John Lewis has passed away

Matt McKeon

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Representative John Lewis passed away yesterday at age 80, of cancer.

Lewis was one of the Freedom Riders and was injured by a mob during that demonstration. He was also in the march from Selma to Montgomery, and was severely injured by the Alabama State Police on the Edward Pettus Bridge on "Bloody Sunday," carrying the scars for the rest of his life.(If you see a newsreel of this incident, Lewis is the young man in the light colored raincoat at the front of the line).

Speaking of his first arrest in Jackson, Mississippi, he smiled in his mugshot. "I smiled because I was on the right side of history. Find a way to get in the way."
 

Jim Klag

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Representative John Lewis passed away yesterday at age 80, of cancer.

Lewis was one of the Freedom Riders and was injured by a mob during that demonstration. He was also in the march from Selma to Montgomery, and was severely injured by the Alabama State Police on the Edward Pettus Bridge on "Bloody Sunday," carrying the scars for the rest of his life.(If you see a newsreel of this incident, Lewis is the young man in the light colored raincoat at the front of the line).

Speaking of his first arrest in Jackson, Mississippi, he smiled in his mugshot. "I smiled because I was on the right side of history. Find a way to get in the way."
A true American hero. That man took several beatings and was often jailed but never gave up on his calling.
 

O' Be Joyful

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A true American hero. That man took several beatings and was often jailed but never gave up on his calling.
Rest in peace. It's sad to see his generation of warriors pass - they were magnificent.
Balls to the Wall, but he always came back up.
------------------------------------------

Rest in Peace, your race has been run, and it will be up to others to carry on and pick up the spear.
 

Matt McKeon

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Watched some of the funeral service. All the former presidents spoke. Obama was very eloquent.

I read somewhere that Lewis and the other Civil Rights people should be considered "founding fathers" since they reworked this country from being a nation of white men to a nation of men.
 

rittmeister

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Watched some of the funeral service. All the former presidents spoke. Obama was very eloquent.

I read somewhere that Lewis and the other Civil Rights people should be considered "founding fathers" since they reworked this country from being a nation of white men to a nation of men.
watched it all and to me that idea sounds like a winner (it was said several times)
 

Jim Klag

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I disagree... Civil rights leaders were great men but not Founding Father's great. They did make us a more prefect union...
I disagree totally. Men like John Lewis put their lives on the line dozens of times, suffering bestings, dog attacks and jailing. Except for the soldiers, no founding father put his life on the line in direct conflict with the enemy. John Lewis and his cohorts waded right into the heart of their enemy's turf and went in unarmed and in a spirit of nonviolence, knowing what would happen to them. That, my friends, is called courage and integrity.
 
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