April 13, 2017
Today I want to celebrate the courage of a woman known to all of us and the determination and ingenuity of a man known to – I daresay – none of us. I am talking about Rosa Parks, whose courage to insist on her bus seat when challenged by a white man gave rise to the civil rights movement. (Coincidentally, another person not giving up his seat made the news yesterday – a doctor was forcibly and violently dragged from his United Airline seat, paid for and entered legally, after United failed to find volunteers to accommodate their own employees’ needs, and did not offer the amount of money needed to persuade fliers to volunteer their seats. Flying while Chinese has become another source of danger, apparently. But I digress.)
Rosa Park’s house was about to be razed rather than made into a museum – this country has apparently no interest in a memorial to the successful fight of racism, however unfinished. Ryan Mendoza, an artist living in Germany, managed to dismantle it and reconstruct it bit by bit in his Berlin garden, covering the cost of the transatlantic transport himself. Details of this amazing feat below.
http://www.dw.com/en/why-rosa-parks-house-now-stands-in-berlin/a-38343924
And while we’re at it, here is another example of private initiative and determination to fight racism. Leaves me in a good mood this morning (as long as I don’t read the rest of the news.)
Featured image says: Mobile Tolerance Zone
F.X.
Rosa Parks memorial in Berlin……..why? for the same reasons we have so few memorials in this country to remind us of our history of bigotry and racism. (never saw this covered in US news).
Steve Tilden
THANK YOU, Friderike! Inspiring. I anticipate, but will likely miss, the evolution of this country into a true blend of races, and with it a lessening of tribal hatreds.
This from a haole boy from Hawaii, whose friends called him ‘Shark Bait’.