I love this story:
On a December night in 1955,
Rosa Parks rode a bus home after a day of work at the Montgomery Fair department store.
She served as a secretary for the Montgomery, Alabama, chapter of the NAACP
And worked hard for the rights of black citizens in the racially segregated South.
In those days, the buses were divided into separate sections for blacks and whites:
The white section in the front,
And the ''coloured'' section in the back.
Black people could sit in the middle of the bus until the whole section was full;
Then they had to move to the back of the bus,
Or if there was no room,
They were expected to alight the bus.
That night,
Rosa sat in the first row behind the white section of the bus.
However, when a white man boarded the bus and found no seats available in the white section,
The bus driver asked Rosa and the three other black people in that row to move.
All but Rosa got up and took seats in the back of the bus.
She refused and just moved over and sat by the window.
Rosa said on public television,
''When the bus driver saw me still sitting,
He asked if I was going to stand up, and I said, 'No. I'm not.'
He said, 'Well, if you don't stand up,
I'm going to have to call the police and have you arrested.'
I said, 'You may do that.'
The bus driver called the police,
Who arrested Rosa and took her to jail.
She was later found guitly of disorderly conduct and violating a local ordinance.
It was Rosa's Integrity,
Her firm adherence to a code of values,
That prompted her not to move from her seat.
In her autobiography, My Story, Rosa tells of her motivation for her action.
''People always say that I didn't give up my seat
Because I was tired,
But that isn't true.
I was not tired physically,
Or no more tired that I usually was at the end of a working day.
I was not old, although some people have an image of me being old then.
I was forty-two.
No,
The only tired I was,
Was tired of giving in.''
Rosa's quiet defiance on that winter evening
''was the spark that ignited the demonstrations of the 1950s and 1960s.
Because of her action,
Segregation laws were struck down,
Martin Luther King Jr. emerged as a national leader,
And a long struglly for racial equality was engaged with renewed fervour.''
Congress referred to Rosa as the mother of the modern-civil rights movement.
Rosa's actions led to eventual racial integration in the South.
At 83, Rosa received the Presidential Medal of Freedom award.
50,000 people viewed her casket.
And three presidents spoke in her honour.
By presidential order,
Flags were flown at half-staff on the day of her internment -
An incredible finale for a black seamstress with only a high school education.
A fitting tribute to a beautiful woman of integrity.
What are your values in life?
What principles do you live by?
Would you stand true to them,
Or would you bend them under pressure, convenience and comfort?
When you have integrity,
People trust your words.
Because you mean what you say.
When you say you're gonna do it,
You do it, no matter what.
People will not need to remind you of your promises.
People will not feel insecure and wonder
If you remembered what you said.
When I was a kid,
I hated that feeling;
To be wondered,
If I could ''remember''.
Cos it just makes me look....lika Blur Block?
Grin. Not cool to be known as one!
When you have integrity,
You are responsible.
With responsibility, comes power.
Although Mother Theresa said,
''I am not called to be successful.
I am called to be faithful.''
Success is a result of faithfulness.
Success comes after you
When you handle the little things well.
When you have integrity,
You are truthful.
You don't beat around the bush.
You don't twist and turn,
But you embrace truth.
I learnt that the day I really wanted to be a person of Integrity,
Was the day,
I decided to respect myself.
If I love myself,
I want to respect my conscience.
Think about it...
When we act against what our conscience tells us,
We ultimately feel down and out.
We feel depressed.
'Cos we become disappointed in ourselves.
And we can't seem to respect ourselves anymore.
Many times,
I felt this way before.
You must have felt this way at least once too.
And we respond in two ways:
a. Realise our fault and strive to improve ourselves next time
b. Give up and scorn at the idea of ''doing the right things''; and ultimately mock at people
Who are ''doing the right things.''....
And finally shrink into an
Ugly,
Sour,
Shrivelled-up person,
Whom people doesn't like to be around with,
Whom we ourselves hate to be with ourselves.
Be the Uncommonly Beautiful one.
*
On a December night in 1955,
Rosa Parks rode a bus home after a day of work at the Montgomery Fair department store.
She served as a secretary for the Montgomery, Alabama, chapter of the NAACP
And worked hard for the rights of black citizens in the racially segregated South.
In those days, the buses were divided into separate sections for blacks and whites:
The white section in the front,
And the ''coloured'' section in the back.
Black people could sit in the middle of the bus until the whole section was full;
Then they had to move to the back of the bus,
Or if there was no room,
They were expected to alight the bus.
That night,
Rosa sat in the first row behind the white section of the bus.
However, when a white man boarded the bus and found no seats available in the white section,
The bus driver asked Rosa and the three other black people in that row to move.
All but Rosa got up and took seats in the back of the bus.
She refused and just moved over and sat by the window.
Rosa said on public television,
''When the bus driver saw me still sitting,
He asked if I was going to stand up, and I said, 'No. I'm not.'
He said, 'Well, if you don't stand up,
I'm going to have to call the police and have you arrested.'
I said, 'You may do that.'
The bus driver called the police,
Who arrested Rosa and took her to jail.
She was later found guitly of disorderly conduct and violating a local ordinance.
It was Rosa's Integrity,
Her firm adherence to a code of values,
That prompted her not to move from her seat.
In her autobiography, My Story, Rosa tells of her motivation for her action.
''People always say that I didn't give up my seat
Because I was tired,
But that isn't true.
I was not tired physically,
Or no more tired that I usually was at the end of a working day.
I was not old, although some people have an image of me being old then.
I was forty-two.
No,
The only tired I was,
Was tired of giving in.''
Rosa's quiet defiance on that winter evening
''was the spark that ignited the demonstrations of the 1950s and 1960s.
Because of her action,
Segregation laws were struck down,
Martin Luther King Jr. emerged as a national leader,
And a long struglly for racial equality was engaged with renewed fervour.''
Congress referred to Rosa as the mother of the modern-civil rights movement.
Rosa's actions led to eventual racial integration in the South.
At 83, Rosa received the Presidential Medal of Freedom award.
50,000 people viewed her casket.
And three presidents spoke in her honour.
By presidential order,
Flags were flown at half-staff on the day of her internment -
An incredible finale for a black seamstress with only a high school education.
A fitting tribute to a beautiful woman of integrity.
What are your values in life?
What principles do you live by?
Would you stand true to them,
Or would you bend them under pressure, convenience and comfort?
When you have integrity,
People trust your words.
Because you mean what you say.
When you say you're gonna do it,
You do it, no matter what.
People will not need to remind you of your promises.
People will not feel insecure and wonder
If you remembered what you said.
When I was a kid,
I hated that feeling;
To be wondered,
If I could ''remember''.
Cos it just makes me look....lika Blur Block?
Grin. Not cool to be known as one!
When you have integrity,
You are responsible.
With responsibility, comes power.
Although Mother Theresa said,
''I am not called to be successful.
I am called to be faithful.''
Success is a result of faithfulness.
Success comes after you
When you handle the little things well.
When you have integrity,
You are truthful.
You don't beat around the bush.
You don't twist and turn,
But you embrace truth.
I learnt that the day I really wanted to be a person of Integrity,
Was the day,
I decided to respect myself.
If I love myself,
I want to respect my conscience.
Think about it...
When we act against what our conscience tells us,
We ultimately feel down and out.
We feel depressed.
'Cos we become disappointed in ourselves.
And we can't seem to respect ourselves anymore.
Many times,
I felt this way before.
You must have felt this way at least once too.
And we respond in two ways:
a. Realise our fault and strive to improve ourselves next time
b. Give up and scorn at the idea of ''doing the right things''; and ultimately mock at people
Who are ''doing the right things.''....
And finally shrink into an
Ugly,
Sour,
Shrivelled-up person,
Whom people doesn't like to be around with,
Whom we ourselves hate to be with ourselves.
Be the Uncommonly Beautiful one.
*
No comments:
Post a Comment