John Lewis not miffed by “Occupy Atlanta” dis

[Synicus Maximus]

Source: AJC

A 10-minute video clip of U.S. Rep. John Lewis‘ unsuccessful attempt to address the Occupy Atlanta gathering in Woodruff Park is burning up the blog and Twittersphere.

To put it mildly, it’s not going over well in some circles.
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The video clip of the protesters discussing the matter, and of Lewis leaving without speaking, has been gathering steam online. As of about 7:30 a.m. today it had logged more than 160,000 views on YouTube. In the clip, the protestors discuss the matter by repeating phrases, vote by waving their hands and ultimately decide that Lewis should come back later. At one point someone off camera shouts “John Lewis is no better than anyone else!”

Lewis, a Civil Rights Era icon, was gracious when we asked him about the matter. ”It’s ok,” he said during a brief interview Sunday night at the Woodruff Arts Center, site of a 90th birthday celebration for his fellow Civil Rights Era activist, the Rev. Joseph Lowery. Both the park and arts center are named for the late corporate titan Robert Woodruff, a longtime president of Coca-Cola and major philanthropist.

Lewis had been en route to a Pride event when he stopped by Woodruff Park

Read more: http://blogs.ajc.com/the-buzz/2011/10/10/john-lewis-not-miffed-by-occupy-atlanta-dis/?cxntlid=thbz_hm

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I'm sorry but John Lewis is better than most people.

[Firebrand Gary]

1. Good for him, it's not personal. The people are rising up and SPEAKING DIRECTLY NOW.

Rep Lewis probably has loads of wisdom to offer and we would be glad to accept it, however I understand occupy Atlanta keeping the microphone for themselves. It's not personal, he is a sitting member of Congress.

Occupy.

[mulsh]

2. Perhaps for once politicians should listen carefyully rather than

talk at the masses.

I have plenty of respect for Mr. Lewis and all he has accomplished through out his life,but I do believe, since he is also in congress, he qualifies as a politician. As such he and his kind need to listen very carefully right now to the grumblings on the ground. Very few politicians have demonstrated an ability to do so.

[DLnyc]

10. Yes, funny how most politicians always want to tell

us what they think, but don't usually ask what people want them to do.

You would almost think they don't care what we want.

[unapatriciated]

3. I couldn't attend and now I'm glad I wasn't there.

I understand why they use this form of consensus in NY, the crowd is much larger. I don't think it was needed here. In NY they did allow many celebrities to speak on a moments notice without all the voting. It took ten minuets to go through this unnecessary process, (imho) time that would have been better spent in allowing Lewis to address the assembly with words of encouragement.
Atlanta failed on this one.

[Vattel]

4. At least Lewis has the good sense not to make an issue of this.

[SemperEadem]

5. I am happy to see that at least someone in office is showing up

even if they don't get to speak, even if they are being dissed: at least he showed his face. At least he made time in his schedule to stop by. That's more than I can say about the other 534 so far.

I don't expect for thugs or blue dogs to show up--and they are who the problem is. Lewis isn't one of them.

[bluestateguy]

6. While I agree that John Lewis is better than most people

I rather dread seeing politicians trying to piggy back on to the OWS protests. That is what the tea party had happen.

[tcaudilllg]

7. Nothing disquiets me more...

than hearing the origin of a city park's name. It's always some rich fat cat who wanted to have some claim to immortality.

[Erose999]

11. I work at a university... every single building here is named for some fat cat. And in the library

we have entire collections of books named for fat cats who only donated them to get their name added somewhere.

We just finished processing a couple of collections like that. One was a collection where almost every single item was something we had one or more copies of. Each brand new book had a receipt inside the front cover where the guy had bought it - retail.

Had he just donated the money he spent buying thousands of books at retail prices we could have done soooo much more. Not that I'm complaining, he did pay for most of a new building.

[tcaudilllg]

16. I'm complaining

The only reason community funds didn't pay for that building is because the fat cats want to be rich for no other reason than to burnish their names in eternity. It's just as Pelosi said.

[Synicus Maximus]

13. Why shouldn't a park be named for someone who has done so

much for the city and area?

[Tom Ripley]

8. I so wish that he had been Kerry's running mate

[Rabblevox]

9. Good for John for taking the high road. It was an unfortunate incident, but after watching...

the tape, it's pretty clear that it was not an intentional dis (most of the crowd clearly wanted to hear him speak).

Instead, it was a very clear case of consensus run amok. I used to work for a consensus based organization, and even with a staff of 30 who all knew each other and shared similar values, consensus could be messy, difficult, frustrating.

Trying to reach true consensus with hundreds of strangers, each having different agendas, is...well...stupid and completely unrealistic.

I have to give Occupy Atlanta style points for trying to do the right thing, it's just a shame that their organizers don't really understand consensus on a level bigger than a campus group.

I hope they do the right thing and invite Rep. Lewis back to speak.

Nobody ever said the occupations would be simple, easy, or problem free, but it's here, and this is just one of the growing pains.

[Ikonoklast]

12. It's not his show, he doesn't get to decide who gets to speak.

Rep. Lewis did the gracious thing, he's a smart guy.

[malaise]

14. He was interviewed on CNN since Saturday

They should show his comments rather than attempt to divide and rule

[Better Believe It]

15. How many people did John Lewis being down to the protest?