A medal for Jabbar Gibbons
Posted by Richard on September 21, 2005
Thanks to D.C. Thornton and Baldilocks for linking to this petition to award the Presidential Medal of Freedom and a four-year college scholarship to Jabbar Gibbons. Go read it and sign it. If you’re a blogger, post a link to it. I don’t know how long it’s been up, but Baldilocks posted her link on the 14th (sorry I didn’t see it sooner, Juliette), and it currently has fewer than 600 signatures. Let’s get that to 6,000! And then 60,000 (Glenn, could you lend a hand?)!
If you don’t know about Jabbar Gibbons, see my Sept. 2 post "A hero from New Orleans" for the whole story. Short version: This remarkable young man (who’d never driven a bus and didn’t have a driver’s license) commandeered one of the school buses that the mayor couldn’t be bothered to put to use. He loaded it up with friends and neighbors, added others they encountered on the way out of town (up to 100 in some news accounts), and drove them all to Houston — a 13 hour trip (not 7 as stated in the petition). Whereupon some fascis… I mean, government officials suggested he might be charged with stealing the bus.
Here’s the photo by Carlos Antonio Rios of the Houston Chronicle of the jam-packed bus, with Jabbar at the wheel, arriving at the Astrodome:
In my original post, I said:
Jabbar Gibson took matters into his own hands. He stepped forward and took responsibility for his and his neighbors’ safety and well-being. Bravo! Someone in Houston should hire this young man, and fast!
Someone should give him a medal, too. This is the kind of person who ought to become a role model for black inner-city youths, not some whiny mayor or snarling rap artist.
Go sign the petition already!
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