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.
Clinton lived less thatn a half mile away from Ramble Elementary. He didn't ride a city bus to school either.
What part of his story was painted as nonsense on that thread?
Since it is eminently obvious that Clinton does not suffer from either guilt or shame, it is highly unlikely that he cared either one way or the other about where Rosa Parks sat. In fact, I'm sure that he has no problem where the little people sit on the big bus of life, as long as he's in the big limo that delays that bus from getting where it needs to go.
"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."
Wow. Kind of amazing he didn't say, "The black folk sat in the back, and I was the only white boy who went back there to sit with 'em."
That's what Doug did, to the extent he could.
Just how long is a short bus? long enough to even have seats in the back?
I grew up in Hot Springs and am there as I type this today. The old Ramble school described above is less than one mile from clinton's boyhood home on Park Avenue. I really don't think he would be riding a city bus for a less than one mile trip to school....
Why can`t we just ignore this guy?
I mean, who cares what he says anymore. He can never be president again, he has no power to do anymore damage than he has already done.
The Clintons are done. Hillary may get the Dem nomination for president but she will never win the Presidency.
Heck, even my ( so called moderately ) liberal father says he will never vote for her. If she can`t get his vote, then she is toast, IMO. (My father was a Bill Clinton , Al Gore and John Kerry supporter).
Did you confirm Bill's address? I doubt if he was riding a city bus to school. He lived less than a half mile from the school.
Just because it could have been true does not give any reason to presume it should be true. Clinton is such a pathological liar, when he says something, it makes me less likely to believe it.
Frankly, knowing what he became as an adult, I would be surprised if the young Clinton would have done anything so bold, without knowing there would be an immediate reward. But I have a pretty low opinion of Bubba, so take that for what it is worth...
Sure, let's give credit where credit is due. Clinton wins this one.
Lots of people would stop buses as a protest in those days, but Rosa Parks was the only person who didn't "give in" to the instruction to move. She stood her ground -- and that's what made her a hero. And the people who stood with her were risking jobs and lives -- and jobs had more meaning when the "safety net" was almost nonexistent for southern black families. Clinton as a child didn't risk much, but he did the right thing.
"I was born a small black child...."
Congressman Billybob
I was looking foreward to the upcoming Gemini program and the race to the moon </s>
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