The New York Times obituary of Rosa Parks sticks with the profile-in-individual-courage concept, instead of the treating it as an organized, intelligent, pragmatic attack on Jim Crow. I realize that our society demands larger-than-life heroes who stand alone and cry “Enough!”…but then the obit goes on to describe another woman who didn’t give up her seat who was deemed an “unsuitable symbol” by the movement.
It’s hard to complain too much about lauding a deserving hero for her actions, but it hides the hard work done by activists and organizers in favor of a cult of personality. Frustrating.

Posted by: Rowan | Oct 25 2005 16:25 utc | 4

Thank you Ms. Parks. Rest now, rest.

Posted by: e | Oct 25 2005 20:15 utc | 6

It’s a truism but a movement is made up of individuals and while I don’t go big on deifying any individual there are some extremely valuable lessons to be learned from Rosa Parks’ day on the bus.
The biggest danger of over-gloritying any individual was referenced in Rowan’s post where the ‘movement’ selected Parks as what we now call the ‘poster child’ for a person unjustly disadvantage by discrimination. Apparently others were rejected because of ‘unsuitability’.
One of the things that the MSM cheerfully overlooks and a lot of us prefer not to discuss is that we all have feet of clay.
This feature of humanity has been exploited time and time again by the MSM to either denigrate people whose point of view they find dangerous or unacceptable or to encourage those who they wish to use ‘to toe the line’.
Remember that one of those little flaws that we have is taking delight in seeing the reputation of others trammelled so it’s not sufficient just to blame the MSM and move on.
That ‘Desperate People’ show about the tough time the middle classes have wouldn’t be on TV if humans didn’t enjoy the vicarious pleasure of observing other’s misfortune.
But anyway I’m straying again. The point is that we all need to remember that our actions as an individual ARE capable of effecting major change.
If there is a single common emotion expressed through virtually all of the posts at MoA it is how powerless we feel in the face of the BushCo fascist machine.
It is vital that we all remember as every 1000 mile journey begins with one step, every movement begins with one person.
And yes I realise how trite that can sound when we our culture feeds us a sustained diet of superheroes saving the world with their amazing powers.
We tend to deal with this by extrapolating those powers on to others. Dubya is a classic example. He was perceived to be almost superhuman by some because he combined the super powers and virtue of the office of president of the US with the super powers and virtues of being a ‘born again’ xtian.
That reputation meant that as individuals people were reluctant to ‘battle with him’.
When Cindy Sheehan decided to confront him, she was deemed to be a credible opponent by the US culture because she had the power imbued in her by the ghost of her dead son.
But I bet she didn’t feel that way. I’m also sure that if the dreadful little man occupying the Whitehouse at the moment honestly told us what he felt, it would be how useless and powerless he feels deep down when trying to play the role of POTUS.
As an individual I’ve been involved with actions which have effected major change in the society around me only a couple of times, if that but I have noticed a few things from that.
The first thing to hold on to is that ANY of us are able to be the correct lever on the right fulcrum to ‘move the earth’ and secondly that if one finds oneself being the lever, the fulcrum, the person pulling the lever or cheering on any of the others, it happens unexpectedly but not by chance.
I mean that if we are making positive moves towards enabling change, any of us can get swept up in the initial momentum of that change and amplify it.
Just as Rosa Parks did. Although our culture tries to tell us that what happened was because Rosa Parks was a ‘special’ person we need to recognise that as an attempt to disempower us as individuals by an elite terrified that people may cotton on.
Rosa Parks was a special person in the sense that we all are. She was a wonderful individual with the courage and tenacity to recognise that change comes down to what we do as individuals for the greater good. Those characteristics are within all of us, Ms Parks was a mighty lever because although she was ‘just another black woman’, she was already moving towards the change she believed in. Her actions as an individual combined with the era she lived in, amplified the need for change and the lever clicked into place.
There is no doubt that many living in the US do feel completely disempowered by the BushCo megalith, and that is exactly how those assholes want you to feel.
If we can acknowledge that we have some say in our disempowerment and refuse to go along with it then any of us can free ourselves to be the lever.

Posted by: Debs is dead | Oct 25 2005 22:20 utc | 8