Posted on 11/03/2005 12:05:49 PM PST by doug from upland
I never thought I would be defending Bill Clinton on FreeRepublic. Mark this date as an historic moment. Clinton might have actually told the truth.
From the text of his Rosa Parks funeral speech (which, of course, he managed to make about himself)
CLINTON: I remember, as if it were yesterday, that fateful day 50 years ago. I was a 9-year-old southern white boy who rode a segregated bus every single day of my life. I sat in the front. Black folk sat in the back.
When Rosa showed us that black folks didn't have to sit in the back anymore, two of my friends and I, who strongly approved of what she had done, decided we didn't have to sit in the front anymore.
(APPLAUSE)
It was just a tiny gesture by three ordinary kids. But that tiny gesture was repeated over and over again millions and millions of times in the hearts and minds of children, their parents, their grandparents, their great grandparents, proving that she did help to set us all free.
In 1953, Clinton moved to Hot Springs and started school at St. John's Catholic. He then attended Ramble Elementary. He was nine years old when Rosa Parks defied the law on the bus.
I spoke with a very nice lady at the Hot Springs School District. Ramble Elementary has been replaced with a newer school, Park Elementary. The original Ramble building still stands and is a threatre.
There were no school buses. Kids either walked, were taken by parents, or took a city bus to school.
It was a diverse neighborhood. My source mentioned blacks, Lituanians, and Jews. Kids just seemed to all get along.
The source talked to another man in her office who, like her, grew up and went to Hot Springs schools at the same time as Bill Clinton. She and her friends would sometimes join the black kids in the back of the bus. She thought it was the right thing to do.
It is entirely possible that Clinton did join a few of his friends and sit in the back of the bus after hearing about Rosa Parks. Let's give him credit for a possible truth telling episode.
NOTE: He still, however, is a liar, a perjurer, a subornerer of perjury, an obstructor of justice, a threat to national security, a rapist, a threat to witnesses, a horrible and completely phony human being, and an impeached failed president with an evil and dangerous wife.
Juanita responded to that post.
"I was born a small black child...."
That's "I was born a poor black child" I believe...
Clinton will say anything to ingratiate himself with his audience. I am sure no one in the MSM will ever investigate what he said to see if it could be verified. It took me all of 15 minutes. Hillary did the same thing with her story about how her Mother named her or her NY Yankee fan story. The Clintons treat us as if we were fools, and in most cases they are probably right.
Huh?
He rode a bus every day?
Why do I smell manure?
He probably had his eye on a babe in back and went to "talk" to her. I'm sure he started early.
It is entirely possible that Clinton did join a few of his friends and sit in the back of the bus after hearing about Rosa Parks. Let's give him credit for a possible truth telling episode.
Well, according to the Arkansas Gazette, it didnt happen that way. Here is the text of President Clinton's address at Little Rock's Central High School during a ceremony commemorating the 40th anniversary of the school's desegregation:
"On September 4th, 1957, Elizabeth Eckford walked to this door for her first day of school, utterly alone. She was turned away by people who were afraid of change, instructed by ignorance, hating what they simply could not understand. And America saw her, haunted and taunted for the simple color of her skin, and in the image we caught a very disturbing glimpse of ourselves."
"Folks, in 1957, I was 11 years old, living 50 miles away in Hot Springs, when the eyes of the world were fixed here. Like almost all Southerners then, I never attended school with a person of another race until I went to college. But as a young boy in my grandfather's small grocery store, I learned lessons that nobody bothered to teach me in my segregated school. My grandfather had a 6th grade education from a tiny rural school. He never made a bit of money. But in that store, in the way he treated his customers and encouraged me to play with their children, I learned America's most profound lessons: We really are all equal. We really do have the right to live in dignity. We really do have the right to be treated with respect. We do have the right to be heard."
"I never knew how he and my grandmother came to those convictions, but I'll never forget how they lived them. Ironically, my grandfather died in 1957. He never lived to see America come around to his way of thinking. But I know he's smiling down today -- not on his grandson, but on the Little Rock Nine, who gave up their innocence so all good people could have a chance to live their dreams."
Keyphrase is: "I never attended school with a person of another race until I went to college." He never went to school with black kids. Segregation in Arkansas did not even happen until 1957.
Here is the link:
http://www.ardemgaz.com/prev/central/prestext26.html
"That fateful day"? Impossible. Even assuming such a minor event would be reported on the radio or TV, Rosa Parks was arrested at 6:06pm (the NPR website has a photocopy of the arrest report (http://www.npr.org/templates/common/image_enlargement.php?imageResId=4973678.)
He didn't even care about making the story credible by saying "a few days later" or "when we heard about the incident". If we can't see the beginning of the story as being credible it is reasonable evidence that the entire story is not credible. His ego apparently required that he being seen as also having taken action but that he be seen as taking action the same day as Rosa Parks.
Good find. But could he have been on the same bus? The city bus took white kids to white schools and black kids to black schools. The woman at the school district indicated that it was a diverse area.
See post #98. "Risky" perhaps a poor choice of words on my part.
ROTFL. Please tell me this is satire. Please.
I'll cut Bill Clinton some slack. He has nothing to do and may soon be playing the supportive wife role on the campaign trail. I'm going to enjoy that.
No slack for the wilderbeast.
Maybe you and I wouldn't think about civil rights at 9 years old, but maybe slick Willy was just trying to be a bad boy, not a good boy. "Let's get in trouble and go sit with the black kids. Yeah, that will piss my MOm's ol' man off. Yeah, that's the ticket...."
Let's assume it is the truth. It's still disgusting that he said it. He was using Rosa Parks' funeral to elevate himself and making himself morally equivalent to her. That's a disgrace.
Of course he is a disgrace. And the chances are great he is lying. But this is not a one hundred percenter. We don't have the stained dress on this one.
No more phone calls................we have a winner.
Big day for you! Time to celebrate - eh?
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