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The Spectacle Blog
I came across this video of Georgia Congressman John Lewis speaking to the DNC earlier this evening (h/t Eliana Johnson at NRO).
Lewis was recounting his time as a Freedom Rider in 1961. During a ride from Washington, D.C. to New Orleans, Lewis and his companion were beaten by a white mob when they attempted to enter the waiting room of a bus station in Rocky Hill, South Carolina.
Following the 2008 election, one of the men who beat Lewis came to his congressional office in Washington, D.C. to apologize and ask his forgiveness.
Now I’ll stop here for a moment. That is a very moving, powerful story.
Unfortunately, Lewis draws the wrong lesson from it:
This man and I don’t want to go back. We don’t want to go back.
Brothers and sisters, do you want to go back?
Or do you want to keep America moving forward?
The implication of Lewis’ questions are clear. If you elect Mitt Romney, white mobs will wantonly beat up black people in bus stations.
In so doing, John Lewis has cheapened the meaning of racism and thereby has cheapened himself.
Then again I can’t say I am terribly surprised. After all, this is the same man who put John McCain and Sarah Palin in the same breath with George Wallace four years ago. In 2010, Lewis was amongst several black Congressmen who accused Tea Party activists of shouting racial epithets at them during the height of the Obamacare debate.
During an Obama rally last June in Atlanta, Lewis said:
There are forces in Washington and all around the country who want to take us back. We’ve come too far. Some of us gave a little blood on that bridge.
The last sentence is a reference to when he sustained a skull fracture after being beaten by Alabama State Troopers when he led protesters across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma back in 1965.
That John Lewis would liken Republicans or Tea Party activists to those who beat peaceful protesters nearly half a century ago is contemptible, disgraceful and unworthy of a man of his experience.
Sadly, I’m afraid this probably won’t be the last time we see John Lewis stoop to this level.
View all comments (8) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by Aaron Goldstein
http://spectator.org/blog/2012/09/06/john-lewis-cheapens-the-meanin
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Oldefarte| 9.6.12 @ 11:05PM
He a pathetic excuse for a US congressman, and his only usefulness is that of providing guided tours of a civil rights museum. Of all the decades that he's been in congress not one intelligent peice of legislation has been originated by him. Between Lewis and Conyers, you couldn't total an IQ of more than 50. They should pension him out to the congressional nursing home so he could recant his Edmund Pettus tales of yesteryear to its residents!!!!!!!!!
chuck| 9.7.12 @ 8:22AM
You can throw in Hank,"I'm afraid that Guam might tip over" Johnson in there too. The IQ total then might reach 51.
spike59| 9.7.12 @ 5:35AM
john lewis has long ago pissed away his own integrity. there was a time when i admired him as a man of principles, character, and strength; now i just pity him
chuck| 9.7.12 @ 8:26AM
Obviously he has brain damaged suffered from his skull fracture. Incidentally, the man who inflicted beating upon Lewis must have been a Democrat, as all the racist, segregationist bastards were.
Derek Leaberry| 9.7.12 @ 9:23AM
John Lewis is what Martin Luther King would have become had he not been murdered in 1968.
Crassus| 9.7.12 @ 9:47AM
They didn't beat that fool hard enough at the Selma bridge back in 1965. My favorite Lewis moment came some years ago when he called the Republicans a bunch of Nazis from the House floor. He was ruled out of order and dragged away by the House sergeant-at-arms. Someone needs to drag this assclown of the stage for good.
chuck| 9.7.12 @ 10:10AM
Your first sentence is beyond the pale. Segregation and second-class citizenship for minorities is never justifiable, and peaceful protest of these should never be an excuse for beating citizens.
The rest of the comment, however, is spot on.
Herald7| 9.8.12 @ 10:24PM
The continuous demand for reparations by the black community and the guilt driven compliance does harm to themselves and America in general.
Thank God for the grown ups who understand this and refuse to participate.
All people love to play the victim if it is profitable