Yesterday I wrote about fascism, with little optimism.  Today I’m going to write about someone who fought authority in a big way.  After she died two years ago, I wrote about Rosa Parks:

I just read tonight that Rosa Parks has died at the age of 92

I’ve always loved the real story behind Rosa Parks, which is a bit different than the one most of us read about in school.  The mythology runs that she was a tired lady who just got fed up with having to give up her seats one day.

This isn’t quite how it happened.  Rosa Parks was an activist and she knew exactly what she was doing at the time.  The bus boycott didn’t just happen spontaneously.  It was planned and executed masterfully.

More on Parks, her legacy, and what we, as activists, can learn from it, after the fold.

The mythology behind Parks served its purpose at the time.  NPR’s “On The Media” did an interview with Tim Tyson about Parks.  Here’s a question that was asked as part of that interview, by Bob Garfield:

I’m speaking to you on Wednesday – the Washington Post, in its appreciation of Rosa Parks, referred very much to her as a seamstress and very little to her as an activist. It did nothing to squelch the myth that she was just one woman who, on a certain day, had had enough.

Tyson’s response is instructive:

I think for some reason we are unwilling to honor people who are politically active. We want to honor people who just have had enough and sort of spontaneously won’t take it any more. But somehow if they get categorized as active citizens, which would be a positive way of saying it, as troublemakers… then somehow it becomes self-serving, part of a movement which we’re less comfortable with… it started very quickly after the bus boycott. And they talked about her tired feet. That gets mentioned a lot more often than it should. She may have been a little bit tired, but that had nothing to do with the decision that she made.

So here’s the thing: nothing in the narrative is wrong exactly.  She was a seamstress.  She was tired.  But she was smart, articulate, and really knew what the hell she was doing.  I like to use this as an example because it wasn’t just about doing the right thing.  It was about doing the right thing in a really smart way.

As activists, we have an obligation to push, and we’re often at odds with those who are more mainstream.  Barney Frank opposed the activist San Francisco same-sex marriages a few years back, saying it was merely a symbolic diversion.  Nancy Pelosi complained that she couldn’t arrest the anti-war protesters who have been dogging her.

Time and time again, activists and mainstream politicians create these divisions between themselves which don’t reach a solution, and part of the reason for this is because we’re a culture that has convinced itself that activism is selfish.

The reason Rosa Parks is portrayed as a tired lady who just got fed up is because, as a culture, we’re afraid of acknowledging what she really was: a powerful woman who had used what wits she had to take control over her situation against overwhelming odds.

She didn’t do it alone, and the Montgomery Bus Boycott had been planned for some time before, but the organizers of the boycott were really smart about it, too.  As Tyson notes:

Within a year, there had been a couple of cases of black women arrested on the buses who they almost had a boycott around, but who weren’t just right in one way or another. And so they were sort of waiting for this case… When she [Parks] got arrested, the word went forth and people in the community knew what would happen.

They waited for the right case and were patient and prepared and ready to go.

Can you imagine what could happen if we had a highly organized and coordinated opposition movement which would be ready to start flooding the media with letters to the editor whenever some boneheaded Republican would say that Iraq was worth the deaths of thousand of American troops?  Can you imagine what would happen if, today, we had people writing letters to every news organization that didn’t bother with this story?

Can you imagine what would happen if instead of just being outraged and frustrated we were outraged, frustrated, and extremely well coordinated?

Can you imagine what could happen if we were to transform the public dialogue and make activism something to be proud of?  Can you imagine what would happen if we told people far and wide that not only should the admire Rosa Parks for standing up for herself, but for doing so with eyes open, knowing that she was risking arrest in doing so?

I’m an activist and I’ve been an activist for most of my adult life, but I don’t tell many people this because I know that it might make them uncomfortable.  I need to get past this and say screw it; activism is good and we’re doing this because it’s good for the damned country.

Take this with you throughout the day: be proud of your activism and support other activists.  Don’t be afraid of what people will think of you for it.  Speak your mind, but see if you can find other like minded people to help, because this isn’t fun to do alone.  Parks strength came from her courage, but it also came from her allies and her willingness to sacrifice herself for a greater good.

  What are you going to do today that connects with other people?

  What are you going to give up today that makes the world a better place?

He's at it again.. I mean, seriously, why does he even live here? I was reading in the Tmes Argus today the latest about  Whinin' Jim – “High taxes, a big peeve, says Douglas” It's about his recent taxpayer-funded campaign “Set the Agenda” tour, in which he travelled around the state listening to 'ordinary Vermonters” about what was on their minds, and you guessed it, the constant scourge of the GOP – taxes, was at the top of the list, according to Whinin' Jim. It's more of what we've been hearing constantly from him as of late – variations on a theme, “How Lousy it is to Live in Vermont” or something. And Jim had some other things to say as well. Jump below the fold for the goods.

Now, I'm not diminishing the impact that high property taxes have on many of us in Vermont, in particular, working families. But I'm also really tired of Duglas continually harping on life in the state, while offering no real leadership of his own. In the article, Peter Shumlin summed it up like so:

“It's exactly the same agenda that Jim Douglas has laid out for the last five years,” said Senate President Pro Tem Peter Shumlin, D-Windham.

Citing rising fuel, health care and other costs, Shumlin added, “Most Vermonters are finding life less affordable today than they did when Jim Douglas took office almost six years ago. It's time for him to start solving problems, not just talking about the problems.”

Indeed. Now, this is where it gets interesting: 

Douglas has said repeatedly in recent months that lawmakers spent too much time last year on issues like global warming and too little on reducing taxes, bringing more affordable housing and other bread-and-butter issues.

Apparently, the governor has failed to read the final report from the Governor's Commission on Climate Change, which was released today.

The first line of the report states, “The climate change crisis may represent the most important and comprehensive global challenge of our lifetime.”  It continues in the second paragraph, “Global climate change is occurring, and every Vermonter will experience its impacts on the quality of life for which Vermont is justifiably famous.  If properly seized, however,climate change action can provide an unprecedented economic development opportunity for Vermont.”

And by “unprecedented economic development opportunity for Vermont”, I don't think they're talking about those McJobs that Douglas is so fond of. As far as the legislature “spending too much time on the issue”, House Speaker Gaye Symington said this in her statement today:

The governor seems to be of two minds. On the one hand he dismisses the legislature's leadership on climate change as irrelevant to Vermonters' lives, and on the other, his own commission describes climate change as one of the most important challenges of our lifetime…

  Legislative leadership, on the other hand, is of one mind: climate change represents an extraordinary opportunity for Vermonters to save fuel costs and grow innovative businesses.  The Governor's commission makes it clear that “attainment of the state's ambitious goals requires the implementation of all the 38 Plenary Group options” , and where further analysis or refinement is needed, “we recommend that this additional work begin immediately.”

I hope the commission's report is a sign that the governor will begin to take climate change and the pressures on Vermonters' fuel bills seriously. I urge Governor Douglas to join us in implementing the recommendations of the Commission on Climate Change, several of which can be found as key elements in H.520, legislation he vetoed last session.

So perhaps the governor should start doing a bit more listening to his own comissions, eh?  I certainly hope that the legislature, in this next session starts to realize that leadership can often involve playing hardball. It's time to start playing hardball with Governor Douglas. He has no bold initiatives,and of course, nothing that will offend his business constituencies, a major obstacle to positive change. He seems to be able to politically survive merely by lack of strong political opposition and a rather non-threatening demeanor, not through any merits of his own (which is exemplified by the challenge of finding a good candidate to run against him). That needs to change. Sooner, not later. He can be beaten.