Now That’s a Boycott

This might be a case of comparing apples and oranges, but I’m going to risk it.

We have a Netflix membership. You make a list of movies in your on-line account. Then they send you the movie at the top of your list. You watch it when you feel like it, mail it back, then wait for the next movie to be shipped. I have been a bit distracted lately, so I haven’t kept too close a watch on what I put into my queue and what is next to be sent to me. Last week sometime we received "The Long Walk Home." Finally, yesterday, we put it in to watch.

Whoopi Goldberg, Sissy Spacek, Mary Steenburgen and some others. It’s about the bus boycotts that took place in the south in 1955. What struck me was that after the infamous Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat, (She wasn’t sitting up front, she was sitting in a black section, but the front got filled up so she was supposed to vacate for the next white that boarded…I didn’t know that,) the boycott was planned over a weekend and was scheduled to begin on a Monday morning.

“On a Monday?” my kids said out loud and to each other. You see, they have been listening to the news. They have heard the hoopla over the so called immigrant protests. Those too started on a Monday. We watched with interest and I with tears as a truly discriminated against group of people suffered in order to finally make some headway in securing their freedoms. The difference was that we brought them here, and then we told them that they couldn’t be like us. To add to the silliness, in 1955 there was no legal recourse. Today is totally different. We have immigration laws that you can follow to attain citizenship; just follow the laws and in most cases you are in.

This boycott was necessary, warranted, and thankfully, successful. This modern Monday march, on the other hand was a joke. What a farce. They come into our country illegally, squat for a while, then demand instant citizenship and all the rights that we have. How arrogant it is for these illegals to think they have the same right to demand the same things. It took bloodied feet, stubborn pride in human worth, and humble faith to win the bus boycotts and subsequent struggles.

Further discussion from my kids: “Mom, the thing is, if we were to go to Mexico illegally, we’d get in such big trouble from the Mexican government!”

They have a point there.