Re: Cowards

On Mon, 2 Jan 2006 11:39:17 -0700 John Burgeson wrote, in part:

"...My "fights", Janice, were in the civil rights movement of the 60s. .."

### One of those people who used to fight in that movement now has a
web site: http://www.discoverthenetwork.org

". my last article .. was on one of America's great hero, Rosa Parks.
...In all these encounters, respect for one's opposer (not his or her
views) was paramount. I must reject your views (above) as misguided
caricature." ~ Burgy

### Thomas Sowell also wrote an article about Rosa Parks. You might
find it of interest:

<http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1510371/posts>Thomas
Sowell: Rosa Parks and History
http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/thomassowell/2005/10/27/173033.html ^
Posted on 10/27/2005 1:55:50 PM EDT by
<http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1510371//~shade2/>Shade2
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1510371/posts

The death of Rosa Parks has reminded us of her place in history, as
the black woman whose refusal to give up her seat on a bus to a white
man, in accordance with the Jim Crow laws of Alabama, became the
spark that ignited the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s.

Most people do not know the rest of the story, however. Why was there
racially segregated seating on public transportation in the first
place? "Racism" some will say -- and there was certainly plenty of
racism in the South, going back for centuries. But racially
segregated seating on streetcars and buses in the South did not go
back for centuries.

Far from existing from time immemorial, as many have assumed,
racially segregated seating in public transportation began in the
South in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Those who see government as the solution to social problems may be
surprised to learn that it was government which created this problem.
Many, if not most, municipal transit systems were privately owned in
the 19th century and the private owners of these systems had no
incentive to segregate the races.

These owners may have been racists themselves but they were in
business to make a profit -- and you don't make a profit by
alienating a lot of your customers. There was not enough market
demand for Jim Crow seating on municipal transit to bring it about.

It was politics that segregated the races because the incentives of
the political process are different from the incentives of the
economic process. Both blacks and whites spent money to ride the
buses but, after the disenfranchisement of black voters in the late
19th and early 20th century, only whites counted in the political process.

It was not necessary for an overwhelming majority of the white voters
to demand racial segregation. If some did and the others didn't care,
that was sufficient politically, because what blacks wanted did not
count politically after they lost the vote.

The incentives of the economic system and the incentives of the
political system were not only different, they clashed. Private
owners of streetcar, bus, and railroad companies in the South lobbied
against the Jim Crow laws while these laws were being written,
challenged them in the courts after the laws were passed, and then
dragged their feet in enforcing those laws after they were upheld by
the courts.

These tactics delayed the enforcement of Jim Crow seating laws for
years in some places. Then company employees began to be arrested for
not enforcing such laws and at least one president of a streetcar
company was threatened with jail if he didn't comply.

None of this resistance was based on a desire for civil rights for
blacks. It was based on a fear of losing money if racial segregation
caused black customers to use public transportation less often than
they would have in the absence of this affront.

Just as it was not necessary for an overwhelming majority of whites
to demand racial segregation through the political system to bring it
about, so it was not necessary for an overwhelming majority of blacks
to stop riding the streetcars, buses and trains in order to provide
incentives for the owners of these transportation systems to feel the
loss of money if some blacks used public transportation less than
they would have otherwise.

People who decry the fact that businesses are in business "just to
make money" seldom understand the implications of what they are
saying. You make money by doing what other people want, not what you want.

Black people's money was just as good as white people's money, even
though that was not the case when it came to votes.

Initially, segregation meant that whites could not sit in the black
section of a bus any more than blacks could sit in the white section.
But whites who were forced to stand when there were still empty seats
in the black section objected. That's when the rule was imposed that
blacks had to give up their seats to whites.

Legal sophistries by judges "interpreted" the 14th Amendment's
requirement of equal treatment out of existence. Judicial activism
can go in any direction.

That's when Rosa Parks came in, after more than half a century of
political chicanery and judicial fraud.

~ janice
Received on Mon Jan 2 17:25:03 2006