Okay, this is more than I can bear.
Attacking John Lewis is like attacking Buddha, Malala Yousafzai, Jesus, Gandhi, or Ewoks.
I can’t think of many living human beings who I consider to be heroic in this day and age. (Sorry. I know that seems incredibly cynical, but that’s how I feel.)
John Lewis is one of my heroes.
His contributions to the Civil Rights Movement and to this country are epic. Time and again John Lewis was willingly ready to sacrifice HIS LIFE in order to obtain and preserve justice and equality, and he did it with grace, compassion, love, and dignity. John Lewis is a REMARKABLE MAN.
In fact, after I moved beyond the self-pitying stage of my post-election grief I started to worry about John Lewis. That’s how much I admire this man. I found myself overwhelmed with anger as I thought about everything he has valiantly worked for crumbling beneath the deranged iron fist of the Trump administration.
Back in November, before I had even mustered up the courage to create this website or post my half-baked doodles, I started brainstorming ideas for a John Lewis doodle.
Don’t know much about Congressman John Lewis? You should. Here are some videos to check out: (and yes, Trevor Noah, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Anna Deavere Smith, and Stanley Nelson are some of my other heroes):
John Lewis on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah.
John Lewis on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.
John Lewis on The Colbert Report.
Anna Deavere Smith portraying John Lewis in her brilliant show Notes from the Field.
John Lewis from the documentary The Freedom Riders. (Watch the whole documentary while you are at it.)
And some words of wisdom from this man I admire so much:
“There was a moving feeling within me that I was sitting there demanding a God given right and my soul became satisfied that I was right in what I was doing. At the same time there was something deep down within me, moving me, that I could no longer be satisfied or go along with an evil system that I had to be maladjusted to, and in spite of all of this, I had to keep loving the people that denied me service.”
~John Lewis, Civil Rights Leader (Quote taken from NBC’s White Paper: Sit in)
I don’t know about you, but I won’t be going along with any “system” that attacks someone like John Lewis.
I’m ready to get into some “good trouble.” Are you?
