children, to bring hope in a world that there seem nothing but your lot in life.
So many had just accept it, this is the lot in life and so is your life.
But that day she did something that changed her world with nothing more then taking a seat on a bus.
She did not yell or throw a rock at the world just took a seat on a bus!
Knowing it may not end well for her, that is would give reason for focus that the color of her skin would have anyway.
She might have escaped that attention, quietly setting in the back and secretly slipping off at her stop.
Walking away trying to be invisible to those who hated her for her color.
Accepting her lot in life and that of her children, but that day she did not.
Bravery is often defined by how many you have killed in war.
How many bullet you have dodged in the attempt to save your brothers-in-arms.
But this was not attempting to kill the enemy.
It was not an attempt to save her brothers and sisters.
No this was bravery at it’s best, she was saving her country and people.
Both those of the color of her skin and that of those who hated her for her color.
She seat for not just her own rights but for everyone.
One persons rights denied is denying the rights of everyone.
For once that person’s rights are denied and that denial is accepted then where does it stop?
Stop and think about it, the impact of just taking a seat on a bus and then refusing to surrender it.
brought more change then all the marches and violent, of all the racism and lynching committed.
This single small woman was more powerful than all the hooded racists.
She was more powerful then the conscious of the nation to move toward justice and equality.
The simple act of setting on a bus and the world changed that day.
Was that her hope? I doubt it, she may not have been thinking in that light.
More then likely she was thinking she might have her head bashed in.
Then her children would suffer the lost of their mother.
That she would be denied her freedom and made an example for others who might stand up or set down as she was doing.
Perhaps her thoughts were of a minute, just that she was not hurting anyone and there was no reason to move. Maybe anger at the suggestion she should move, all I do know is that she changed the world I live in.
courage, bravery, a sense of right and wrong, may not have been on her mind.
But that is what was shown and for that her name should be remembered and repeated by all of any color.
I asked you to imagine living in a world where the simple thing of the color of your skin.
Causes you to suffer and feel less then a human in your world.
Now I will ask you to imagine a world without the likes of Rose Parks?
William Shatner (yes, the former Captain Kirk of Star Trek) interviews the fat radio guy.. brief except
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/01/shatner-grills-limbaugh-a_n_375816.html
By the way.. I have that photo of Rosa on the bus, ripped from a newspaper, on my office wall.