When I was reading what you wrote, Paul, I was tempted to
believe that the purpose of elevating Rosa Parks was to celebrate
her particular brand of civil rights activism. But that would have
required some thinking on the part of the elected officials who
were probably a little more concerned about how bad their image
would be otherwise. Dave, talk about turning people into objects,
it didn't take long after Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination
for the riots to start.
But here we have two national figures who have been exploited in
this way for decades -- Rosa Parks showed up in at least one or two
State of the Union cameos. It can be argued that national figures
are the stuff of tokenage, and carping about it as bad form is just
tut-tutting. Well, then, what about the plight of those affected by
the Hurricanes? To no end did we hear about poor people
specifically as though they were the only ones suffering. Yet where
are those honest enough to aid them in their hour of need, after
the media buzz is over?
Instead, I'm actually more curious about how few military heroes
are on display, not in the rotunda, perhaps, but in the media in
general. I would take a Rosa Parks any day over the violent
agitators who sold out their own cause. But why not the people who
fight for all of us today?
topics:
Military
