(My bolding).
Come on! I completely agree that this woman should be honoured in the way she has been. She was a good, brave soul and thoroughly deserving of the accolades.
But still living in the age of Jim Crow without her? That’s an absurd statement. Somebody else could, and would, easily have filled that symbolic role.
Yes, she is worthy. She is worthy for her one act alone.
If you do not accept what she did was heroic enough than think of it this way. She represents a pivotal moment of change in the history of this country. A change that was uplifting and good. Her one small act and the defense of her act was the catalyst of change. While this phrase is over used, in her case it is legitimately applied.
So think of Ms. Parks lying in state as not so much celebrating her heroic action, but as celebrating the fact that her act did speed up the changing of the US to a better and more tolerant place.
Jim
What jfranchi said.
But also, Rosa Parks is an American icon–and should be treated as such.
To compare her to Jessicia Lynch is out of line–I don’t even see the way the two equate. JL had her fame thrust upon her–and IMS, the story that got her the fame wasn’t even the real story.
RP is much different. She helped lead an entire movement that still reverberates today.
I have a question–how many women (never mind black women) have actuall lain in state? I can’t think of ONE. (maybe Eleanor Roosevelt, but I doubt it). Maybe RP is still breaking down barriers, even in death.
This has got to be a whoosh. Those two publicity hounds?
Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are dead?
It’s all about getting some civil rights cred for Alito:
Rosa Parks inspired me far more than any president in my lifetime. That’s what lying in state is for, to honor extraordinary individuals who were instrumental in shaping the country we live in today. It doesn’t matter if, as you say, someone else could have sat on that bus. Rosa Parks did, and the shock waves from that act reverberate throughout American life to this day.
2 Timothy 4:7 “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith”
Well done Ms Parks, well done.
The Civil Rights movement in our country was perhaps the single biggest activist-led change to our country’s culture, larger even than Women’s Suffrage. Rosa Parks made a deliberate, calculated, and strategic move to place herself in harm’s way in order to advance the cause of justice, and her doing so brought about a shift in our culture that cannot be overestimated.
She deserves it.
Daniel
She’s not being given a state funeral. I think only Presidents get that. She’s lying in honor.
When I found out Rosa Parks passed away, I hoped but doubted that the government would respond with a fitting tribute to what she meant to the USA.
When I found out she would lay in state where few had I was moved. It was a great mark of respect from the President. I don’t even care if there were underlying political motivations to do so. It is a wonderful tribute. I will applaud Bush for this one.
Disclaimer: I do not like President Bush, if fact I think he is the worst President of my lifetime.
I agree.
WTF?
Please tell me that was written tongue-in-cheek. It’s hard to think of anyone who has done more damage to black folks than Jackson and Sharpton. They are the poster children for the term “poverty pimp”.
It’s perfectly easy to tink of people who have done more damage to black folks, assuming that you recognize that black folks aren’t a monolithic unit. For example, I can think of a president that has gotten hundreds of black folks killed in a war overseas; I don’t think Revs Jackson and Sharpton have come close to doing that sort of damage.
Daniel
I don’t agree, but I understand the dislike for Jackson & Sharpton.
How does our resident rightist feel about Rosa? I am just interested.
I am surprised dnooman seems to have a problem with this and wonder if he just doesn’t know the history.
I am going to point to this thread in MPSIMS for more about Rosa.
I just wish to point out that Kennedy and Johnson got far more Black men killed in Vietnam than Bush. So this is not a fair comparison.
In Jesse’s favor, he has been the loudest voice of conscious in the Democratic Party to keep African-American views and issues from being buried. Al has mellowed a lot from the Rabble Rouser beginnings and is now trying to act as Jesse did.
We should be so lucky.
Rosa Parks deserves every honor we can bestow, because she represents the untolds thousands who labored to bring this country into the light, and did so in darkness.
Seriously. What, did some white guy want to lie in state at the same time or something?
so much d&r
On a more serious note, however, this was the most appropriate (and most touching) tribute they could come up with:
No, I accept this absolutely: you’re right that, per Clothahump’s phrasing, Kennedy is worse than Bush. The problem is that the idea of comparing who’s harmed black folks more is idiotic, and I was mocking the very concept.
If you want to talk about who has most advanced the causes of equality between black Americans and other Americans, then that’s a legitimate conversation; but Clothahump’s phrasing is just plain dumb.
Daniel
Well, the cynical answer would be yes…would you want to be on the Congressional Record voting against it come election time??
Even if the incident didn’t quite have the political impact that history has given it (and I don’t believe this because the chain reaction probably can be traced back to that bus), then it’s still an important symbolic moment as the first step of defiance to the status quo, which is just as powerful.
A lot more powerful and inspiring gesture than Jesse or Al could ever dream of, and I have no problems with the lying in respite whatsoever.
RIP, Rosa.
Forgive me, I mistook it for Bush bashing, which I will normally get in line for to help on, I just wanted to be fair about it. 