No.

On a bus in 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama a bus driver ordered a black woman to stand up and give her seat to a white passenger. This was the rule of bus segregation introduced in 1900. The woman, a seamstress called Rosa Parks, looked at the driver and said 'No'. As a result she was arrested and the civil rights movement in the United States developed to a new level. It resulted into a bus boycott that lasted a year. Rosa explained her word, 'I had given up my seat before, but this day, I was especially tired. Tired from my work as a seamstress, and tired from the ache in my heart.' She also said, 'All I was doing was trying to get home from work'.

Rosa's 'No' changed the world. It played a pivotal role in the movement led by Martin Luther King for racial equality and respect. Today where she boarded the bus there is a plaque to Rosa. Her statue is in the US Capitol Building in Washington DC. She received countless awards, met American presidents and had streets named after her. What Rosa symbolises is an ordinary person doing an extraordinary thing. Here was a black woman who said 'No' because her conscience wouldn't allow her to go along any longer with a system that discriminated against people on the basis of their skin colour. Rosa is a call to integrity. Her name is a byword for having principles and holding them when the going gets tough.

Principles and values are what make us what we are. They shape and hold us. There is a saying that says, 'To betray oneself in order not to betray another is the greatest betrayal of all’. This is a very insightful comment. It tells us that there has to be some space or line written within us that is inviolable. This line says that we may compromise on some or even many things but not on this. We all need this line. Without it we have no deep identity. The word integrity comes from the word integer meaning whole or complete. Without integrity we cannot have completeness or wholeness. Without a core set of values or principles we cannot have what we all seek in so many different ways- that sense of oneness, wholeness and completion.

At work and life we can be challenged to go along with things that may conflict with our centre. There is a point when we have to make a stand for what we are. There is a time to say 'No.' Without this possibility we are not really free. We are not of course advocating that people fight everyone and everything. What we do assert is that principles are key and without them and standing for them we find something fundamentally missing in our life and what we can bring to work.

So how do we keep our principles? Rosa's life and words gives us some clues. She didn't go looking for trouble or fights with authority. 'All I was doing was trying to get home from work.'  She had given up her seat before but now knew she couldn't to be true to herself and her values of justice and fairness if she did. A moment may come for us all when we have to make a stand or lose our integrity. Rosa was filled with a sense of what was right. 'You must never be fearful about what you are doing when it is right',   She also said,  'I have learned over the years that when one's mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear.' This to us adds us to the following. We need to have our core values and know them deeply - not just on an intellectual level but on a intuitional one also. There is nothing wrong with avoiding trouble and confrontation. However if we are faced with a situation where we need to make a stand then we need to do that  - trying to have sensitivity,grace and dignity. There is a moment when the issue that faces us is a values question and our answer is about whether we are true to ourselves or not.

This article is all about Rosa but it's also about you and us. It's about the sort of people we will choose to be. And the sort of people we decide to be is the sort of world we will create for ourselves and others.We started with Rosa and we will finish with Rosa. In doing so we dedicate this piece of writing to her and all the other Rosa's who say 'No' to whatever is wrong in our world. They are the real heroes and heroines. Rosa expresses this better then we ever can. 'Stand for something or you will fall for anything. Today's mighty oak is yesterday's nut that held its ground.'

Lisa Falkingham, Service Improvement Team, Leeds Community Healthcare

John Walsh, York Street Health Practice, Leeds Community Healthcare