Little C: The Audacity of John Lewis
Ok readers, we so often don't explain why we are late on posts so I'm going to give you my excuse for the week. I had to be at work at 7am yesterday (have we mentioned that I don't like mornings?) and by the time I got off of work, did my daily cat sitting duties, and got back to the house I was having those cartoon hallucinations where everything looked like a giant bed so I crashed out for a "lite nap" and woke up this morning to a text from CT saying "Did you forget about your post?" Yes. Yes I did. My punishment word is audacity. Which has two meanings. One is willingness to take bold risks and the other is rude or disruptive behavior. My favorite kind of people embody both of these qualities.
Today I want to tell you a little bit about one such man. You may have read some news stories about him lately. His name is John Lewis and he's the Congressional representative for Gorgia's 5th district.
Also he's a stone cold bad ass with a decades long track record for audacious behavior. He was 20 years old when he became one of the 13 original Freedom Riders who rode a bus from D.C. to New Orleans. He was a mainstay in the Civil Rights movement all through the 1960s. He states proudly that he's been arrested 45 times (40 during the civil rights movement, 5 since he's been in office) and will probably be arrested again. Can you imagine most of the members of congress bragging about that? And if that wasn't delightfully audacious enough he went on to be elected to Congress in 1977 where he's been proudly pushing boundaries and getting into trouble ever since.
Today I want to tell you a little bit about one such man. You may have read some news stories about him lately. His name is John Lewis and he's the Congressional representative for Gorgia's 5th district.
Also he's a stone cold bad ass with a decades long track record for audacious behavior. He was 20 years old when he became one of the 13 original Freedom Riders who rode a bus from D.C. to New Orleans. He was a mainstay in the Civil Rights movement all through the 1960s. He states proudly that he's been arrested 45 times (40 during the civil rights movement, 5 since he's been in office) and will probably be arrested again. Can you imagine most of the members of congress bragging about that? And if that wasn't delightfully audacious enough he went on to be elected to Congress in 1977 where he's been proudly pushing boundaries and getting into trouble ever since.
This mugshot > every other mugshot taken
If you're thinking that John Lewis sound familiar, you probably heard about him recently when he staged a sit in at congress to try and force action on passing restrictions to gun laws. Before he sat on the floor and refused to move he said "Mr. Speaker, where is the heart of this body? Where is our soul? Where is our moral leadership? Where is our courage?" I cannot put into words how much I wish this guy was my congressman. I mean, Brad Sherman is sort of fine, he does his job. He's just not as cool as Mr. Lewis, and all of a sudden this brand of audacity is a quality I require of my political representation...
I know that people like this are rare and listing their accomplishments can make us feel woefully unproductive as human beings (because largely we are) but on top of an entire lifetime dedicated to making this country better through protest and activism, he is also a published author and now he has out a three volume graphic novel. Yep. A damn comic book. The man looked at his life and his legacy and decided it was one shade shy of perfection and so he wrote this:
Be still my nerdy heart. We should all take a lesson in audacity from John Lewis. I will be stopping by my comic book shop and having my copy of all three volumes ordered right away.
Stay audacious (Extra use means extra points, right?)
Little C
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