Would you get on the bus?

I was watching the PBS show last night called Freedom Riders.
It was where a bus left Washington, D.C. and Nashville, Tennessee
in what I believe was 1961.

The riders were white as well as black. It showed the hardships,
Which included beatings and death. Cars following, threatening
riders and drivers, tires flattening, bus burnings.

As I watched this piece of history, I had to ask myself and wondered
about others… Would you have signed the paper and got on the bus?
The paper that was signed, was your understanding that you were
riding a bus, in a protest of civil rights and the consequences of that
ride. I don’t think death was one of them, but it had to be an unwritten
thought, when getting on that bus. After all they would be riding thru
the deepest of the Southern states. Where the KKK was still alive
and well, and more lively than it is now. Not to say they aren’t still
alive and well. Would you believe in civil rights so much, with so
much passion, knowing you could be beaten, and in your subconscious
know you could die? Would you sign the paper and get on the bus.
If the times today were as bad as they were then?

I got to say, to be honest, that I wouldn’t. I might stand up and say
that the black deserve the same rights as I have, I might go to a
protest in the safety of my own town, but ride a bus thru the
Deep south…no way… Sure it is easy now, you can Twitter, you
can Facebook, write a blog about it, that is the easy way.

So what do you think? Would you have? For those of you in your
late 60’s or 70’s, or early 80’s. Did you think when you were in
your 20’s/30’s, that you wish you lived close enough to go?
If you didn’t have a family who depended on you, would you have
gone?