Rosa Parks was a fine, brave woman who helped to push the levers
of American history in a positive direction. Her death deserves to
be marked with appropriate solemnity; but does it
follow that she deserves to lie in honor in the Capitol Rotunda?
And who gets to lie in the Rotunda, anyway? According to Wikipedia:
The first leader to receive this honor was statesman
Henry Clay in 1852. Since then the honor has been extended to 10
U.S. presidents, including the four who were assassinated, but is
not limited to them.…No law, written rule, or regulation
specifies who may lie in state; use of the Rotunda is controlled by
concurrent action of the House and Senate. Any person who has
rendered distinguished service to the nation may lie in state if
the family so wishes and Congress approve.... Because lying in
state is considered by some in the U.S. to be reserved for former
presidents and military officials, when the procedure is followed
to honor a civilian, it is sometimes referred to as lying in
honor.
There may be no formal rules governing the ritual, but since
1852, only 29 Americans have lain in the Rotunda. That number
includes 10 presidents, the most recent being President Reagan in
2004. It also includes a few senators, Generals Pershing and
MacArthur, J. Edgar Hoover, Hubert Humphrey, and two U.S. Capitol
police officers killed in the line of duty in 1998. Parks is just
the second non-governmental official, the first being Pierre
L'Enfant in 1909.
You don't win new friends by quibbling with the honors accorded
an old woman. Even so, it's difficult to escape the suspicion that
mourning Parks in the Rotunda is a desperate gesture of
overcompensation from a civil rights establishment that has been
bankrupt of ideas and moral force for several decades.
Over-elevating her now will only do a disservice when more eminent,
and infinitely more accomplished, black Americans eventually pass
from the scene. When they do, they will only be able to equal, not
exceed, the honors accorded a woman whose act of refusal in 1955
had no greater aim than to allow them, eventually, to pass her
by.
topics:
Law, Military, NATO
