Rosa Parks Day, the New York Way
Yesterday was the fiftieth anniversary of Rosa Parks's famous civil disobedience, and, in an a Elijah-like tribute, the MTA joined with transit systems across the country to ask passengers to leave the seat immediately behind the driver empty in Parks's honor. The Times reports today that the vast majority of MTA riders, even those on packed rush-hour buses, were happy to comply.
But not all of them:
Some riders on the same bus continued to sit in the front seat, even when they knew why it was supposed to remain empty.
Joanne Satalino, who is white and from Queens, said: "Oh, no, I ain't giving mine up. There's no place left to sit."
When it was pointed out that there were empty seats nearby, Ms. Satalino said she would surrender the seat to a rider with a cane.
Which is actually the greatest tribute to Parks's legacy: Why should an outerborough white ethnic be forced to give up her bus seat for a dead black woman's memory? It's unfair. It's unjust. It's un-American. Ms. Satalino will overcome!
Unless someone with a cane comes along.
