Lewis On Bernie: “Didn’t see him. Never Met Him.”

Hello, Congressman John Lewis. You’re one of my heroes. A legend, an icon.  

I remember Selma, when they tried to kill you on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Whips, tear gas, clubs, horses. But you’re indestructible.

Yeah, I was in Selma too. In our ragtag civil rights army, you were a general. I was a grunt. So you didn’t see me, never met me.

That’s okay. Wasn’t about me. It was about you and Dr. King and the hundreds of heroes from Selma who made history there.

And I did my bit.

I was honored just to stand on the same church steps behind you. And I was marching behind you when they took Jimmie Lee Jackson to his grave alongside Alabama Highway 14. Then in the back of the line when the march to Montgomery on Highway 80 started for real; and when you finished it on the steps of the Capitol.

I went on to other things. But you never stopped. Your work on The Hill is an ongoing inspiration.

And there were many others who took some part in the movement. Thousands. Including many white people, 

Bernie Sanders was one.

 

He did his bit in Chicago. Marching. Protesting. Got arrested. Chicago had plenty of segregation and racism  then. Still does, Lord knows.

I doubt there will ever be a monument to Bernie’s civil rights work there.  I haven’t heard him talk about it in much detail. Compared to yours it’s hardly heroic. But the record is available. 

Bernie did his bit too.

Just thought I’d mention it.