A Powerful Emotion for Humanity

A Powerful Emotion For Humanity
Wednesday, October 26, 2005

You might imagine, out of all the interesting and disturbing things happening nationally and worldly, why I would chose to make a statement about Rosa Parks.

Immediately when Jane, my wife, retired in June 2003, we went on a 10,000-mile sightseeing trip around the United States. Of all the beautiful sites, interesting places and indelible memories captured in more than 1,400 digital photos, none caught my attention more than one. It was one of our last stops in Dearborn MI that we visited the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village. http://www.hfmgv.org/ Of course, I expected to see many Ford automobiles, but much to my surprise there was a lot more to see in Greenfield Village: Thomas Edison’s workshop and his inventions, the homes of Noah Webster, Robert Frost and many more. The museum includes all makes and models of automobiles, although many more things that reminds us of our rich American heritage. Truly, it’s one of the greatest collections of items that join us in memory to important events of our past history.

The trip’s heartstring encounter was experienced in this museum at an exhibit that brought on a swell of powerful emotions: the resurrected Rosa Parks bus. http://www.thehenryford.org/exhibits/rosaparks/default.asp --- To sit in the seat where Rosa Parks had unassumingly made history was an eerie experience. An era where in the silence of many good people acquiesced in injustices and an inhumane life for many --- suddenly was in flashback.

The memory of Rosa Parks is imperative, not only for those of ill-bred prejudices who would impede the advancement of humanitarian causes, but also for those who’s silence of complicit-inaction continue to fail humankind: be it genocide, racial hatreds, ethnic intolerance, needless starvation, or any injustice or deprivation of opportunity for all people. In her death we remember a person whose life inspired justice far beyond this one act of a bus seat. If we (persons of this world) could stand just half as brave and tall as Rosa Parks, to honor the courage she exemplified under demoralizing duress, the world would be on its way to building a better understanding, goodwill and peace to the far corners of this earth. Parks’ life was our model and the foundation on which you and I must continue the building of justice.


BUS SPECIFICATIONS
TDH-3610, Serial # 1132, Coach ID #2857General Motors Corp., Pontiac, Michigan Delivered in March 194836 passengersDiesel engine, Hydraulic transmissionUsed in Terre Haute, Indiana, 1948-54Used in Montgomery, Alabama, 1954-71Sold as surplus to Roy H. Summerford, 1971Purchased at auction by The Henry Ford, 2001Acc. 2001.154.1