February 12, 1944 – November 30, 2004
“If it had not been for storytelling, the black family would not have survived. It was the responsibility of the Uncle Remus types to transfer philosophies, attitudes, values, and advice, by way of storytelling using creatures in the woods as symbols.”
If you can control a man’s thinking you do not have to worry about his action. When you determine what a man shall think you do not have to concern yourself about what he will do. If you make a man feel that he is inferior, you do not have to compel him to accept an inferior status, for he will seek it himself. If you make a man think that he is justly an outcast, you do not have to order him to the back door. He will go without being told; and if there is no back door, his very nature will demand one. ~Carter G. Woodson
When Keshia Thomas was 18 years old in 1996, the KKK held a rally in her home town of Ann Arbor, Michigan. Hundreds of protesters turned out to tell the white supremacist organization that they were not welcome in the progressive college town. At one point during the event, a man with a SS tattoo and wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with a Confederate flag ended up on the protesters’ side of the fence and a small group began to chase him. He was quickly knocked to the ground and kicked and hit with placard sticks.
As people began to shout, “Kill the Nazi,” the high school student, fearing that mob mentality had taken over, decided to act. Thomas threw herself on top of one of the men she had come to protest, protecting him from the blows. In discussing her motivation after the event, she stated, “Someone had to step out of the pack and say, ‘this isn’t right’… I knew what it was like to be hurt. The many times that that happened, I wish someone would have stood up for me… violence is violence – nobody deserves to be hurt, especially not for an idea.”
Thomas never heard from the man after that day but months later, a young man came up to her to say thanks, telling her that the man she had protected was his father. For Thomas, learning that he had a son brought even greater significance to her heroic act. As she observed, “For the most part, people who hurt… they come from hurt. It is a cycle. Let’s say they had killed him or hurt him really bad. How does the son feel? Does he carry on the violence?”
Mark Brunner, the student photographer who took this now famous photograph, added that what was so remarkable was who Thomas saved: “She put herself at physical risk to protect someone who, in my opinion, would not have done the same for her. Who does that in this world?”
Keshia’s choice was to affirm what some have lost.
Keshia’s choice was human.
Keshia’s choice was hope.”
This video is priceless (totally not what I expected)! Laughter! What person doesn’t want to go to Disney World?!!! They must be insane or something [laughing hysterically]. But after seeing this video your heart will break. It will have total compassion for the little person that doesn’t feel the same as most of the world when it comes to visiting the most famous place of all. Disney World!
I have this really cool friend on Facebook. I have never seen her and of course she has never met me in person either but we are friends. I cherish and respect her opinions about life and she gives me the same courtesy. She’s an Atheist and I’m a Christian. And we have never had disagreements about my choice to worship Christ or her choice not to believe in a deity.
Yet, the rights to worship or not worship seems to make most people go crazy on both sides of the fence. I can’t help but wonder why?
And here is where I’m going to make a few people upset about the subject:
It’s not my job to police the world and set lives on the path of God. And more so, it is wrong to push religion, faith and God on others. People were given free will at birth. Meaning we have the rights to follow God or deny His deity.
I’m a Christian and hardcore evangelism really upsets me! I hate when Christian’s come to my front door and give me their “you’re going to hell for this reason spill.” Hone