Rosa Parks and Dr. King

Oct. 25 - Rosa Parks, whose refusal to give up her seat to a white man sparked the Montgomery bus boycott in 1956, passed away yesterday at the age of 92. What words can possibly express the immense respect and admiration due this woman who, by a simple act of dignity, brought national attention to a deep injustice in our country thus prodding at and eventually awakening the conscience of that nation?

There was an additional layer to the issue: Mrs. Parks was a woman and it was considered a decent courtesy for a man to give up his seat for a woman, yet she was supposed to surrender her seat to him. It was impossible not to recognize that Mrs. Parks had been denied a common courtesy which her gender should have accorded her - if one considered her to be human. And, of course, that was the ultimate question.

I was too young to be fully aware of the boycott but as I grew older and learned more about Jim Crow laws (those laws mandating "separate but equal" facilities) I was incredulous - as perhaps only a child could be - when I learned that there were states that had laws requiring that, e.g., schools, hotels, drinking fountains, swimming pools, beaches and washrooms be segregated: there must be separate facilities for white people and "colored" people. Anyone's sense of fair play was further outraged when it was recognized that the reality was that there was not necessarily a duplication of services; for example, African-Americans were not allowed to drink out of water fountains marked "For Whites Only" but that did not necessarily mean that there was a water fountain nearby marked "For Coloreds Only." (The indignity worsens when we recall that the same lack of facilities held true for washrooms.)

Those times are thankfully in the past. They may be part of our history but they are past history, and although there are still racists in our midst they no longer have the acquiescence of the state. Which, again, brings us back to Rosa Parks.

The biography which CNN offers in the above link is adequate, but a better one is available here. Both articles note her involvement in the NAACP, but did you know that it was founded in 1909? (read the time line at that last link - you may find some surprises.)

There will likely be a great many public tributes over the next few days but I'd like to think that the better ones will be those many of us will be paying in our hearts to this woman who, with Dr. King, challenged us to be better Americans and better Christians and Jews.

Thank you, Mrs. Parks, and God bless you. You made us better.

Posted by: Debbye at 12:59 PM | Comments (10) | Add Comment
Post contains 473 words, total size 3 kb.

1 I just had a complete Rosa Parks post eaten up and lost by mu.nu, but Rosa Parks is worth dpoing it all over again. [I'll save before posting this time]. Getting on a bus in Washington DC, cira 1962, I was rivited by the furtive behavior of a nice fortyish black lady. She got up from her mid-bus seat and moved to the back so that my seating choices would be wider. I sat down behind the bus driver and looked out the window to conceal any emotion showing. Being from Montreal where everyone respects everyone regardless of race colour or even Martian heritage, this behaviour was a shocking intro to southern social conditioning in the USA. Just knowing that Rosa Parks contributed to earasing that condition is enough to make her a peerless hero to me. I do not want to ever see any person of any heritage give up their bus seat to me with that scared look in their eye, ever again. TG

Posted by: TonyGuitar at October 25, 2005 04:12 PM (rmMzv)

2 I'm truly amazed (humbled perhaps) at the effect one decent person can have on society. Mrs. Parks, you have left the world a better place. Thank you.

Posted by: John B at October 26, 2005 10:23 AM (ju7Wp)

3 I just finished adding 512 Mb to my Compaq Presario computer and I am delighted with the results. The three, [always on top], performance bars really tell the story too. Top real time bar is CPU demand, middle is memory and the third is virtual memory. The two memory reserve bars are giving me more than double the head room I used to have and of course everything is quicker. Should have done this as soon as I got the Presario. For a step by step of how to easily add memory , there is a pretty clear account of what I did at: http://Anchorpin.Redpin.com So you can see how easy it is if you have not added a memory module yet. The active graph bar that clearly shows how the computer has improved is called Cool Beans and it’s a perfect freeware program. It’s small, yet it gets all your computer specs and tells you how good your computer is as well. TG http://my.Opera.com/T-G/

Posted by: TonyGuitar at October 27, 2005 03:22 AM (rmMzv)

4 You gotta hand it to Rosa Parks. It took a middle-aged black woman with tired feet to show America what a dungpile it is, and if America was ever even half of what it so obnoxiously claims to be nobody would've ever heard of Mrs. Parks because her noble effort would have been totally unneccessary.

Posted by: Terrence at October 27, 2005 11:37 AM (6/LqO)

5 You gotta hand it to Rosa Parks. It took a middle-aged black woman with tired feet to show America what a dungpile it is, and if America was ever even half of what it so obnoxiously claims to be nobody would've ever heard of Mrs. Parks because her noble effort would have been totally unneccessary and thus would've never happened.

Posted by: Terrence at October 27, 2005 11:37 AM (6/LqO)

6 New Trojan: Public Service Mention: [Canadians who sign on for Afghanistan soldiers of fortune army.] Hey, Drug addicts will sign up. There they can walk about in Heroin Heaven, carrying a lethal weapon and wearing Canadian government permission. Poppyfield nirvanna. Oh deliver me please.. eh? Webroot just proved itself this morning. It caught 11 reporter cookies and one Back-door Trojan. Not a bad find, when you consider Bill Gates scans for stuff here every am around 2. Google Webroot. It's just a few bucks or they may still have a free version. I thought someone was poking about in my Compaqy1. Zapped him now! Posted the Webroot screen [ small thumbnail] on http://My.Opera.com/T-G/ Terrence, don't worry about paying tribute to Rosa twice. She deserves it. Some times a comment goes the long way around, pausing for a breath in China or random scanning in the Brock Mountain Security complex. Then it shows up a little after your second post..eh?

Posted by: TonyGuitar at October 27, 2005 02:46 PM (rmMzv)

7 Nice tribute. Isn't it just like our Liberal government to remain silent about the death of Rosa Parks?

Posted by: Al Gordon at October 28, 2005 11:45 PM (xIUY7)

8 Ha! Nice one, Al! What was Pierre Pettigrew doing instead - getting his hair styled in Paris by a limp-wristed cheese-eating surrender monkey?? If only more people had Rosa Parks' bravery, the Palestinians would be defeated.

Posted by: Joan O'C at October 29, 2005 12:06 AM (xIUY7)

9 Completely OT, but, Debbye, you might want to check your e-mail... Just saying, is all...

Posted by: Paul Jané at October 31, 2005 04:52 AM (W1E5O)

10 Must be on one of those french vacations.

Posted by: Jay at November 01, 2005 11:09 PM (PIbeE)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

Oct. 25 - Last May British MP George Galloway scornfully challenged Sen. Norm Coleman to produce evidence that he had received oil vouchers from Saddam Hussein during the former's testimony before the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations which at the time was investigating the U.N. Oil-for-Food Program. Well, the evidence been produced (Senate panel accuses British lawmaker) and the U.S. Department of Justice will be asked to consider charging Galloway with perjury and obstruction of congressional proceedings.

The British newspaper, the Daily Telegraph, proclaims Galloway's wife 'received £100,000 from Iraqis':

The Palestinian-born wife of George Galloway, the Respect MP, is accused today of receiving $149,980 (about £100,000) derived from the United Nations Iraqi oil-for-food programme.

A report by an investigative committee of the United States Senate says the money was sent to the personal account of Amineh Abu Zayyad in August 2000.

[...]

The report includes bank records showing a paper trail from Saddam's ministries to Mrs Galloway. It states that the Iraqis handed several lucrative oil-for-food contracts to the Jordanian businessman Fawaz Zureikat, an old friend of the Galloways. A month later, on Aug 3, 2000, Mr Zureikat allegedly paid $150,000 minus a bank commission of $20 from his Citibank account number 500190207 into Mrs Galloway's account at the Arab Bank in Amman.

The senate team also says that a $15,666 payment had been made on the same date to a Bank of Scotland account belonging to Mr Galloway's spokesman, Ron McKay. Last night Mr McKay said he had no recollection of the alleged payment.

[...]

Senate staff said at a press conference yesterday that they would send their report to Britain and Jordan for possible action against the Galloways and Mr Zureikat.

Posted by: Debbye at 08:39 AM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
Post contains 321 words, total size 3 kb.

Oct. 21 - The Washingto Post had an un-insightful item yesterday: Rice Declines to Give Senators Timeline for Germany South Korea Iraq Withdrawal.

I could have included Bosnia/Serbia/Kosovo, Afghanistan and the Horn of Africa in the strike-outs, but it was already getting a tad long! (Feel free to add your own favourite "quagmire," but Los Angeles is off-limits!)

I hate to disappoint the Post, but most Americans understood going in that it would be a long-term committment. We also understood that sticking this through would meet our long-term objectives far more than cutting and running.

Having said that, it also grieves me that some of our best men and women are being killed and maimed over there. It just seems wrong that the intelligent idiots in their ivory towers babble on while those who many - including me - consider their betters are on the front lines.

Where are all those human shields, anyway? They would protect hospitals and electrical stations under Saddam's rule but not under Iraq home rule? Couldn't they at least protect the defense lawyers for Saddam's trial? (No link yet, but word has it that he has been found dead.) [07:45 - link now available here.

Posted by: Debbye at 06:26 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 220 words, total size 2 kb.

Oct. 21 - Thanks to Kevin for this heads-up: Pundit Review: Michael Yon This Sunday, 9 p.m. ET, on Pundit Review Radio. Mr. Yon in an embedded reporter (his current affiliation is with the Weekly Standard) and his accounts and photos are markedly different from what we read on CNN or Fox.

If you haven't been following Mr. Yon's dispatches online, you can read them here and you might want to begin with this.

The post linked above at Pundit Review in turn links to WRKO and from there you can click on the "Listen Live" button. (I presume! If I'm wrong please let me know.)

I am supposed to work Sunday night, worse luck. Too bad I can't set something equivalent to a VCR for the broadcast, but I am looking forward to reading the reviews or, better, if anyone knows of a transcript of the interview please let me know.

Posted by: Debbye at 01:09 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 160 words, total size 1 kb.

Oct. 18 - The only real dam I've ever seen is Hoover Dam so I'm hardly an expert but even so I never imagined a dam would be made of wood unless beavers were members of the construction crew.

Good luck to the folks in Taunton. After this passes, the owners might want to start thinking about upgrading.

Posted by: Debbye at 09:53 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 72 words, total size 1 kb.

Oct. 6 - I accused the press of racism on Oct. 4 because they were too quick to believe that black Americans descended into barbarism after the levees in New Orleans broke and flooded large sections of the city. The damage caused by the wholesale failure to confirm information before rushing to press has been partially addressed in a lengthy article in yesterday's Washington Post - News of Pandemonium May Have Slowed Aid and evacuation efforts in New Orleans.

This is quite a comedown. The press was quite self-congratulatory when they believed their fearless reporting of widespread murders, rapes, child molestations and the wholesale looting of the entire gun department at Walmart sped aid to New Orleans and now they can contemplate the reality: that spreading these false rumours delayed rescue efforts and, worse, made other cities fear to welcome those in desperate need of refuge.

The press believed their own press. Who said irony was dead? (Come to think of it, it was the press!)

I'd like to cut writers Robert E. Pierre and Ann Gerhart some slack for at least addressing the failures of the news coverage in New Orleans during those terrible days but although the article starts well it ends with incredible stupidity:

Five weeks after Hurricane Katrina laid waste to New Orleans, some local, state and federal officials have come to believe that exaggerations of mayhem by officials and rumors repeated uncritically in the news media helped slow the response to the disaster and tarnish the image of many of its victims.

Claims of widespread looting, gunfire directed at helicopters and rescuers, homicides, and rapes, including those of "babies" at the Louisiana Superdome, frequently turned out to be overblown, if not completely untrue, officials now say.

[jumping to the concluding paragraph]

Keith M. Woods, faculty dean at the Poynter Institute for journalists, is willing to cut reporters some slack. "Every institutional source for quality information was uprooted," said Woods, a New Orleans native whose father's and sister's homes were flooded. "It was different than 9/11 because everything was underwater, and you are relying totally on word of mouth. In that situation, invariably, we will get some things wrong. One of the questions that would have served us better is 'How do you know that?'" (Bolding added)

Another feature of the article that could have been explored more thoroughly is this:

"Rumor control was a beast for us," said Maj. Ed Bush of the Louisiana National Guard, who was stationed at the Superdome. "People would hear something on the radio and come and say that people were getting raped in the bathroom or someone had been murdered. I would say, 'Ma'am, where?' I would tell them if there were bodies, my guys would find it. Everybody heard, nobody saw. Logic was out the window because the situation was illogical."

[...]

The Washington Post, in a Sept. 1 front-page article, noted that evacuees at the Superdome were repeating rumors of rapes and killings but quoted Maj. Bush as saying "none of that" occurred. A Sept. 15 front-page story said the precise number of people who died in the convention center was not known at the time, but officials believed it could be as many as 10. (Bolding added.)

Lt. Gen. Russel L. Honore, commander of Joint Task Force Katrina, said that reporters got bogged down trying to tell people how bad the situation was rather than "gathering facts and corroborating that information."

Another panicked rumour has been found to have a more likely explanation:

Federal agents arrested a man for shooting at a helicopter, on Sept. 5. But several officials, including Blanco, now believe that some of the gunfire people reported in the city was attempts to signal rescuers because residents have told them so.

The article does do a credible job of addressing some of the rumours and dispensing of them and, under the sub-title "Setting the Record Straight," it permits one of those who remained rooted in reality, Major Bush, to do just that.

Maj. Bush of the Louisiana National Guard said he is glad the record is being corrected.

"I certainly saw fights, but I saw worse fights at a Cubs game in Chicago," he said. "The people never turned into these animals. They have been cheated out of being thought of as these tough people who looked out for each other. We had more babies born [in the Superdome] than we had deaths." (Bolding added)

(Via Neale News)

Posted by: Debbye at 08:09 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 968 words, total size 6 kb.

Oct. 5 - Larry shows how power point presentations lead to so much audience inattention that they uncritically view one that seemingly shows that FEMA leads to disaster.

I'm not sure how I would redo this, but I think that metaphorically speaking, prevention and preparedness shouldn't lead to disaster.

Posted by: Debbye at 08:02 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 56 words, total size 1 kb.

Oct. 4 - The New Orleans death toll from the levee breaches and Hurricane Katrina is now at 964 972 Dead and body searches have ended. Mississippi lost 221 souls during the hurricane.

This is far short of the 10,000 feared dead in New Orleans but there is no reason to celebrate.

The looting (and I'm not talking about foraging for food and water) was unsurprising. The indications that some New Orleans policemen deserted and others were looters was surprising.

But the biggest - and most shameful - surprise was how readily the news media believed the horror stories of rape, murder and child molestation within the Super Dome and on the streets. I'm not the only blogger who was skeptical about the stories and didn't repeat them so I'm not bragging but the question remains: what do ordinary Americans have that the news media doesn't?

The answer is common sense - and maybe something else.

The stories were not believed by many of us because they were literally unbelievable. We know ourselves and we know that a dire situation as Katrina tends to unite us even if only the interests of survival. Thank back on the footage we actually saw. Groups of people previously unknown to one another were trapped together on overpasses as well as in the Convention Center and Super Dome and they did as people in such circumstances have always done: stayed together and helped one another until they were rescued.

Look, accusations of racism have been flung about too wildly in the aftermath of Katrina so I'm hesitant to say this, but I can't help believing that racism played a role in the willingness of the news media to believe that black Americans descended into lawlessness and barbarism - there was even an account of cannibalism, for crying out loud - and they should be called on it.

Yet which of those who broadcast these stories as fact has had the guts to wonder why they were so gullible?

It wasn't the black faces in the flooded streets of New Orleans that gave evidence of racism in America but the willing promulgation of lies and sensationalist stories by the news media. Shame on them. They owe all of us an apology.

Posted by: Debbye at 09:32 AM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
Post contains 388 words, total size 2 kb.

Oct. 3 - Murdoc reports there are Predators on the line (I'm soft on those predators.)

Posted by: Debbye at 06:46 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 24 words, total size 1 kb.

Oct. 3 - As women we demand equal rights and accept that, with those rights, come responsibilities. One young woman who accepted those responsibilities was Airman 1st Class Elizabeth Jacobson, and on Sept. 28 she became the Air Force's first female casualty in Iraq.

The Cult of the Victim is one side of feminism but I prefer the side that women like Airman Jacobson represent. They let their deeds - not their grievances - speak.

Godspeed though that wild blue yonder, Airman Jacobson. And thank you.

Her story is here and a more personal account is here.

Posted by: Debbye at 08:15 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 107 words, total size 1 kb.