Rep. John Lewis Keeps Marching On

This coming week and next Sunday specifically will mark the 49th Anniversary of Bloody Sunday and the march across the Edmond Petus Bridge in Selma, Alabama by civil rights and voting rights advocates.  Every anniversary of this event is significant but this year the emphasis that we've seen on voting rights legislation may help bring a bit more focus to the challenges we're all facing.

Congressman John Lewis will be in Selma leading a Congressional Pilgrimage sponsored and organized by the Faith & Politics Institute, an organization that Lewis has helped lead for many years. Every year Lewis takes a substantial group of Senators and Representatives on a pilgrimage to visit historical civil rights sites throughout the South, always ending with the symbolic reenactment of the march in Selma, Alabama. He's been doing it for years with the asssistance of the Rev. Doug Tanner and staff and Board members from the Institute. The whole point of the Faith & Politics Institute as well as the trips, is to bring people together to learn about history, non-violent struggles and yes, civility.

After Trayvon Martin's death and the more recent trial in the death of Jordan Davis, leaders, including President Obama, encouraged people to come together and talk about issues related to race, justice and violence. The model of doing this has been practiced by the Faith & Politics Institute for many years. The model consists of people from Congress spending time together on planes and buses, in churches and at memorial sites where people are recognized for the blood they shed or that they prevented from being shed. Democrats, Republicans and Independents, sharing the expierience and sharing stories of their own history and memories of racial equality and inequality. And always there at the helm is Congressman Lewis - passionate, humble and strong - telling people about the shotgun shack he grew up in, the education he got and his involvement with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. If there were ever a time when more civility and cooperation was needed in Congress, it's now.

John Lewis has been doing it for years. He's been marching, preaching, talking to people about getting into trouble, good trouble, to bring change about. This coming week, he and the folks from the Institute will take people to Mississippi to talk and learn about that State's place in civil rights history, and as always, finishing the trip in Selma. And later, in April, there will be a new pilgrimage. The Institute and Congressman Lewis will be taking a group to Ireland and Northern Ireland to not only learn about the struggles there but to bring information to those folks about the civil rights and non violent movement in this country to try again to help build a spirit of civility and respect.

I visited Northern Ireland and Ireland this past September and spent time at some of the same places they will be visiting and heard the stories that the Irish have to tell about their struggles, past and present. Below is a picture of Londonderry. There are similarities in all conflicts as well as solutions.

My point however is that we are all very lucky to have the likes of John Lewis continuing, not only the march, but to lead the effort to have people talk to each other, to carry on the conversations and to find our commonality. Visit the Faith & Politics website. Learn about who they are and what they do and if you can, support them in their efforts.