All those people and all that work behind Rosa Parks...

Rosa Parks

I love this article.   It's about Rosa Parks - the woman who apparently tipped the fortunes of the American Civil Rights movement by refusing to give up her seat on the bus. Or rather, it's NOT about her so much as it is about  the many many poeple who had been, and were, working really hard in the civil rights movement at the time.  Without them, Rosa Parks would probably never had done what she did.  And if she had, nothing would have happened as a result of it. 

Understanding that helps to give me hope because frankly a lot of activism is pretty unrewarding and tiring.You do things and nothing happens or perhaps, very little happens.  Many give up and decide they've done their dash, perhaps because they've burnt out or got sick or become too cynical.

It helps me enormously to know that every little bit does actually count and that we can't all be Rosa Parks.  Most of us will be the nameless people in the background who set the situation up.  In Parks' case, there were those who convinced her to join the cause, trained her up, worked with white communities to sow seeds that sprouted and grew strong when Parks did her thing. There were the groups who raised money for the cause, the lawyers who moved in to defend Rosa and so on.  There were countless hours, months and years of activism going on before the change happened.  Who knew when or how or even if the change would happen, but  those involved kept on trying to change things because they simply believed that it was the right thing to do and that it needed doing.

So, while it seems that we (ie all human beings on this planet) keep on walking into an environmental crisis of rather alarming proportions, it is also clear that we have to keep working with hope.  No matter what we do to help raise awareness or make a difference - even in very small ways - it is helping change the system so that one day an environmental Rosa Parks incident might just create the change we are working for.

I only hope that this happens soon (although I have to accept that perhaps it won't).  In the meantime though I'm just going to take whatever (small and insignificant) steps I can in the knowledge that it all counts!  It's important to do it even when it seems hopeless - just as the civil rights cause must have felt back in Rosa Parks' time.