Rest In Power
No Me Digas. Op-Ed: Keith Price
As I sat and watched the final crossing of Rep. John Lewis across the Edmund Pettus Bridge as he was accompanied by a small chorus of people singing WE SHALL OVERCOME, I couldn’t help but find myself crying. To be honest, (full disclosure) I quickly delve deep and looked within to find the source of these tears, as they were falling in the middle of my Quarantine Brunch Mimosa, and let’s be honest — no one likes the crying drunk friend at brunch, but I digress.
I realize that I am not the only one in the country who shed a tear. So, I gathered my thoughts, and immediately searched within and tried to understand the source of my tears. I thought about what Rep. John Lewis endured to ensure that I participate in my own future by working towards equality for all and ensuring that I can vote. His actual bloodshed on that bridge was for those two outwardly simple things.
I realize that as things changed for my generation and the many strides that we seemingly have made, the progress made is because of men and women like Rep. Lewis who dedicated their lives with relentless service to make it happen. They stood against the folks standing in their way attempting to prevent justice and equality back then. Now, we, their descendants are positioned to still fight to be the arbiters of our equality and freedom.
I cried because I don’t have to imagine too hard what it must have been like to live under the disrespect of your fellow human — all because THEY do not want you to have equality and freedom. Sadly, the cruelty and disrespect have been re-upped and amplified in 2020, hence the tears.
To cheers and applause, the casket of longtime congressman and civil rights leader Rep. John Lewis is carried across the Edmund Pettus Bridge on a horse-drawn caisson in Selma, Alabama. https://t.co/QcpKciVHL3 pic.twitter.com/16yOITUcPW
— ABC News (@ABC) July 26, 2020
As we continue to watch the insanity that is happening around the country with the Black Lives Matter and other movements being tear-gassed, shot with rubber bullets, arrested by unidentified paramilitary officers without cause, the arguments against BLM’s very existence is still a challenge.
I cried, because minus the dogs and hose, the battle for equality and justice 55 years ago for which Rep. Lewis and others fought, has never ended. My parents were Honduran immigrants who arrived in the thick of the racial change that America was fighting with itself in the mid-20th century. Luckily, they came to New York and Los Angeles in the early 1960s where there was a semblance of human decency alongside the climate of the South. I am not naive to believe that everyone was hunky-dory, but at least my parents could use the same drinking fountains.
I cried because my parents did not live long enough to vote for President Obama, much less see him walking across that same bridge with Rep. Lewis. And, I kept crying, because I realized that the bloodshed of Rep. John Lewis is the reason that we even had the possibility of a President Obama.
Hearing Rep. Lewis’ speeches about the rights of people of all colors, including the LGBTQ+, with such a dire need for our recognition in this country, made me hopeful. He lived up to being the conscience of the Congress. As a Black gay man, who is also a first-generation American, hearing and seeing a Black man with the age and experience of Rep. Lewis, advocating for ALL aspects of my entire existence, made me even more hopeful.
I cried because I do not know if we will ever again see leaders with that level of dedication to causes bigger than themselves. Sure, we still have Rev. Al Sharpton and his many followers with the National Action Network, but he was born from the generation of the Civil Rights movement a half step directly behind Rep. Lewis. But, who is coming up behind him?
As I watched the commentators speaking about Rep. John Lewis, I noticed that there were a plethora of intelligent, outspoken black people on national television discussing his legacy as an activist, a congressman, and a human being. Those talking heads are the direct result of the spirit of Rep. Lewis’ dream. I cried a few more tears of happiness again because I can express my humor and my opinions in different media, too. Although my reach is not as big as many of the panelists, the fact that I can reach out and grab any of it at all is because of the bloodshed by Rep. John Lewis.
Now that I have dried my tears and finished my second Mimosa, I have clarity about my crying. Although I may have never met Rep. Lewis, I am a beneficiary of his legacy. No actually, ALL of US are beneficiaries of his legacy and vision, and we need to pick up the torch in our own way and continue to make this world a better place for all of us.
How do you do it?
Find your place. Help people register to vote. Volunteer for a campaign. Donate $5 here and there, if you can, but DO SOMETHING. Please do not let the life contributions and spirit of Rep. John Lewis pass you by without meaning or action, because if you do, we ALL will be crying Nov 4, 2020.
Rest in Power Rep. John Lewis. Father, brother, uncle, activist, life-changer, inspiration.
