While I do feel that there were some poignant moments during the service, was a 7 hour funeral what Rosa Parks really wanted?

I look at her life and how she led quietly. Even though she was arrested she never at any point truly capitalized on the personal stance she made that day on the bus. I think that because we are still this day in awe of what she did we want to eulogize her and show her gratitude for what she did. Gratitude is one thing but it doesn't take 7 hours. Hell MLK's funeral wasn't that long. Sometimes in our efforts to produce a tribute that "we" feel is fitting for a person we end up losing sight of who the person really was and what they would have really wanted. Now if Rosa Parks' requested all this fanfare I would retract my statements.

RIP Rosa Parks

(Warning: sarcasm alert)

No, of course, they can't break format because they're carrying on the spirit of their founder -- entertain, not enlighten, and they are capitalists, not social service providers.

(End sarcasm)

But if not for the efforts of Soror Parks and many others, there would be no market opportunities, as it were. Think about that, Bwana Bob, Debra Lee, Viacom, etc.

I don't know what she wanted...

I had this discussion of sorts last night. IF, the fanfare wasn't there, I"m sure many would not have been satisfied. If there was a quiet service in Montgomery or Detroit, dissenters would have wondered why not something more elaborate? why not this? why not that? :confused:

Bottom line, no one will be satisfied! The family did what they thought was best (I'm sure).

I salute the family members. They had to go through 3 services, plus share some of their mourning period with the rest of the world.

While we try to think about the wishes of the dececed in times like this, someone once told me funerals are not for the dead, they are for the living. I believe that.

http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/talla...l/13031244.htm

Posted on Sat, Oct. 29, 2005




For black pilot, flying Rosa Parks is a great honor

BRIAN WITTE

Associated Press


BALTIMORE - For Lou Freeman, flying the body of Rosa Parks to memorial services is an honor that has brought tears to his eyes.

Freeman, the first black man to become a chief pilot for a U.S. carrier, said Saturday he was thrilled to volunteer for the job of flying the woman who sparked the modern civil rights movement.

"It's been real historic - a wondrous reflective part of history when you realize you're touching something that's going to last forever," he said in a telephone interview.

Freeman, a pilot for Southwest Airlines, described landing in Montgomery and being greeted by well-wishers before they got off the plane. As the plane taxied to the airport, fire trucks saluted their arrival by shooting arches of water over the runway. Freeman said the gesture is made for pilots on a final flight.

"Fifty years ago, those same fire hoses were being used against Rosa Parks, and now they're honoring Rosa Parks, so there's been some changes in the last 50 years," Freeman said.

Freeman flew about 100 people on Saturday from Detroit to Montgomery, Ala., including Parks' family members, representatives from the NAACP and members of the Rosa Parks Institute.

Freeman said the job has caused him to reflect on how the civil rights movement changed the country.

"It makes you want to tear up and cry when you think of what she did and what she accomplished," he said. "She told us all to stand up for our rights."

The 53-year-old pilot from Chicago will fly Parks and family members to Baltimore-Washington International Airport on Sunday, just before her body is taken by motorcade to lie in honor in the Capitol Rotunda later Sunday and on Monday, making her the first woman accorded the honor.

"It shows the significance that all of America puts on Rosa Parks," Freeman said.

Freeman said he's focused on making the flights as smooth as possible.

"To me, it's quite an honor to help them get to where they are going," he said.

I don't know if anyone got this email but I have a copy of the program from Rosa Parks' funeral. PM and I can email you a copy. You need Adobe Acrobat to open it.

OHIO HOUSE DECLARES DEC. 1 ROSA PARKS DAY
State joins Michigan in honoring civil-rights icon
Published: Thursday, November 17, 2005

By Jim Siegel
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Ohio will be the second state to designate Dec. 1, 2005, as Rosa Parks Day, honoring the civil-rights icon on the anniversary of the day she refused to give up her seat on a public bus to a white rider.

The House unanimously passed a resolution yesterday to honor Parks, who died in October at age 92. Rep. Joyce Beatty, the sponsor, said she hopes the legislature includes the designation in state law next year through a separate bill.


If passed, Ohio would be the first state to place Rosa Parks Day in state law, meaning it would be recognized every year on Dec. 1.

"It's important to me that American history, particularly with African-Americans, continues to be told," said Beatty, a Columbus Democrat. "We consider her to be the mother of the civil-rights movement, and because of her act, America is all the better."

Parks sparked the modern civil-rights movement on Dec. 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Ala., when she refused to give up her seat near the front of a public bus. Led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., blacks organized a 382-day boycott of the city-owned bus company, and the U.S. Supreme Court eventually outlawed racial segregation on public transportation.

Beatty said the Central Ohio Transit Authority will join public-transit authorities across the nation on Dec. 1 in honoring the 50th anniversary of Parks' action by keeping open a front seat on each bus.

Michigan is the only other state that has designated this Dec. 1 as Rosa Parks Day.

Way to go, Ohio. ...also I think Rep. Beatty is a member of Delta Sigma Theta.

12/1/55 in Montgomery, Alabama
 

50th Anniversary of Rosa refusing to move to the back of the bus.
6:06 PM (per Tavis Smiley)

Re: 12/1/55 in Montgomery, Alabama
 

I was just coming to post this. :)

We are forever in her debt.

50 Years Ago Today... From Michael Moore
 

Subject: 50 Years Ago Today... From Michael Moore


December 1, 2005

Friends,

I just thought we should all pause for a moment today to remember the simple act of courage, defiance and dignity committed by Rosa Parks when she refused to move to the back of the bus because the law said she had the wrong skin color. The greatest moments in history, the ones that have truly mattered and have taken us to a better place, are made up of scores of these singular acts by ordinary, everyday people who could no longer tolerate the crap and the nonsense of those in charge.

Today, whether it is a student who holds a sit-in to get the army recruiters off his campus, or the mother of a dead soldier who refuses to leave the front gate of the president's ranch, we continue to be saved by brave people who risk ridicule and rejection but end up turning huge tides of public opinion in the direction of righteousness. We owe them enormous debts of gratitude. It is not easy to stand up for what is right, especially when everyone else is afraid to leave the comfortable path of conformity.

Rosa Parks may have been alone on that bus at the moment of her arrest but she wasn't alone for long. The old order was shaken, the world was upended and, as a people, we were given a chance for a bit of redemption.

Perhaps the best way to celebrate this most important day in American history is to ask yourself what it is that you can do today to make a difference. What risk can you take to move the ball forward? What is that one thing you've been wanting to say to your co-workers or classmates that you've been afraid to say -- but in your heart of hearts you know needs to be said? Why wait another day to say it or do it?

There is probably no better way to honor Rosa Parks -- and yourself -- than for you to put a stop to an injustice you see, not allowing it to continue for one more second. Do something. Then send me an email (contributions@michaelmoore.com) and tell all of us what you did (I'll post as many as I can).

Fifty years later, the bus we're on could use a few more people simply saying, "No. I'm sorry. I've had enough. I'm not going to take it anymore."

Yours,

Michael Moore
www.michaelmoore.com

Westchester County New York remembers Rosa Parks today.

My County has finally done something to make me proud.


http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/p...DATE/512010447