John Lewis’ Legacy

In a word, decency. Built on life’s raw power, John Lewis stepped up to do, to be seen, urge others on, lead and take the consequences. At times those consequences were swift, demeaning and medically threatening. Survival gave hope to better times and he lived that to the end.

Called on to do more, John did just that. Called to Congress, he acceded and served over 30 years. Living from his well of experience, he spoke, preached and taught others the principles and values that built America. He carried those into many futures.

That is his legacy. An activist earns his stripes each day and carries those wounded principles with him to the next engagement. John Lewis was always engaged. In the same fight to fix the broken, shine the ideal, and press forward to achieve it.

He didn’t need to be the star of the show. No; he helped others be the star. That way the good was more possible and it was. Behind all the details John often was the organizer, the arranger, the doer and the accountable one. All organizations need such people. For 60 years John was that person.

Bruised and often broken by the tumbled America in which he lived – the black one – John never gave up on the vision he knew his brothers and sisters deserved in his America.

That America is ours, too, all of ours – black, white, brown, whatever hue – we are all one, equal and deserving of the promise of America. That is what makes us American. That is what makes us strong.

Tinkering with it gets us what we have today – rampant Trumpism, ignorance, hubris, and a strong intervention from government from those who profess the opposite. How the tables have turned in America’s story. From freedom to fascism. From principle to racism. From conservative to facism. From freedom to federal police state in Portland.

That is not the vision of John Lewis. Never was.

As we honor his life of struggle and vision, let us not forget the America we have believed in all these years. It is not what we see on the news. That ‘vision’ is a caricature. It is our job to get back to the original. The John Lewis original.

May he rest in peace as we pick up his banner.

July 21, 2020