[lbo-talk] Rosa on Old Women (Was: Graeber responds to Hedges)

[Carrol Cox]

I think what bothers both Tahir & lbo8325 is that the vocabulary of courage
& cowardice is always associated with physical confrontation: facing the
fire hoses & the police dogs. _That_ courage is clearly achievable by almost
all of us: the occasion springs on us and what can we do but stand & take
it.

But see shag's immensely important post this morning on the Platypus forum.

Now let us imagine some living room or dingy Church basement back in 1956.
Perhaps a small committee, perhaps the full local chapter of the NAACP.

We know only one of the names, Rosa Parks, but everyone in that room counts.
This is the time someone says. Now don't be hasty someone else says. Have we
completed all our logistics planning? Do we KNOW that enough people will
refuse to ride? Is this really the right time? Perhaps we should collect a
few more instances, one says. Perhaps we need an opinion poll. The debate
rages on. Then (in their language not mie) -- Fuck it someone says; there
will never be a really good time. Let's DO IT. Let's RISK it. We can't do
worse than look like fools. Let's do it!

It's the 'courage' (and the 'cowardice' in that small meeting that I'm
talking about. Really -- we can all face the police dogs -- ALL of us. I'm
looking for the courage to say, so what if it turns out we were all a bunch
of fools. Let's go with it.

Carrol