In the photo here are Rosa Parks and Adrian Wyllie.
Ms. Parks, a 42 year old seamstress is shown being booked in 1955 for
not moving to the back of a bus in Montgomery, Alabama when a law
required black Americans to do so. On that day, she had moved once and
then as the bus filled up, she refused when asked to move again. Ms.
Parks was arrested and considered by some at the time to be an outlaw.
As time moved on she was properly recognized as someone that stood on
principle against a terrible law. She was convicted of this “crime” and
appealed. Things did not end there- in 1956 she along with 88 others
were indicted for boycotting the bus system. Later that year, the US
Supreme Court ruled segregation on buses was unconstitutional, and a
month later the law in Alabama was changed.
As a fan of westerns, when I see the word outlaw, I think of the person that robbed a bank or stagecoach, or shot someone in the back. In other words, someone that harmed others by taking their property or their life. As a retired law enforcement officer, I’m also familiar with this term having worked ID theft, driver license fraud, and homicide fugitive cases prior to retirement. In each of these, someone was harmed. Ms. Parks harmed no one by sitting where she did on the bus. Mr. Wyllie, who does not object to having a Florida driver license but does object to REAL ID, did not harm anyone either. In the Pinellas County stop, he had not violated any traffic laws but rather was singled out.
The parallel here is principle. When there is a bad law on the books, we as citizens have two options- comply or refuse to comply. If we refuse to comply, the road ahead is difficult, as the force of government can be used against us as it was Ms. Parks and now is being used against Mr. Wyllie.
Mr. Wyllie is a breath of fresh air for the Governor’s race in Florida, where among the many things the other two candidates have in common is a very low voter approval rating based upon their records. Both Democrat and Republican party loyalists have accused Mr Wyllie of being a “spoiler” to draw votes so the opposing party can win the election. I’d ask them what spoiler registers to run prior to the others, and what spoiler is willing to stand on principle even to the point of being jailed? I salute Mr. Wyllie for taking a stand on principle, and look forward to having a Governor that will do so for Florida. We’re overdue for one. I’m inserting one of my favorite videos as another piece of history from which to learn:
