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Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Rosa Parks: the beginning of the avalanche


Rosa Parks is dead. For those who think they can do nothing to bring about change, Rosa Parks is an example to us all. Rosa Parks was the black woman who refused to give up her seat for a white man. A simple thing - but it brought in its wake a revolution. Rosa was a member of a black activist organisation - perhaps, it could be said, no more than a foot-soldier in what she could contribute. She had taken the first step in activism in joing an organisation of like-minded people. Her spirit was in the right place and space when courage was demanded - a courage to go against the norms set by the community in which she lived. Just as we remember Jesus turning the tables in the Temple in Jerusalem and its meaning over 2,000 years for Christian social activism, we remember Rosa's action on a bus and what it has meant over almost fifty years for non-violent social activism in the USA and around the world.