Why do we have this thing that we do when we soften and sweeten people like Rosa Parks and Dr. King and Gandhi. They were steel, not Wonder Bread. She was not a sweet little old lady who happened to be too tired to give her seat to a white man on a bus one day. She was a woman who knew that the status quo had to change, that segregation was wrong, that she was of equal value as a human being to any white man.
Today she would have been 100 years old, so in the mid-fifties, she was in her mid-forties. She was an activist. Her father was an activist. It was no accident that she was the spark that ignited the Montgomery Bus Boycott. There were many fortuitous events that helped the movement. One great thing that happened was that a young minister arrived in town and he turned out to be a great speaker and an inspired leader: Dr. King. The other great surprise was that the people supported the boycott the day of her arraignment and then voted to continue it. Read about it! It is one of the most courageous and trans formative moments in the history of the USA in my lifetime.
The great movers and shakers of history should not be watered down in our telling of their stories. They knew they were right and they were willing to stake their lives on what they knew was right. Dr. King and Gandhi lost their lives and became martyrs. Whom do we remember with reverence year after year? We will forget the names of the redneck racist cops who beat them up. Many will not even remember who ran the countries when these troubles occurred, but the people who spoke truth to power went down in history. Who do we want to be?
I get very angry when I see injustice. The Dalai Lama says that anger can be of real value if it is a motivating force to make the world a better place. Of late, I have been in a bit of a coma. I want to do some good works in the world. If I look at my personal story, my next cause will probably find me, not the other way around. I am getting my fighting Irish ready for action.
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