If ever there was an individual to aspire to be like, John Lewis is at the top of the list. His courage, persistence, humility, and kindness combine to form the kind of person we need more of in our world.
I watched the recording of Barack Obama’s eulogy of Congressman John Lewis this morning, and my first reaction was one of sadness, sadness at once again looking at the cruel and immense difference in character between our former president and the current one, sadness that we’ve lost a man such as John Lewis, and more than sadness – what I think I can now call grief – that we have the current president we do.
As I listened to Obama share tidbits of Mr. Lewis’s determination to push our nation to a more perfect and just union, my sadness and grief started to melt away and be replaced with hope. We DO have the grit, determination, and compassion to turn things around and to keep moving toward justice. One of the positive outcomes in having such a horrendous creature sitting in the White House is that racism has been laid bare. Rocks have been turned over, and we’ve shone a flashlight on the ugly mug of racism that persists in our country.
The (third) time I was brought to tears during the eulogy was when Obama mentioned “whites who can no longer accept freedom for themselves while witnessing the subjugation of their fellow Americans.” We are called upon to live by this. What should it look like in our daily lives? How can we be more like John? This evening, I stood my ground with my conservative (though anti-Trump) father-in-law as I referred to the enduring effects of systemic racism. It’s not exactly an act of bravery, but it’s something.
My Corner of the Village 