The Los Angeles Times reported on Friday that Robert McCullough, who led a group of black students in a landmark 1961 civil rights protest, choosing to serve jail time on a chain gang for the crime of sitting at a whites-only lunch counter in South Carolina, has died. He was 64.
McCullough and his fellow students were given the choice between paying a $100 fine and spending 30 days on a chain gang. They chose the latter. They made the state pay for their upkeep rather than giving it money for backing segregation.
How many of us could spend 30 days on a chain gang? I'm almost 50. I wouldn't last a day.
But we have this new tool, this web site and our own blogs. We are protesting daily. We are standing up to Big Brother, and we're making a difference. They're starting to hear us, to heed us, to be afraid of us. And thanks to this wonderful technology, we the Kos people don't face police dogs, fire hoses, or National Guard troops.
Do we say things on this site we would never dare say in person? Well, maybe we aren't all as brave as Mr. McCullough.
Are we growing in numbers every day, speaking our minds as behooves a democracy? Yes indeed. This site allows virtual protest. It answers the one-sided right wing propaganda that went unchallenged too long.
We are not godless. We are not terrorists. We are not lunatics, elitists, or the far-left fringe. We're people. We want to be heard, or in the case of this form of protest, we want to be read.
Lamont didn't only win because people are sick of the war. People are sick, and getting sicker daily, of Big Politics. There's no decency in Big Politics. It's time to take back the government, for the people.
Now I guess they'll call me a communist, too. Oh well, maybe I'll just toddle off and hug a tree. And keep reading Kos every day.