Great news! John Lewis died. No, that’s not the great news. It’s never great news when someone dies. And John was a giant on civil rights. He was only like four feet tall, but towered over everyone on being a generally great guy.
He was arrested like 50 times during the Civil Rights movement in the 60s. He even had his skull fractured on a bridge as he marched for voting or something. His actions have touched everyone. Obama even said something about John Lewis paving the way for him to be President. Great guy. A giant among mere men.
It is sad now, even after all these years, all the protesting John participated in and all the protests over the years, our peaceful protests still sometimes end with people getting severely injured. Even today. Like the policeman in LA that had his skull broken during the peaceful protests there, or the seven police officers hit with bats last week that suffered fractured eye sockets and other injuries while protecting those marching for peace in NYC. Horrific acts of violence for people just at peaceful protests.
But, I forgot what I was going to say about John. He was great. A unifier. I mean, he refused to attend the inauguration for Bush or Trump. But he didn’t want to. So, that’s fine. He was still a unifier, unless sometimes he didn’t agree with you. But, generally, mostly, really great.
John Lewis is someone we should make a statue of. It might be good to also put up giant sign on it that says “don’t tear down this one” – just in case.
The great news!? It gives me something to do. A speech for his memorial. Obviously they will make me record it, can’t go in person, can’t speak without a teleprompter. And lots of practice. But making a recorded brief statement of support for this great guy, better than doing nothing. It kinda sucks he isn’t alive to campaign for me as he promised he would, he would be a big help for the black votes. But, I’ll probably leave that out of my speech. Who am I kidding? I will have no input in this or anything else, for that matter. But, at least it gives me something to do. A 2-7 minute statement will likely take 2-7 days to record to get it right. So, I’ll have something to keep me busy, and that’s great!
RIP John Lewis! And thanks for everything.
Come on, man.