Rosa Parks 1913 - 2005

From TIME.com

Rosa Parks was tired. She'd just spent all day sewing and pressing clothes at the Montgomery, Alabama., department store, where she was a tailor's assistant. Her feet, neck and shoulders ached as she arrived at her bus stop to go home. The thought of standing during the ride did not sit well with her, so she let one crowded bus go by.

A second, less crowded bus came. She got on, taking a seat in the middle of the bus. In the segregated Montgomery of Dec. 1, 1955, the first 10 rows are reserved for white riders. As the bus went along its route, more people got on, and the white section of the bus filled up. When another white man boarded, the driver ordered Parks and three blacks seated next to her to move.

Parks refused and was arrested. Her act of individual resistance is one of seminal events in the civil rights movement. Parks' made her heroic stand in an atmosphere of lynchings for blacks who stepped out of line, putting her at great risk. Her actions changed the course of history and made her an American icon.

Parks was convicted for violating the city's segregation law. The local NAACP chapter, of which Parks was a member, organized the bus boycott and used Parks' prosecution to challenge the constitutionality of city's segregation laws. The lawsuit resulted in the U.S. Supreme Court outlawing segregation on city buses. The protests also brought a Montgomery clergyman named Martin Luther King Jr. into national prominence.

"I don't remember feeling that anger," Parks said of her arrest in a 1995 interview. "I did feel determined to take this as an opportunity to let it be known that I did not want to be treated in that manner and that people have endured it far too long. However, I did not have at the moment of my arrest any idea of how the people would react."

In the years since her infamous arrest, Parks has been a leading spokeswoman for civil rights and won numerous honors for her work. The American Academy of Achievement, which inducted her into its hall of fame in 1995, calls Parks an "example of courage and determination and an inspiring symbol to all Americans to remain free." She is also an inductee in the National Women's Hall of Fame.

People still have the power to make a difference, particularly younger generation, Parks said.

"The advice I would give any young person is, first of all, to rid themselves of prejudice against other people and to be concerned about what they can do to help others," she said. "And of course, to get a good education, and take advantage of the opportunities that they have."

Rosa Parks R.I.P.

NYTimes Has No Love For Freddie Either

More bad news for Fernando Ferrer's latest campaign for mayor of NYC as even the Left-leaning NYTimes is endorsing Michael Bloomberg:

The New York Times enthusiastically endorsed Mayor Michael Bloomberg for re-election, saying he was on course to be one of the best mayors the city has ever had.

The overwhelmingly positive editorial published in Sunday's editions said Bloomberg, a Republican, has not been as entertaining as his predecessors but "has been better at running the city."

"If he continues his record of accomplishment over the next four years, he may be remembered as one of the greatest mayors in New York history," the editorial said.

Recent opinion polls put Bloomberg well ahead of his Democratic challenger, Fernando Ferrer.

The Times praised Bloomberg for accomplishments including bringing down the crime rate, establishing the 311 telephone hot line for reporting city complaints and remaining "focused on getting things done, not getting headlines."

The Times endorsed Bloomberg's Democratic opponent, Mark Green, in 2001, criticizing Bloomberg's "out-of-control campaign spending" and saying he was unwilling to engage his opponent in "an even fight."

Granted, Ferrer is already at a serious disadvantage campaign-wise running against a billionaire in Bloomsberg, but his image as an uninspiring, insincere, flip-flopper who will say anything to win doesn't help him either. Needless to say these character traits have hindered greatly of late, including of course, John Kerry last year. Al Gore himself, having battled for years an image as being dour and aloof, lost in '00 despite being VP for 8 years is certainly no guarantee of victory at the polls, even with a booming economy and a general contentment with current affairs.

Republicans take stances and stick to them. Democrats continue to play the game of trying to please everybody. Of course, aligning yourself with con artists like Al Sharpton, Bill Clinton and Jesse Jackson isn't going to help you win mayor of any town either, much less NYC.

Harriet Miers supports Affirmative Action

So says this article from the Washington Post:

As president of the State Bar of Texas, Harriet Miers wrote that "our legal community must reflect our population as a whole," and under her leadership the organization embraced racial and gender set-asides and set numerical targets to achieve that goal.The S upreme Court nominee's words and actions from the early 1990s, when she held key leadership positions as president-elect and president of the state bar, provide the first window into her personal views on affirmative action, an area in which the Supreme Court is closely divided and where Miers could tip the court's balance.....To some conservatives, the types of policies pursued by the Texas bar association amount to reverse discrimination. ...

Miers, the first female president of the Texas bar, vowed in her first interview with the Texas Law Journal as president to "be inclusive of women and minorities." During her tenure, she championed the cause of increasing the number of female and minority lawyers in the bar's own leadership ranks and in law firms across the state, writing that "we are strongest capitalizing on the benefits of our diversity. "Miers was a believer in mentoring programs, but during her tenure she and the board of directors went further, passing a resolution urging Texas law firms to set a goal of hiring one qualified minority lawyer for every 10 new associates. The directors also reiterated support for a policy of setting aside a specific number of seats on the board for women and minorities..."Those are quotas," said Roger Clegg, the general counsel for the Center for Equal Opportunity, a conservative group opposed to affirmative action. The fact that Miers "did not create the quota systems but only perpetuated and endorsed it doesn't make it less disturbing," he said...

This should help Miers get more support from Democratic senators during her upcoming confirmation proceedings, but it'll obviously get right-wing conservatives already blasting the Miers pick even more riled at her.

What gets me most upset when I read about anyone who opposes affirmative action is that they always seem to dismiss 2 things in their reasonings: 1) how it benefits white women more than anyone else and 2) how it hasn't done anything to usurp advantages created by a white privilged society. Plus, critics continue to act like Blacks have made these huge gains via affrimative action, when that is so far from the truth as poverty, a lack of education, family dysfunction and crime continue to plague the Black community.

Affirmative action isn't "reverse discrimination", it promotes diversity and it makes sure that the same rules apply to everyone regardless of race or gender. The fact that white men still hold 95% of the managerial positions in this country (despite being only 43% of the population), further shows that AA is needed.

I'll be in full support of affirmative action as long as racism exists. The fact that she supports it as well makes me further know that I made the right choice in supporting Harriet Miers in the first place.

UPDATE: for purposes of N.Z. Bear's tracking:

I support the Miers nomination.