At a campaign fundraiser Wednesday at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, President Obama took a moment to sit aboard the historic bus where Rosa Parks once took a stand in the name of civil rights.
"I actually had the chance to sit in Rosa Parks' bus -- I just sat there for a moment and pondered the courage and tenacity that is part of our very recent history," he said.
The journey is not yet over, and recently we have again learned that the road will be anything but smooth, but seeing our first African American President sitting in the same seat once occupied by civil rights legend Rosa Park is quite a powerful image to me.
Sadly the struggle for racial equality, and an end to prejudice, is far from over, however it is always worthwhile to celebrate every step in the right direction.
Thinking back to Sarah Palin taking her Wasillabilly family to Harriet Tubman museum. . .and her interpretation of what it all meant. . .and explaining it to her kids.
ReplyDeleteShe should care about Elizabeth Petratovich in Alaska and what she did for Alaska Native rights in a State that said No Dogs, No Natives allowed. But instead she just shoots out "My husband is Native, my children are native" as some sort of get out of doing a job for Native constituents for free card.
President Obama, it has to be humbling to sit on that bus. But to know how far you've taken the movement, given to this country as the bastion of freedom and opportunity to all no matter your heritage, economic background, pedigree, education.
I'll bet a refrigerator in Wasilla is huddling in the corner, waiting for the fireworks at this latest act of positive reflection.
For some reason that is a very moving picture.
ReplyDeletemhrt
Yes, this is a great photo, full of meaning. The symbol of President Obama sitting in the same seat as a woman once forbidden to sit there but who had the courage and determination to say "enough," is very moving.
ReplyDeleteI know I have had "enough" of the regressive, repression GOP/TP attitudes towards true evolution of the human spirit and society.
I have had "enough" of hatred, bigotry, and fear. I have had enough of all the things that Sarah Palin and her like stand for and brag about.
I have had "enough" of religious hypocrisy, and of twisted religion in general. I want the spiritual values of compassion, kindness and tolerance to prevail.
I want a deep change in attitude that allows everyone to follow their own passion - be it love, or talent or hope - as long as it does not intrude or harm anyone else.
I have had "enough" of old men trying to cling to power and trying to suppress women people of color, or those whose sexual orientation doesn't meet with their rigid, out-dated, hateful worldview.
I have "enough" of age discrimination, whether it is against the young or seniors. I have had "enough" of callousness that keeps fellow human beings from accessing basic healthcare simply because they do not have enough money to pay escalating premiums and copays.
I am ready to move on, move forward, and embrace real change, real concern for each other. This photograph reminds of how far we have come and how far we have to go.
-- ks sunflower
Thank you!
DeleteVery well said, thank you!
Delete@ks sunflower
Deleteor someone, in my senior moments I can not remember. Who was the little older lady that asked our President " are you ready, are you fired up". We need our cheer leading group and she was so great.
@ks sunflower, that was really beautiful. I agree 100%.
Deleteclaire
This is wonderful. Thank you for saying what so many of us think and feel.
DeleteAll Power to the People. The hate mongers will be defeated.
DeleteOy. Que Fox/Limbaugh berating the President for "dividing people with race" in 3... 2... 1...
ReplyDeleteI mean, how DARE he remind us that there was a time when people with the "wrong" skin color didn't have the freedom to choose where they sat on the bus! He must be some kind of white-hating racist! (I personally think it's awesome, but my name isn't Glenn Beck)
Look no further than the comments at CBS.
DeleteThat's an old Rove tactic= take your candidate's worst trait and blame the competitor for it. Bigger offense keeps you from having to do defense. Old trick, but the ignorants that refuse to do their own research fall for it every time.
DeleteI wish these guys would remember that President Obama is half white! Perhaps they wouldn't be so damned racist!
DeleteRight, no shortage of blogs filthy with racism. GretaWire, just a few short years ago a reasonably intelligent site (except for the notorious and solitary Tyrone) has become a hate site worthy of attention from the Southern Poverty Law Center.
DeleteIt doesn't matter to them that he is half white. In their eyes, he's a 'mulatto' which is worse to some of the most racist. The world turning into a race of 'mud people' is the greatest fear of the uber racist people.
DeleteWow, strong, very strong image. That made my day.
ReplyDeleteWhat an amazing image... cue the RW outrage machine. In fact, I think I hear Gretchen Carlson's lips pursing already
ReplyDeleteThen she'll have a matched set...
DeleteNice pic. Thanks for sharing it. We have come a long way, but yes, we still have miles to go. I hope that racism will die out in a couple of generations, but I don't have much hope because of the rampant racism that still exists in the south (I'm speaking from personal experience from having racist relatives and personally hearing the garbage myself!) So, those who like to pretend that it doesn't exist and claim that some people are playing 'the race card' don't know what the hell they are talking about. I await Faux News' faux outrage over the Pres' visit to the museum in 3...2...1...
ReplyDeleteO/T Todd Palin the Pimp! http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/rnr/2967112260.html
ReplyDeleteShailey Tripp's new website. be sure to read it and click on all the tabs!
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/rnr/2967112260.html
I flagged 'em as Best of Craigslist (link on the right)!
DeleteI have an image that one day the people in the world will all be different shades of brown - but still there will be some who talk of light brown and dark brown. Until the parents stop bringing up the children to be racist - it will never go away.
ReplyDeleteIt is still an amazement that President Obama was elected - and it says so much as to the strength of his character. That he brings out the worst in some people - shows up their lack of character for all the world to see. I will always see Nelson Mandela as the man of the 20th century with Barack Obama following up with the 21st century. I doubt anyone will pass him by.
Sadly, Many in this country refuse to take any steps out of the dark ages that I thought had been left behind with Obamas election. Naive I guess. Ex Cat
ReplyDelete1950s, 1960s.
ReplyDeleteI'm on nostalgia overload right now, having viewed countless videos of "The Band" from Levon Helm's passing. (Attended their Last Waltz performance; back then, working stiffs could afford concert tickets, unlike now, from what I understand.) They were one amazing group, wrote and performed incredible songs.
TPM posted pics of the disgraced Secret Service agent who was allowed to resign; he "protected" Sarah Palin in 2009 (not sure why she had protection after the campaign was over).
Here's a link with pics:
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entries/photo-agent-in-secret-service-scandal-with-sarah
AND the Palin Curse strikes yet again!
DeleteDisgraced and removed from his job for compromising the President of the United States.
Any one who mixes it up with Sarah will get sucked into the devil's ditch.
Gryphen I hate to ruin this thread with mention of the Bald One...but she was just on Greta and wait until you see it!
ReplyDeleteHere's the link to the stories about one of the Secret Service agents who's part of this prostitute story who was protecting Baldy back in 08!
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entries/photo-agent-in-secret-service-scandal-with-sarah
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/two-senior-secret-service-officers-in-colombia-scandal-identified/2012/04/19/gIQAmIt7TT_story.html
Palin OTR April 19, 2012
Deletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhjBHETfzCM
Oh Gina I just saw the first few seconds and WTF is up with the twatwaffle's hair? AND she looks drunk.
DeleteHere's the video of Baldy tonight on Greta! Must be seen to believe!
Deletehttp://youtu.be/PhjBHETfzCM
She is such a piece of human excrement. Listen to the fucking hypocrisy that falls from her botoxed mouth! I cannot wait until her PIMP husband Todd is busted.
DeleteSarah Palin Reacts To News That Secret Service Agent In Scandal Was On Her ’08 Security Detail
“I hope his wife sends him to the doghouse. As long as he’s not eating the dog, along with his former boss,” Palin said.
She went on to say “boys being boys” is not an excuse. “Whether it comes to a budget, to GSA overspends, to the Secret Service scandal, you know, I have had enough of these men being dogs and not being responsible,” she said.
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/sarah-palin-reacts-to-news-that-secret-service-agent-in-scandal-was-on-her-08-security-detail/
The SS agent listed is disgusting, and I don't blame Palin for being disgusted either.
DeleteBut I do blame her for being her usual hypocritical self: Remember when she passed off Herman Cain's misogynistic behavior with "boys will be boys"? She uses the same exact wording to vilify the SS agent for pretty much the same behavior.
THEN she launched into her usual lunatic obsessive attacks on President Obama, which in the WaPo article Greta VS had to remind her the SS agent guarded Palin before Obama took office (and the agent has been in service for 20 years).
We won't turn back!
Deletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wFtsxlshz8&feature=
I love Barack Obama.
DeleteThis will make your cry.
http://theobamadiary.com/2012/04/19/we-wont-turn-back/
And let's keep in mind that the "CEO of the Federal Gov't" at the time the SS agent was "checking her out" & posting on Facebook was GW Bush. The agent was probably behaving like this under that "CEO". (if you haven't watched the video, I'm quoting the twat.) And, yes, what is that nasty thing on her head? It's almost green!
Deletenice photo.
ReplyDeleteAn historical note:
In addition to Rosa Parks, there was an enormous effort in Montgomery to force the city to abandon the bus segregation.
(from wiki)Rosa Parks' action began the Montgomery Bus Boycott that lasted over a year. The boycott caused crippling financial deficit for the Montgomery public transit system, because the city's black population who were the principal boycotters were also the bulk of the system's paying customers... Instead of riding buses, boycotters organized a system of carpools, with car owners volunteering their vehicles or themselves driving people to various destinations.
Moving pic of our President!
ReplyDeleteVery poignant photo, wow.
ReplyDeleteAmen to that . . . and we shall overcome ~ someday.
ReplyDelete+++
god i hate propaganda. I wish our elections consisted of qualified candidates.
ReplyDeleteLike SP? McCain? Santorum? Just who do you have in mind as qualified? Bet they're white.
DeletePresident Obama was a superbly qualified candidate in 2008 and Vice President Biden was equally well qualified. The one without any qualifications, and still lacking them, was Sarah Palin.
DeleteI do not see this photo as "propaganda."
President Obama has been a magnificent president so far and I hope he gets to continue in the position for four more years.
Barack Obama/Joe Biden in 2012!!!
Your wish has come true with President Barack Obama running for re-election. Feel better now?
DeleteI love our President and his taking this reflection of history and thinking about what it must have been like.
ReplyDeleteIt is horrible all the negative that is being thrown at him currently. I keep him and his family in my positive thoughts and can hardly wait to cast my vote for him this coming November!
Our President is so AWESOME! I can only imagine his thoughts on that bus....I imagine him thinking about how far we have come....thanks to the courage that have gone before us such as Rosa PArks and MLK.....and yet how far we have to go...
ReplyDeleteThat said. I am curious about the correlation between the institution of slavery and associated cultural practices of American slavery as it influences American society. Famlies were destroyed for commercial gain (breaking up famlies by selling off male and female slaves regardless of family structure, etc) and by the forced prostitution of female slaves. As chattel property - the slaves had no choice. My question is this have we really grown beyond that idea? Does America still consider peeo women - women of all colors - as chattel? Sounds like the GOP does. They are trying very hard to return all woman to the status of "property" or chattel to do with as they please....unless the woman are rich enough to improve the social and finacial position of the male. Woman = property. Men of color = property and of course an evil threat. African male slaves did not run away from their families: they were torn away and sold off from their families so white slave owners could take their wives and daughters. Can't we get beyond this?
Palin tonight
ReplyDeletehttp://www.foxnews.com/on-air/on-the-record/
index.html#/v/1572097617001/palin-on-gsa-
and-government-gone-wild/?playlist_id=86925
Unbelievable sedition! She turns everything Greta says into another attack on the President. Her voice is a little more modulated however, but her hair is worse than ever.
DeleteWhen Michele Bachmann talks about holding up a tar baby, Rosa Parks' ride isn't over yet. We have a long way to go. There is still racism, and every time a Republican or one of their surrogates open their mouth, we hear it. Ted Nugent is only the latest example.
ReplyDeleteMichele Bachmann is like Palin. She throws out phrases to get herself in the news. They are both narrow minded, intolerant bags of wind.
DeleteHe's way too much into the race stuff and it's not going to do him any good. So even though he's a black man who needs to feel sorry for himself, he just needs to see people as people. That's a lesson for all americans, not just the coloured ones.
ReplyDeleteluv from Canada.
You obviously have NO idea. Most sane people think the President stays away from race issues way too much - If you grew up black in white America you may have some understanding. President Obama sees people as people much more than the corporation loving right wing white folks
Delete"coloured ones"? Just a smidge racist yourself, eh? I would love for you to have to go through one day as a non-white. Just one. That's your lesson, luv from Canada.
DeleteObmama has live with the issues of race all his life. His mother probably taught him wonderful lessons about not listening to unkind and ignorant remarks. And, we haven't called them "coloured" or "colored" for a very long time.I don't think that Obama never feels sorry for himself, although he must have compassion for people who have not been as lucky as he has been.
DeleteHe's not into the race stuff enough, it's other people making it an issue, how is tht his fault?
DeleteHe's a "Coloured One", Eh? Are the "Uncoloured Ones" invisible?
Just Curious
@luv,
DeleteYour comment is absurd. President Obama doesn't feel sorry for himself, nor does he need to.
@8:15 President Obama does see people as people. It's people like you who use words like "coloured" that are the problem.
DeleteYou aren't fooling anyone. You sign "luv Canada". Don't you mean "luv Wasilla?"
hey luv from canada, get over yourself. President Obama appears to be quite comfortable in his skin and I for one am very proud to have him as my president. Only racist Americans - and obviously racist Canadians - call people "coloured" any more. I know many Canadians who wish for a leader like President Obama to replace Steven Harper, the Canadian GWB. You are embarrassing the Canadian people with your comments.
DeleteFrom one your fellow Canadians and a " coloured " one at that. Are you kidding me? You definitely do not know what it is like to be black in the United States or Canada. I am pretty sure he counts himself very lucky and is wondering if he would have the strength to do what Rosa parks did. he only ones who think he feels sorry for himself are the ones who can't deal with the fact that he has come so far and it drives them crazy. He has said numerous times how lucky he is.The sad part is you truly do not grasp why this picture is so powerful and what him sitting in that seat really means for so many. The United States has come a long way and still has a long way to go and Canada has come a long way and still has a long way to go . There are many Canadians still alive who remember segregation in Canada and are well aware of the racism issues that still exist there. So before you start handing out lessons you should learn some of your own.
DeleteDisgusted your Canadian
Greta is talking sense and Palin's only response is to talk absolute rubbish about the President - It seems the President is to blame because an SS man in 2008 eyed off Palin. She is a serious racist - she is worse than I ever imagined - this is not off topic - Rosa Parks had to live with this all her life - when will the media call Sarah Palin what she is - a racist who calls on her troops to attack the President.
ReplyDeleteRight, if you read Greta's blog, many commenters blame President Obama for overseeing a Secret Service in which a lecherous agent ogled then-VP candidate Palin in 2008.
DeleteThere's no reasoning with these people. They hate him and we all know why, so we must be all the more assertive and vigilant in standing up for him.
Sometimes I think of how many people of all races who will be in heaven, and how many white people who will be in hell (because of their coldness and hate). The words 'christian' and coldness or hate just can not co-exist together: it is not possible.
DeleteSometimes I wonder: do bigots subconsciously think that their arrogance and trust in their whiteness is what will propel them into God's kingdom? There will be no bigotry there: God loves variety, in all that He has created. This should be obvious to any one with a set of eyeballs.
After God created humans, He declared them to be "very good". That includes humans of all races. What a pity that those who claim to know God can not and will not accept this. Their anger at the whole race issue is really an anger toward their Creator – the One Who chose to create countless different racial and ethnic groups.
The Secret Service should be watching Palin - this love-struck Obama stalker is one sick puppy. Wow. Is there a moment that she's not thinking and talking about him? She's already talked about his "cajones", Bristol has asked him to "call me." Even Greta had to put a lid on "all things are about me and Obama." And we all know that's saying alot. Greta lets this windbag go on ad nauseum.
DeletePalin's U.S. citizenship should be revoked. Sarah, take your vacuous little mind and boring diatribes back to the Alaskan Successionist Party. Give our ears and America a break.
As usual Sarah has it ass backward. Its the Secret Service's job to protect the President not other way around.
DeleteCheck this out: http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entries/photo-agent-in-secret-service-scandal-with-sarah
DeleteThe Secret Service was "checking her out." (Excuse my while I barf.)
Wa$chilla DeVile putrified our airways yet again tonight:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/20/sarah-palin-obama-dog_n_1439393.html
"Boys will be boys, but they shouldn't be in positions of authority, and I think it's pretty embarassing," Palin said.
"Boys will be boys?" Guess that applies to Tawd's relationship with Shailey Tripp, hence the title of her book...
I think Sarah deliberately uses this phrase as a way of taunting Shailey and the IM community. And perhaps her comments are aimed at her tawdry Todd, also too.
DeleteActually, Shailey took Sarah Palin's use of the phrase for her book, after Palin used the phrase in defending Herman Cain's misogynistic behavior during the midst of the furor over the women he abused coming forward and speaking up.
Deletehttp://malialitman.wordpress.com/2012/04/20/sarah-palin-compares-herself-to-a-prostitute/
and
http://www.laprogressive.com/sarah-palin-on-cain/
When we watch those award shows, an African American entertainer who wins an award usually acknowledges the few other African Americans who paved the way for her/his recognition. We have come to honor the achievements of some of our fellow Americans much too late-- for example, the Tuskegee Airmen. We don't have to limit this discussion to African Americans. We have finally tried to repay the Japanese Americans who were rounded up during World War II and put into camps. (They didn't round up my German neighbors). We have a long way to go. As long as someone refers to some of our fellow citizens as "coloured" I know that racisim is still alive and well, even in Canada.
ReplyDeleteGood lord, the Greta interview is bizarre.
ReplyDeleteWhat an amazing photo. A man who made history paying homage to a woman who helped make it possible. Simply by occupying the space she refused to give up.
ReplyDeleteThis is a man who "gets it". What an honor.
Pass It On Brother, Pass It On.
DeleteI love President Obama. History will show him to have been one of our best presidents.
ReplyDeleteOT--There's an interesting article at alaskadispatch.com "Sean Parnell: Manchurian Governor?" There's info about Palin/Parnell. So he is the one with all of the energy expertise? Is he the one who is the actual energy expert? It sounds like, typically, Palin used his knowledge. Just asking because I really didn't know his oil/energy background.
ReplyDeleteI love that he is not in the back of the bus nor the front of the bus, but the middle...
ReplyDeleteAnita Winecooler, you couldn't have said it any better!
ReplyDeleteVOTE for President Obama, my dear friends. We have to keep him in office for another term.
ReplyDeleteThat picture is an insult!
ReplyDeleteRosa Parks was a civil libertarian extraordinaire, while Barack Obama is instead a civil libertarian's nightmare.
http://www.alternet.org/rights/155045/how_obama_became_a_civil_libertarian%27s_nightmare/