Another one gone

Many people know so little about her. They don't know if she was well educated, cultured, and intelligent or perhaps uneducated, with the manners of a sailor and the intellect of a smurf. Most people could not say if she worked as a housekeeper, doctor, lawyer, homemaker, or was a recently paroled prison inmate.
Naturally, some people will be celebrating as another symbol of all they stand against is removed just as others mourn the loss of a powerful and poignant symbol.
I am speaking of course of Rosa Parks. Currently history books refer to her refusal to give up her seat on a bus as the signal of the start of the Civil Rights movement. Like any of cultural hero, a movement is...and has been...underway to minimize her importance and contribution.
Much has recently been made of a statement she once made about not wanting to start anything but simply being tired. I do not care to debate the veracity of that statement, but I will say for the record I wish a lot more people were tired.
Tired of having corruption in office, from plagiarizing senators to adulterers to thieves and liars. Tired of businesses that promise one thing when they take your money but another when it is time to fulfill those promises. Tired of being overcharged for medical care to support the bloated and inefficient insurance industry. Tired of corrupt cops who break the law to keep the law. Tired of having lies and bad science taught as truth in the schools. I am still stunned that, on national tv no less, I heard about a week ago someone regurgitate the hypothesis of recapitulation...a hypothesis proven false over 100 years ago...people need to get tired of that.
Tired of "public servants" complaining about the deals they have that are sweeter than private sector deals. Tired of people hating other people for things like the color of their skin, their accent, or things that were done by or to their people over a hundred and fifty years ago.
It is time for people to get tired of media portrayals that teach us to live in fear of "terrorists", "black criminals", "illegal (Mexican/Cuban) immigrants who take our jobs", etc.
It is time for more people to do what Rosa Parks did. She did not, after all, make a big deal of her actions. Unlike many of the people who followed, she did not plan and execute a protest. She did not seek media attention, she did not play the public relations game, she did not set out to change the world. No, she did something much greater.
She did what she could. She did what was right.
No doubt talking heads on both sides of the aisle will demean her memory by trying to identify either with her or against some of her actions. They shame themselves but they can't touch her legacy.
In memory of a woman who did the right thing and by so doing, did what she could, go out, find something wrong in the world today, and do the right thing. Don't take into account personal risk, cost, or gain. Don't look for a media camera. Don't write a tell-all book. Don;t recruit people to your cause. Just do as Rosa Parks did and do the right thing.
I don't think that is too much to ask of people. It may not be enough. But it is still the right thing.
Rosa Parks, I, for one, honor your memory. Not for what resulted, not for your fame, not for any other reason but one. You did the right thing. God rest your soul.