I just watched the remains of John Robert Lewis carried to a horse-drawn caisson by a military honor guard, then over the bridge where he was beaten nearly to death, as he knelt to pray, by Alabama State Troopers 55 years ago. Along the route people sang spirituals and shouted “Thank you!” The bridge was strewn with rose petals to symbolize the blood shed there in the name of human rights.

At the end of the bridge, when the caisson passed the near the spot where John Lewis was so savagely brutalized, several Alabama State Troopers stood at attention and saluted. I have no idea if this was a simple coincidence, but I certainly hope not.

I purposely did not name the bridge, because it is is named after a man who was an enthusiastic supporter of slavery and later the grand dragon of the Alabama Ku Klux Klan. There is a movement to rename that bridge after John Lewis, and I pray that will come to pass.

As I watched that carriage, with the driver standing and holding his black top hat over his heart, there was one overwhelming idea that I felt myself and heard the commentators express in various ways. John Lewis adhered to the principles of nonviolent protest and put his body and even his life in harms way many times. He did this to move our country toward equality and true freedom for all of us, not just the ones who look a certain way. We as a country are fortunate that he survived those times to become an elder, who then led us so effectively for so many years.

Now John Lewis has made the transition from elder to ancestor, a role in which he will serve as a guiding light for generations to come. And I feel lucky to be alive while men like this walked among us.

Farewell, Congressman.

John McCain

Up to now I’ve been holding off on writing about the passing of Senator John McCain, largely because there is not much anyone can say about him that hasn’t already been eloquently said. 

But having just listened to Joe Biden speak at the funeral of his lifelong political adversary and dear friend, I just can’t help myself. John McCain is a man I honestly feel is one of the great Americans of all time, even though I’ve disagreed with him on nearly every one of his policy ideas. 

I first became aware of John McCain when I was twenty-one years old and saw film of American POWs being released in North Vietnam. He was the son of an Admiral, and a fighter pilot who had been shot down and held in Hanoi for five and a half years. 

Think about it. He endured sixty-six months of abuse and torture, more than two thousand days of unrelenting misery. The thing  I found incredible about his story, the thing that really stuck in my mind at the time, was that because of his father’s rank he had been offered early release – and had refused to go home a single day before any of his fellow prisoners.

Could there be a better definition of the word, “Hero?”

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Aretha

How often is it that one word can completely change the way you feel? Say it with me:

Aretha.

Unless you’ve been living in a sensory deprivation chamber for the past fifty years, that word conjures a soaring, explosive voice singing…

R-E-S-P-E-C-T,
Find out what it means to me.

OK, I guess you can rightly accuse me of piling on here. It seems like everybody on the planet has written a tribute to the Queen of Soul, but I can’t help it. This woman was a musical force of nature who spent a lifetime changing the world around her. 

I think I was about 15 years old when I developed a crush on her. After all, she told me, straight out, that I made her feel like a natural woman!

When my soul was in the lost and found,
You came along to claim it…

Yes, I certainly did. When she sang, she was powerful, confident, dazzling, and just short of terrifyingly sexy.

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