25 Oct 2005, 8:54 am
Rosa Parks passed away today. For those of you who are unfamiliar with her story, I have printed a partial report on her life (you can read the full story on yahoo news).
Rosa Parks was a woman that was thrust into advocacy for equality and fair equal treatment of all African Americans. She was (many have said) merely tired after a long day of working and happened to be seated on a bus taking her home for the evening. When a white man demanded that Rosa get up so that he could sit down (a rule that was acceptable to the laws and governments at the time) Rosa refused and stayed firmly in her seat. She was arrested for this defiant act. If Rosa would have just complied, gotten up and given the man her seat her life would have went on as it had always had. Rosa, through this one act of defiance though, had rocked the boat – had not went with the flow or system of things…..she had caused a situation to occur. By staying seated, she had made a stand.
Why, you may wonder, is the passing of this person relevant in our lives as autistics? Many of us on a daily basis, are looking at discrimination and unfair actions being done to autistics. Many of us are just going with the flow or system of things. “What can I do? I’m just one person?” we may think. “I can’t change the way things are done,” we might also believe. I just want us to all look at Rosa Parks’ life today and think of how just this one person making a stand started a domino effect with “the way things have always been done.” I want us to realize that it does start with one small person, doing one small act.
Rosa Parks’ life was hard it seems even after this act of defiance. She and her husband had trouble finding work and many other things happened to her possibly because of her decision. Although Rosa Parks inspired many, I can’t help but think she probably just wanted to live a normal life. I heard in a news report today as they were speaking to her, she said something to the effect of, I just didn’t want to be mistreated anymore but I knew if I didn’t do something, the abuse would just continue.
Today, I hope we remember Rosa Parks and her small act with a big impact on all of our lives. Today I also want us to remember those that are currently at the forefront of a battle for acceptance and equal treatment and services of and for Autistics. Those that have been thrust into situations, I’m sure they would rather not be in but for the fact that they know, if they don’t do something, the abuse will just continue. Here’s to Michelle Dawson, Janet Norman-Bain, Jim Sinclair, Amanda Baggs, Donna Williams, Kathleen Seidel, Frank Klein, Jerry Newport and many, many others (some even on this site 
) all of these countless heroes that strive for equal treatment, services and respect of neurodiversity of all autistics.
By BREE FOWLER
Nearly 50 years ago, Rosa Parks made a simple decision that sparked a revolution. When a white man demanded she give up her seat on a Montgomery, Ala., bus, the then 42-year-old seamstress said no.
At the time, she couldn't have known it would secure her a revered place in American history. But her one small act of defiance galvanized a generation of activists, including a young Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and earned her the title "mother of the civil rights movement."
Mrs. Parks died Monday evening at her home of natural causes, with close friends by her side, said Gregory Reed, an attorney who represented her for the past 15 years. She was 92.
Monique Reynolds, 37, a native of Montgomery, Ala., called Mrs. Parks an inspiration who had lived to see the changes brought about by the civil rights movement.
"Martin Luther King never saw this, Malcolm X never saw this," said Reynolds, who now lives in Detroit. "She was able to see this and enjoy it."
In 1955, Jim Crow laws in place since the post-Civil War Reconstruction required separation of the races in buses, restaurants and public accommodations throughout the South, while legally sanctioned racial discrimination kept blacks out of many jobs and neighborhoods in the North.
Mrs. Parks, an active member of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, was riding on a city bus Dec. 1, 1955, when a white man demanded her seat.
She refused, despite rules requiring blacks to yield their seats to whites. Two black Montgomery women had been arrested earlier that year on the same charge, but Mrs. Parks was jailed. She also was fined $14.
U.S. Rep John Conyers, in whose office Mrs. Parks worked for more than 20 years, remembered the civil rights leader as someone whose impact on the world was immeasurable, but who never sought the limelight.
"Everybody wanted to explain Rosa Parks and wanted to teach Rosa Parks, but Rosa Parks wasn't very interested in that," he said. "She wanted them to understand the government and to understand their rights and the Constitution that people are still trying to perfect today."
Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick said he felt a personal tie to the civil rights icon: "She stood up by sitting down. I'm only standing here because of her."
Speaking in 1992, Mrs. Parks said history too often maintains "that my feet were hurting and I didn't know why I refused to stand up when they told me. But the real reason of my not standing up was I felt that I had a right to be treated as any other passenger. We had endured that kind of treatment for too long."
Her arrest triggered a 381-day boycott of the bus system organized by a then little-known Baptist minister, the Rev. King, who later earned the Nobel Peace Prize for his work.
"At the time I was arrested I had no idea it would turn into this," she said 30 years later. "It was just a day like any other day. The only thing that made it significant was that the masses of the people joined in."
25 Oct 2005, 1:31 pm
25 Oct 2005, 1:38 pm
The major differnce between African American abuse and ours is that theirs was much more blatent and government sanctioned, how would an autistic go about sticking up for his/her rights that would get everyones attention?
_________________
"we never get respect ... never a fair trial
[swearing removed by lau] ... as long as we smile"
Im tired of smiling.
Vote for me in 2020
25 Oct 2005, 2:08 pm
25 Oct 2005, 3:45 pm
25 Oct 2005, 4:01 pm
Heh it's a cruel dog eat dog world out there and if i dont look out for myself no-one else will. You dont see old people adjusting their behaviour to suit my disability so why should i for them? 
25 Oct 2005, 4:16 pm
25 Oct 2005, 4:27 pm
25 Oct 2005, 4:52 pm
26 Oct 2005, 1:51 am
He's right. I used to have go ride the bus (
), and you don't give up your seat for anybody or anything unless the bus driver tells you to!
If Autistics are going to go on a civil rights crusade like the blacks did in the '60s, won't we also need to be financed by money laundered in by a foreign intelligence service that's hostole to the US? The KGB isn't around in that form anymore, so we might have to appeal to Chineese spies for financial assistance.
26 Oct 2005, 12:08 pm
Hmmph. I used to ride the bus twice a day and I routinely gave up my seat for older ladies with canes. Even as a teenage punk, I didn't mind riding standing up while some granny got to sit...and it would not have occurred to me to just ignore her to retain my seat.
Then there was the time when the bus was absolutely packed with people and it was hard even to stand, there were so many, and a matronly black woman had me sit on her lap! 
I felt a little sheepish about it- I was 14, after all...and white...but it was very nice of her, because I was getting seriously squished and trampled trying to keep my footing.
I think a little consideration and good breeding/manners makes the world function a lot more smoothly, which is what manners are for, after all....
26 Oct 2005, 12:49 pm
26 Oct 2005, 7:33 pm
Rosa Parks was definitely an important icon for equal rights, or to take off the 'separate but equal' law in the U.S. I don't know if us autistics are having our civil rights abused, but sometimes people make fun of autistics, like some of those articles that I've heard of in the past. When I'm riding on a bus, it's usually for a school related reason, so I don't see much discrimination or anything like that on the bus, but at times there's these kids with barely anything in their seat and they refuse to let people sit down. I have a trombone, an overfilled backpack, and my running shoes. If anyone should get a seat to themselves it would be me! 
Just a laugh I guess. But yeah, Rosa Parks was sure brave to standing up to that mean guy who wanted to make her move, especially because black people who did that stuff back in the day were hauled off to jail, which was what she had to put up with.
