No matter what the news of the day, Lewis seems to be mad about it and then uses his anger to remind us of his place in the civil rights era, which gives him license to be mad.
I was halfway through my reflexive eye rolling before realizing that this time Lewis was right. His anger was justified, and he expressed it in this statement:
As one who was a victim of violence and hate during the height of the Civil Rights Movement, I am deeply disturbed by the negative tone of the McCain-Palin campaign. What I am seeing reminds me too much of another destructive period in American history. Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are sowing the seeds of hatred and division, and there is no need for this hostility in our political discourse.
During another period, in the not too distant past, there was a governor of the state of Alabama named George Wallace who also became a presidential candidate. George Wallace never threw a bomb. He never fired a gun, but he created the climate and the conditions that encouraged vicious attacks against innocent Americans who were simply trying to exercise their constitutional rights. Because of this atmosphere of hate, four little girls were killed on Sunday morning when a church was bombed in Birmingham, Alabama.As public figures with the power to influence and persuade, Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are playing with fire, and if they are not careful, that fire will consume us all. They are playing a very dangerous game that disregards the value of the political process and cheapens our entire democracy. We can do better. The American people deserve better.
Naturally McCain and his allies cried foul. McCain was no George Wallace. The statement was unfair. I have to agree. McCain is no George Wallace. But that's not what Lewis was saying. His statement was that McCain and Palen were similar in that they "created the climate and the conditions that encouraged vicious attacks against innocent Americans."
They were sowing the seeds of hatred and division.
That much should be evident as those seeds bore fruit this week. At a political rally, members of the audience not only screamed that Barack Obama was a terrorist but also that they should kill him. Kill him.
Just in case you missed the weight of that statement, let me repeat. Kill him.
That angry mob made a lot of people mad, not just Lewis. It scared some of us to see threats of human life treated so cavalierly. That anger could skew someone's judgment to the point that they would openly call for someone's life.
We are far removed from the hatred of Jim Crow days, but we should not lose sight of the lessons. That's the role Rep. Lewis still plays for us today. I share his anger. Maybe it's time to listen to him.
