Solitude and Hope: Y'all Come Visit!

"I WOULD NOT BE STANDING HERE TODAY, NOR STANDING WHERE I STAND EVERYDAY, HAD SHE NOT CHOSEN TO SIT DOWN...I KNOW THAT." This was Oprah Winfrey's statement during her "sorrowful" publicity act at a three-hour memorial service for Rosa Parks at the historic Metropolitan A.M.E. Church in Washington, D. C. on Monday.

Yes, dear Oprah, where WOULD you be standing? Standing outside a Parisian Hermes store after it had closed, stamping your feet and degrading its employees, since you were SO FAMOUS that they had no right not to open it up after-hours just for you and the entourage that you employ to cater to your every whim??

Or perhaps standing and pretending to be so empathic and caring for the plight of the many characters that you parade across your stage each week on your daily television talk show? An "empathic facade" that is well-known, by large numbers of people in Chicago, to immediately evaporate as soon as the television cameras turn away or when the show cuts to a commercial break.

Where was even a pittance of financial support (from your immense fortune) for Rosa Parks when not too long ago her landlord was about to evict her from the humble Detroit apartment, where she lived alone in abject poverty? There was none--you were too involved in all of the "draining"activities of keeping your face everywhere as a national entertainment personality.

Shame, shame, deep shame upon you...and upon all of the other big names who now show up to "piously" bask in the spotlight of her memorials. Shame on you and President Bush and Former President Bill Clinton and Rep. John Conyers and Jesse Jackson and Louis Farrakhan and U. S. Senator Barack Obama and Reverand Al Sharpton and Bishop Adam Jefferson Richardson and Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) and Aretha Franklin and Cicely Tyson and the NAACP and the many other politically powerful, famous and wealthy so-called supporters of human dignity and rights.

Where were any of you when Rosa Parks really needed your help? Nowhere to be found.

Shame, shame, shame, eternal shame upon all of you.