Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks will lie in the US Capitol Rotunda, a tribute usually reserved for presidents and soldiers. She will be the first woman, and the second black American to receive that honor. I think, in this case, because Rosa Parks was the first person to ever resist what we now call "the Establishment" whereas other people mostly gather to talk and whine about the government, this eternal repose for her is the greatest and most deserving honor you could bestow.

Some other times, I might have thought it was excessive to praise her so much for a simple act of refusal, a civil disobedience; then I thought about how much she may have unknowingly contributed to our philosophy that we shouldn't conform to an unjust law. Even though her feet were tired, it was startling to see a woman who, for most of her life lived in discrimination, simply refused. It went against the grain. Eventually, she became the Rosa Parks. With such a simple name, she was the quintessential American everyone can remember.