John Robert Lewis

Today I mourn the passing of John Lewis.  I’m thankful that he wrote his memoir Walking With the Wind.  I would urge every American to read it.  It tells a story of an America that “use to be,” an America  “that is now” and holds out the promise of an America “that is yet to be.”  

John Lewis nearly died in 1963 (at the age of 23) after being beaten while leading the famous march over the Pettus bridge in Selma, Alabama.  I remember that day for as Lewis wrote, “it touched a nerve (in me) deeper than anything that had come before.” John McCain called Lewis “a personal hero” as he recalled that day.  “In America,” McCain wrote in The Restless Wave, “we have always believed that if the day was a disappointment, we would win tomorrow.” Fortunately for us, all of us, for America, John Lewis won some tomorrows, surviving for another 57 years to help us find our way as a people and as a nation.

John Lewis said, “Giving up on dreams is not an option for me.”  We must not give up on the American Dream, not now, not ever.