Real American Heroes
Rosa Parks passed away the other day at the age of 92. On December 1, 1955, when she refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white passenger, she was arrested. This simple act of civil disobedience trumpeted the start of the civil rights movement, the beginning of the end of Jim Crow laws.The notice of her death was afforded a few scant columns at the bottom of the front page of the Wilmington News Journal. The murder of a Wilmington drug dealer "with a heart of gold" a few days earlier earned bigger press. The dealer didn't quite make the paper's front page, but instead he was featured on the page one of the Local section in a strange article of misguided reverence. Apparently, the dealer earned community icon status in the Riverside projects, spreading around his wealth, taking old women to the supermarket, buying sneakers for high school basketball players, setting off fireworks displays, and the like.
Mike Williams, a 6th grade teacher at P.S. duPont Elementary, noticed that some of his students missed school in order to attend the funeral of the popular criminal. When they returned the next day, Williams had a lesson all prepared for his class. He had snipped out two NJ articles for his students to compare side by side--the obituaries of both Rosa Parks and the dead thug. He showed the articles, and then asked the question," Whom do you admire more?" Don't look for things to get worse from here. Williams noted that all 34 of his students gave the right answer. A few even criticized the dealer. Which offers some hope, I guess. By the way, Williams is a 1985 graduate of St. Mark's teaching in a poor inner-city school (information used to write this entry came from a NJ column by Al Mascitti on Oct. 28).
posted by JTF @ 1:37 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
i think it's so sad how our modern society seems to 'forget' the work that monumental legends from a time before us have accomplished and the heroes we ignore, such as rosa parks and the civil rights movement as well as the holocaust and september 11th. then they get guilt tripped into feeling bad for acting so ignorant. a few days later, it will all be forgotten again.
will anything ever change?
when will we be grateful for hte lives we have?
rlcred,
Sadly enough, the passing of time has made us forget our heroes and their deeds. President's Day is a sales holiday. Veteran's Day goes by without much fanfare. Independence Day offers fireworks and fun without commemorating the freedom. And yet people criticize the Jews who continue to remember their Holocaust even though there are millions who would exterminate their race in a minute if given the opportunity (listen to the rhetorical ranting of the president of Iran). We shouldn't live in the past or in fear of the future, but we should always remember.
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