“I am leaving this legacy to all of you … to bring peace, justice, equality, love and a fulfillment of what our lives should be. Without vision, the people will perish, and without courage and inspiration, dreams will die – the dream of freedom and peace.”

On or around September 2, 2005, Katrina evacuees from the Superdome, who had endured personal loss, heat, hunger, squalor, humiliation, and thirst were forced to move to the back of a line of people boarding busses. 700 employees and guests of the Hyatt hotel, who had survived in relative comfort, were allowed to board first.
The evacuees complied, the news was broadcast, the politicians poo-pooed, and the story was left behind in the dregs of the disaster.

In December, 1955, a soft-spoken Black seamstress was ordered to surrender her seat to a White man. She refused, was arrested, and fined $14.
And helped set in motion a chain of events that altered the course of American history.

Would I have given up peacefully in either case? I’d like to THINK not. I’ve got a seat. I paid for it. I earned it. If I didn’t, my father did, or my father’s father, or his father before him.

And I’d like a nice, smooth, undisturbed ride too. But whether the excuse is race or class or gender or sexuality…whether you threaten me with the law, terrorism, poverty, or accusations of lack of patriotism—I ain’t givin’ up the seat.

The quotation above is by the woman who asserted her right to be treated as a citizen of this country, equal to any other American.

Rest in peace, Mrs. Rosa Parks.

As for the rest of us—keep those walking shoes handy. There’s still lots of work to be done.