Don't go yet, John Lewis. We need you.

[babylonsister]

https://www.rollcall.com/news/opinion/outcry-over-john-lewis-cancer-announcement-echoes-nationwide?fbclid=IwAR0Bf1dQDJG_eQ6sdqay2K8Lsl8gu2YXoyNPy6wAlPpqE21w8DMmwxyhTu8


Don’t go yet, John Lewis. We need you.
Atlantans take pride in their congressman. How many other Americans can say that?
Posted Dec 30, 2019 11:04 AM
Patricia Murphy


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Throughout his career, those who know Lewis have described him as a man of fame without pretense, often walking alone in an airport and without an entourage at events. He stands tall, even at 5 feet 6 inches, and can command a room with just a whisper of wisdom on fairness or justice or the requirement to act for what we know is right.

He has joyfully taken his fight to young people with graphic novels about the Civil Rights movement and a mobbed appearance at ComicCon. But he’s kept his fight for equality alive by expanding it to immigration and health care and criminal justice reform. Lewis led the sit-in on the House floor in 2016 to push for gun safety legislation and, earlier this year, added his voice to the call for the president’s impeachment, which started the momentum to make it a reality. When John Lewis says something is not right, Democrats always listen. Many Republicans do, too.

One voice that has been absent in the chorus of well-wishes for Lewis since Sunday has been the president’s. But that’s certainly not a surprise in light of Lewis’ impeachment vote and Trump’s 2017 tweet that Lewis was, “All talk, talk, talk — no action or results. Sad!” He added that district is “in horrible shape and falling apart (not to mention crime infested).” Speaking from experience, neither is true.

But if we know anything of Lewis, it’s that he has already forgiven the truly unforgivable in the past and likely will again. He’s seen the very worst that our country can be and stayed faithful that someday it would get better. That, in essence, seems to be what the grief over Lewis’s news has been about.

John Lewis is living proof, still, that America’s darkest days can see the dawn, that hate can subside, and that there is still a place for dignity, character and truth in our country and our capital. Don’t go yet, John Lewis. We need you.