“Courage is the discovery that you may not win, and trying when you know you can lose.” -Tom Krause
In most of the stories you read about a person exhibiting courage, you read that this person or that person "stood up" in an act of courage. But sometimes courage is shown by simply sitting down.
With the 50th Anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1963 March on Washington D.C. (August 28, 1963), many stood up in courage but there were many that sat down with just as much courage.
The most notable person we can look to is Rosa Parks. On December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Parks refused to obey bus driver James F. Blake's order that she give up her seat in the colored section to a white passenger, after the white section was filled. Yes, we actually had colored and white sections in most every part of life. That is what segregation means.
Many had the courage to break through segregation.
Rosa Parks quietly refused to give up that seat in which she sat. It was a courageous act that did get her arrested, but it helped to launch the civil rights movement here in the United States. And yes, Rosa was no stranger to politics and knew very well what she was doing. She had been a secretary with the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP since 1943.
There were many that tried to create a much more innocent myth that Rosa's unwillingness to get up was due to aching feet. “No” she would say, “the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.”
One act of courage in which one person sat for change sparked a nation to greater change. It would give others the example to act courageously and so many did. And you could be the one that sits or stands in courageous manner. You can be the one that takes one small act and changes a nation.
It may not seem quite so big at the time when you decide to take your seat on the bus. Moses lifted a crooked stick and parted a sea. David had a small sling-shot and brought down a giant. You help pay for a single mother's groceries one day and the possiblity of greatness happening is put into motion.
Act with courage in everything you do and realize that possibility isn't as hard as we think.
Stay inspired my friends.
