Good trouble

This weekend I watched deeply moving footage of Congressman John R. Lewis making his final trek across the bridge over the Alabama River in Selma. And I wept for the loss of a man who worked all his life for the promise of this country—liberty, equality, justice.

(The rose petals where the wagon paused were placed by the Congressman's family. They represent the blood that flowed from Lewis' head when Alabama State Police beat him in 1965 during the Selma to Montgomery march.)

Yesterday, on his journey to the Capitol Rotunda, he passed by the Lincoln Memorial (where he spoke at the 1963 March on Washington), Black Lives Matter Plaza and the Smithsonian Museum of African American History. Later today he will be carried to

the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta before burial.

That Lewis, whose blood fell on more than one place in his fight for civil rights, never succumbed to bitterness is one of the most astounding things about him. If ever there was the embodiment of the term “mensch”, it was John R. Lewis.

An example to us all of grace, courage, generosity, dedication and strength. His memory is indeed a blessing.