C2

06/02/2026

The Rosa Parks you learned about in school is a myth.

That story -- the tired seamstress who'd simply had enough and refused to give up her seat -- is a fairy tale that erases twelve years of dangerous organizing work that led her to that pivotal moment. She had investigated lynchings. She had documented r**es. She had collected testimony from people too frightened to speak their own names. And in 1943, she had already defied the same bus driver who would have her arrested twelve years later.

Born on this day in 1913 in Tuskegee, Alabama, Rosa Parks would spend her life challenging a system designed to silence her. This is the story of those twelve years. The story of how a movement readied itself, and how one woman made herself ready to meet it.

In 1943, Parks joined the Montgomery NAACP as secretary and began the most dangerous work of her life. Alongside E.D. Nixon -- a union organizer who led the local chapter -- she became the person Black Alabamians turned to when the law abandoned them.

Her title suggested paperwork. The reality was fieldwork. When Black women were r***d by White men, Parks was the one who came. When a Black man faced false accusations that could mean his death, Parks traveled to him -- often through hostile territory, always at great personal risk.

"Rosa will talk to you," people whispered throughout Alabama's Black communities.

In 1944, a 24-year-old sharecropper named Recy Taylor was walking home from church when six White men forced her into a car, blindfolded her, and r***d her. When word reached the Montgomery NAACP, they sent Parks. She found the sheriff waiting at Taylor's home, driving past repeatedly, eventually entering to demand Parks leave -- no "troublemakers" wanted. Parks returned to Montgomery and launched the Committee for Equal Justice for the Rights of Mrs. Recy Taylor. She made sure the case reached national headlines.

The men who r***d Recy Taylor were never charged.

For twelve years, Parks worked cases like Taylor's: Gertrude Perkins, r***d. Jeremiah Reeves, a sixteen-year-old facing ex*****on. The Scottsboro Boys, falsely accused. Viola White and Claudette Colvin, arrested for resisting bus segregation. She persuaded traumatized victims to file affidavits that could get them killed -- but were also their only hope for justice. She submitted report after report to federal authorities who looked away.

Most cases led nowhere. No charges. No justice. Just silence and fear. Parks later said it was "more a matter of trying to challenge the powers that be and let it be known that we did not want to continue being second-class citizens." By the summer of 1955, exhausted and discouraged, she questioned whether any of it mattered.

That August, civil rights activist Virginia Durr secured Parks a scholarship to Highlander Folk School, a social justice leadership training center in Tennessee and one of the few integrated spaces in the South. The two-week workshop focused on implementing school desegregation. Parks arrived depleted.

She studied under Septima Clark, a fired teacher who had refused to abandon her NAACP membership. She strategized with Black and White activists together. She slept, ate, and planned in integrated spaces. For two weeks, she glimpsed what an equal society might feel like.

At 42, she wrote, it was "one of the few times in my life up to that point when I did not feel any hostility from White people."

On the final day, someone asked what she thought would happen when she returned to Montgomery. Parks -- ever realistic -- answered that because Montgomery was the Cradle of the Confederacy, nothing would happen there.

But something had shifted. She left Highlander, she later said, with "the strength to persevere in my work for freedom, not just for Blacks, but for all oppressed people."

Three weeks later, fourteen-year-old Emmett Till was visiting family in Mississippi when two White men kidnapped him, tortured him, shot him, and dumped his body in the Tallahatchie River. His mother, Mamie Till, demanded an open casket. She wanted the world to see what they had done to her son. Jet magazine published the photograph. Parks was devastated.

Till's murder was not new -- Parks had documented cases just like it for years. A young minister her husband Raymond knew had been killed the same way. But those cases had been buried, kept quiet, swept under. Till's case was different. He'd come from the North, a boy from Chicago. The media paid attention. There was a trial.

On September 23, after 67 minutes of deliberation, an all-White jury acquitted the two men who had murdered Emmett Till.

Parks was sickened. For twelve years, she had fought for justice for Black victims of White violence. She had documented r**e after r**e, beating after beating, killing after killing. And now, even with the entire nation watching, even with a trial, even with a photograph of a brutalized child -- the men walked free.

On November 27, 1955, four days before her arrest, Rosa Parks attended a packed mass meeting at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. Dr. T.R.M. Howard, who had led the investigation into Till's murder, spoke. Years later, she told Emmett Till's mother that she had thought of him at the moment she refused to give up her seat.

"I was tired of giving in," she said. But it wasn't physical exhaustion. It was the exhaustion of twelve years documenting violence with no accountability. Of watching children murdered with no consequences. Of a legal system that protected White criminals and criminalized Black existence.

On December 1, 1955, Parks boarded a bus, lost in thought. She sat in the middle section where Black passengers could sit unless needed by Whites. At the third stop, White passengers boarded. The driver turned. James Blake -- the same driver who had thrown her off his bus twelve years earlier. "Y'all better make it light on yourselves and let me have those seats," Blake ordered. Three Black passengers in her row stood. Parks stayed.

When a police officer arrived and asked why she hadn't stood, Parks asked calmly: "Why do you push us around?"

"I don't know," he answered, "but the law is the law and you're under arrest."

Nixon posted bail that night. He understood immediately: Parks was perfect to rally the community around. Respected NAACP secretary. Twelve years of activism. Married. 42 years old. Not a teenager who could be dismissed. Not someone the opposition could smear.

The Montgomery Bus Boycott began four days later. It would last 381 days -- longer than a year of Black Montgomery residents refusing to ride the buses, walking miles to work, organizing elaborate carpools, enduring harassment and violence.

Parks didn't just inspire it -- she sustained it, serving as carpool dispatcher, coordinating the massive operation that kept thousands moving without buses. The boycott cost her everything. She lost her job. Her husband lost his. Parks developed ulcers, insomnia, heart problems. She spent 1956 crisscrossing the country raising funds, giving speeches, carrying the weight of a movement on her shoulders.

In December 1956, the Supreme Court ruled in Browder v. Gayle that bus segregation was unconstitutional. The boycott's success ignited a wave of direct action campaigns across the South and launched the modern Civil Rights Movement into its next phase.

The movement won this battle, but the victory didn't restore what Parks and her husband had lost. In 1957, unable to find work in Montgomery, they moved first to Virginia and then to Detroit, Michigan. Parks hoped for better opportunities in the North. What she found was that racism looked different there, but it was just as entrenched. Schools were segregated. Housing was segregated. The fight continued.

In Detroit, Parks was hired as a receptionist and secretary for U.S. Representative John Conyers, a position she held from 1965 until her retirement in 1988. The work was more than clerical. She helped constituents navigate poverty, job discrimination, housing segregation, police brutality, and lack of access to healthcare -- many of the same issues she had fought in Montgomery, now in a different city.

She remained an activist for her entire life, working on prisoner support, running the Detroit chapter of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and joining the movement against the Vietnam War and the anti-apartheid struggle.

Over her lifetime, she received numerous honors: the NAACP's Spingarn Medal in 1979, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1996, and the Congressional Gold Medal in 1999. The United States Congress called her "the mother of the freedom movement."

Rosa Parks died in Detroit on October 24, 2005, at the age of 92. Her death was met with national mourning. Memorial services were held in Detroit, Montgomery, and Washington, D.C., reflecting the cities that had shaped her life and activism. She became the first woman to lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda, the second African American to receive this honor, and the first American who was not a government official to do so. Her coffin was dr***d with both the American flag and flowers, a tribute to a woman who had forced America to confront its contradictions.

Seventy years after that December evening, Rosa Parks' real story demands telling. Not the tired seamstress who stumbled into history, but the trained investigator, strategic organizer, and committed activist who spent decades fighting for justice. Her story isn't accidental heroism -- it's deliberate, sustained, dangerous work in pursuit of freedom. That truth is far more powerful than any myth.

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For adult readers who would like to deepen their understanding of Parks' life and impact, we highly recommend the excellent biography "The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks" at https://www.amightygirl.com/rebellious-life-rosa-parks

This powerful account of her life in full has also been adapted into a young readers edition for ages 12 and up at https://www.amightygirl.com/rebellious-rosa-parks-young-readers

For a powerful book for adult readers about Rosa Parks and Recy Taylor, we also recommend "At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, R**e, and Resistance" at https://bookshop.org/a/8011/9780307389244

To introduce kids to her inspiring story, we recommend the board book "I Am Strong: A Little Book About Rosa Parks" for ages 1 to 4 (https://www.amightygirl.com/i-am-strong), the picture book "I Am Rosa Parks" for ages 4 to 8 (https://www.amightygirl.com/i-am-rosa-parks-1), her autobiography for ages 9 to 13, "Rosa Parks: My Story" (https://www.amightygirl.com/rosa-parks-my-story), and "Who Was Rosa Parks?" for ages 8 to 12 (https://www.amightygirl.com/who-was-rosa-parks)

For more books about courageous girls and women of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement, check out our post on "50 Inspiring Books on Girls & Women of the Civil Rights Movement" at https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=11177

28/01/2026

In so places of the world these type of inhuman and hurtful practices have been used by governments to maintain power and control. Now it is also occurring in the US. It is heartbreaking where ever it occurs. Please do not look away. We are all connected and this impacts us all. Despite the valid fear, anger and overwhelm, it is important to stay connected to your own power and humanity.

Please do what fits for you and help hold accountability without judgement. A few suggestions:

Use your voice, your wallet, your kindness and your love to support each other.

- document and share what is happening, and do so together, so you are not isolated or targeted
- name the specific behavior, look for the humanity in the other, speak to it, call on it. We need to empower people within the system to also fight back or break out.
- stay connected to your community and values - share resources, support, and information. this decreases sense of powerless and increases sense of purpose.
- nourish the love and connection in your community- stay connected to friends, family and neighbors - we are stronger together
- protect your rituals, traditions, culture - listen to music, read, play games, enjoy art. This is what nourishes us, reconnects us to each other and gives us hope
- keep physically active - move, exercise, dance, to release the stress and stay connected to your own body in a healthy way
- use your political voice - to your government, locally, and federally - hold those in power accountable
- strategically use your wallet, coordinate this in your community - buy locally, boycott the darlings of the current government- eg big tech - power and money is their language
- most importantly as you move through the world acknowledge the fear, anger and sadness, so it does not build up,
-likewise listen, look for the humanity in the other, share a kind gesture, word, smile so we can connect, protect, heal and rebuild together.

Diana's nose wouldn't stop bleeding. No matter what her worried parents tried, the blood kept coming. By morning, they decided to take her straight to urgent care. When Yohendry and Darianny Crespo arrived at Portland Adventist Health with their 7-year-old, they never made it inside.

Three unmarked vehicles surrounded their car in the hospital parking lot. Border Patrol agents forced them out. The parents pleaded with the agents -- pleaded -- to let Diana see a doctor. She was still bleeding. She needed help.

The agents refused, denying medical treatment to a sick 7-year-old girl.

They arrested the family, handcuffed Diana's parents, and sent them all to a detention camp in Texas. Diana soon spiked a fever that lasted for days. It would be nearly a week before she was finally allowed to see a doctor.

This is what the federal government did to a sick child.

For generations, Americans have told ourselves a story about who we are. A shining city on a hill. A beacon of hope. A force for good in a world of tyrants and evildoers. We've told ourselves we stand for something -- that our values mean something -- that when the world looks to America, they see the best of what humanity can be.

That story is no longer true. Not if this is how federal agents, working in the name of the American people, treat the children among us. Not if this is what America has become.

The Trump administration's justification for such cruelty has always been the same. "The worst of the worst." Killers. Rapists. Gang members. Terrorists. Pedophiles. The drumbeat is endless, the rhetoric relentless.

It has always been a lie.

The Crespo González family has no criminal record. They came to this country legally, entering through a port of entry. They have a pending asylum case with a scheduled court date. They were given work permits.

They did everything right, followed every rule, and none of it mattered. None of it protected them from federal agents who wouldn't let a 7-year-old girl see a doctor before hauling the crying child off to a detention camp with her handcuffed parents.

This is the "worst of the worst." A second-grader who loves to paint. Her university-educated parents who fled Venezuela fearing government persecution.

And they are far from alone. According to ICE's own data, nearly three-quarters of people booked into custody since October had no criminal convictions. Just 5 percent had any type of violent conviction.

The share of detainees with any criminal conviction has collapsed -- from 62 percent in January to 31 percent by November -- and even those with records are overwhelmingly traffic violations and misdemeanors. Overall, the number of non-criminal detainees arrested by ICE has surged 2,500 percent since Trump took office.

This isn't about public safety. This is about quotas. Stephen Miller has demanded 3,000 arrests per day -- "a floor, not a ceiling" -- and reportedly threatened to fire field office leaders who don't keep up. When ICE officials pushed back, citing claims that deportation efforts would target criminals, Miller was confused. "What do you mean you're going after criminals?" he demanded. "Why aren't you at Home Depot? Why aren't you at 7-Eleven?"

So they fill their quotas with easy pickings. Families taking their children to the hospital. Parents dropping kids off at school. The accessible, the law-abiding, the vulnerable.

One of Trump's very first acts in office was to rescind the policy protecting "sensitive locations" -- hospitals, schools, churches -- from immigration enforcement. The protections had been in place since 2011, maintained by presidents of both parties, including Trump himself during his first term. On day one, he tore them up.

The cruelty was the point from the beginning.

Like packs of vultures, ICE and Border Patrol agents now stalk the places where vulnerable people have no choice but to go. They circle schools. They surveil hospitals. They wait in parking lots.

In Minneapolis, where federal agents have killed two American citizens in the past three weeks, schools have been forced into lockdown. Nearly a third of students in one district have stayed home out of fear. A pregnant woman missed her checkup, too afraid to visit a clinic -- a nurse found her at home, already in labor. A diabetic was too scared to pick up his insulin. Eighty-four percent of healthcare workers surveyed report significant decreases in patient visits since last January.

"ICE agents have been roaming our neighborhoods, circling our schools, following our buses, coming into our parking lots and taking our children," said Zena Stenvik, superintendent of Columbia Heights Public Schools in Minnesota. "Students are watching abductions on their way to school, on their way home and through their windows."

This is the America we have become.

The Crespo González family is now being detained at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas -- the same facility holding 5-year-old Liam, the Minnesota boy whose photo in the hands of a federal agent went viral last week.

This detention camp for children and parents has a documented record of horrors: families report denial of critical medical care, food infested with worms and mold, children becoming ill, lights that stay on all night so kids can't sleep. Court documents describe children who are "weak, faint, pale, and often crying because they are so hungry." Hospitals have confirmed that children are consistently released with health issues they've dubbed "Dilley-ish."

The National Center for Youth Law has sued the Trump administration over the wretched conditions at the detention camp. Neha Desai, the organization's managing director, observed that "the current conditions at Dilley are fundamentally unsafe for anyone, let alone young children."

This is where they sent Diana. A family that had been working, paying their own way, contributing to their community -- now imprisoned at the expense of American taxpayers.

"Alarming, chilling, and deeply shameful" is how the Oregon Nurses Association described the detention of a family seeking medical care for their child. "No parent should ever be forced to weigh their child's health against the risk of detention."

And this is happening everywhere. Not just in Minnesota, not just in Oregon, but across the country. Countless stories of hardworking people -- many of them in the country legally -- being detained, terrified, torn from their lives to meet Stephen Miller's quotas.

This isn't making America safer. This is making America crueler.

It's not just the lives of these families at stake. It's the heart and soul of this country. It's who we are and what we stand for.

We are better than this. We are better than denying medical care to a sick child. We are better than handcuffing a little girl's pleading parents as they beg armed men to let her see a doctor. We are better than masked agents in parking lots, hunting families seeking help.

Or at least, we used to tell ourselves we were.

Diana Crespo is 7 years old. She likes to paint and play with friends. She had a nosebleed that wouldn't stop, and her parents tried to take her to the doctor.

For that, they were arrested. For that, they sit in detention. For that, a little girl went days without medical care while running a fever in an American detention camp for children.

Don't look away.
This has to stop.
Enough is enough.

--> If you've had enough of the cruelty and the lies, here's how to take action.

For Senators: Demand no DHS funding until ICE and Border Patrol are reined in and an independent investigation is launched into their widespread abuses. You can call (202) 224-3121 or use the action alert at https://5calls.org/issue/dhs-budget-ice-defund/

For Representatives: Call (202) 224-3121 and demand real oversight of these lawless agencies -- and the launch of an independent investigation into the activities of ICE and the killings of American citizens by DHS agents.

--> To help Diana and her parents with legal support, there is a GoFundMe campaign at https://www.gofundme.com/f/ayuda-humanitaria-para-la-familia-crespo-gonzalez

--> To join with others in your community who are standing up for decency, democracy, and the rule of law, you can find an Indivisible group in your area at https://indivisible.org/groups

--> To help immigrants who have been arrested or detained, you can support the critical work of the National Immigrant Justice Center at https://immigrantjustice.org/ways-to-help/

If you're looking for ways to take action and counter ICE overreach, supporting civil rights organizations like the ACLU that challenge their tactics in the courts has emerged as one of the most successful means of constraining ICE's rapidly expanding enforcement powers -- learn more at https://www.aclu.org/issues/immigrants-rights/immigrants-rights-and-detention

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For children's books that encourage empathy and understanding of Mighty Girl immigrants of the past and present, visit our blog post, "A New Land, A New Life: 25 Mighty Girl Books About the Immigrant Experience" at https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=12855

For books for children and teens about the importance of standing up for truth, decency, and justice, even in dark times, visit our blog post, "Dissent Is Patriotic: 50 Books About Women Who Fought for Change," at https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=14364

For books for tweens and teens about girls living under real-life authoritarian regimes throughout history that will help them appreciate how precious democracy truly is, visit our blog post "The Fragility of Freedom: Mighty Girl Books About Life Under Authoritarianism" at https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=32426

To stay connected with A Mighty Girl, you can sign-up for A Mighty Girl's free email newsletter at https://www.amightygirl.com/forms/newsletter

To read more about Diana's detention, visit https://www.opb.org/article/2026/01/23/gresham-family-seeking-medical-care-child-detained-immigration-officers/

29/12/2025

Looking for a therapy praxis space in Bern? Here picture of waiting room.

📍bitte Weitersagen:
In unseren direkt am Bahnhof Bern gelegenen, geschmackvoll ausgebauten Praxisräumlichkeiten (im Bild die Wartezone) werden auf 1. April 2026 zwei Zimmer frei.

Wir arbeiten auf dem Hintergrund der Integrativen Körperpsychotherapie IBP und wünschen uns Kolleg:innen mit einem erwachsenenpsychother**eutischen Angebot und Interesse am Fokus auf Bindung.

📍bei Interesse Mail an: judith.biberstein@gmx.net

07/12/2025

Join us Tuesday evening 17:30 to 19:00 for our Open Door Apero - as it’s cold and wet outside we’ll be cozy inside.

With snacks, drinks, conversation, art and poetry!
Looking forward to reading from her new poetry book! And the new art being displayed.

Www.c2gether.ch - Caring2gether at Bahnfofplatz 7, 2502 Biel

12/11/2025

This is why community and connection are so important!

New data from APA’s latest Stress in America survey reveals Americans are feeling lonelier than ever, and it’s taking a toll on our health, relationships, and sense of belonging.

Read the full report, released today: https://at.apa.org/477915

26/08/2025

After giving birth to her second child, NPR's LA Johnson struggled with scary thoughts that didn't seem to go away. She illustrates her experience in a comic, along with tips on how to cope.

25/08/2025

Finally a balanced and accurate reporting of the mental health limitations and growing solutions based on more coorperation, clearer referring and recognizing the financial and social impact of prevention earlier intervention. Not link the fear mongering and short sighted cutting back pushed by the insurance companies. Well done SRF.

Audio & Podcasts Echo der Zeit Sendung vom 24.08.2025 Inhalt Psychotherapie: Kostenwachstum flacht ab Bundesrat und Parlament erhofften sich in der Psychotherapie mehr Plätze und einen erleichterten Zugang, indem sie vor einiger Zeit die Spielregeln vereinfachten: Ärzte können seither eine Therap...

27/06/2025

One of the many ways we can talk about and engage with death… thank you Michelle Obama.

27/06/2025

Gisèle Pelicot, whose extraordinary courage captivated France and the world during the harrowing trial of her ex-husband and 50 other men for drugging and ra**ng her, has won her privacy battle against Paris Match magazine -- and promptly donated the entire €40,000 settlement to support sexual violence prevention organizations! The magazine had published unauthorized photographs of Gisèle's post-trial life, prompting her successful legal action that resulted in two €20,000 payments to associations supporting sexual violence victims. This resolution highlights the critical distinction between choosing to waive anonymity in court -- a decision Gisèle made to shine light on sexual violence -- and surrendering one's fundamental right to privacy thereafter.

The settlement marks another chapter in Gisèle's courageous journey to reclaim her autonomy after enduring almost a decade of unconscionable violations orchestrated by her former husband, who was convicted of drugging her and facilitating her r**e by dozens of strangers. Despite the shocking revelation that Paris Match had published personal photos of her new life without consent -- a particularly disturbing action given that her original victimization involved being filmed without knowledge or consent -- Gisèle has once again demonstrated extraordinary resilience. As her lawyer poignantly stated, "She became a public figure unwillingly," yet by refusing to be silenced, Gisèle continues to transform her experience into a powerful force for change.

Kudos to Gisèle for transforming her personal tragedy into a powerful beacon of hope for sexual violence survivors everywhere!

Gisele's daughter Caroline Darian has released a memoir about her and her mother's experience and how they helped give voice to many women who had been silenced -- "I'll Never Call Him Dad Again" at https://bookshop.org/a/8011/9781464257957 (Bookshop) and https://amzn.to/4jikYpX (Amazon)

For several powerful memoirs by young women who survived and spoke out after sexual assault, we highly recommend "Know My Name: A Memoir" (https://www.amightygirl.com/know-my-name), "Notes on a Silencing: A Memoir" (https://www.amightygirl.com/notes-on-a-silencing), and "I Have The Right To" (https://www.amightygirl.com/i-have-the-right-to), recommended for older teens and adults

For fictional stories that address r**e and sexual violence and offer a helpful way to spark conversations with young adult readers around sexual assault, we recommend "Speak" for ages 14 and up (https://www.amightygirl.com/speak), "Girl Made of Stars" for ages 14 and up (https://www.amightygirl.com/girl-made-of-stars), and "The Way I Used To Be" for ages 15 and up (https://www.amightygirl.com/the-way-i-used-to-be)

To start teaching children -- girls and boys alike -- from a young age about the need to respect others and their personal boundaries, we recommend "Let's Talk About Body Boundaries, Consent, and Respect" for ages 4 to 7 (https://www.amightygirl.com/body-boundaries) and "My Body! What I Say Goes!" for ages 3 to 6 (https://www.amightygirl.com/my-body)

For older kids, check out the excellent "Consent (for Kids!)" for ages 6 to 10 at https://www.amightygirl.com/consent-for-kids

There is also a helpful guide for teens on topics such as consent and coercion, "Real Talk About S*x and Consent: What Every Teen Needs to Know," for ages 13 and up at https://www.amightygirl.com/real-talk-about-sex-and-consent

And if you know a teen girl struggling after sexual abuse or trauma, “The S*xual Trauma Workbook for Teen Girls: A Guide to Recovery from S*xual Assault and Abuse” may help at https://www.amightygirl.com/sexual-trauma-workbook-girls

Image via https://www.womensvoicesnow.org/gisele-pelicot

30/05/2025

Tragic!

Vorher-Nachher-Luftaufnahmen zeigen das Ausmaß der Zerstörung nach dem gigantischen Gletschersturz im Lötschental im Schweizer Kanton Wallis. 90 Prozent des Dorfes Blatten, rund 130 Häuser sowie die Kirche, sind unter einer Schuttschicht begraben.

24/03/2025

things happen!” Please join us for the next C2 Women’s Group.

“When women support each other incredible things happen!” The monthly Women’s Group meets on a wednesday evening in the C2 group room. We start off with a mindful moment, have a check in and then explore a topic together. We... Continue Reading →

08/02/2025

Discover how to move from relational trauma and disconnection to transformation and evolution. Learn from 30 of the world’s top experts in this free 4-day summit and sign up today.