John Lewis Blowing in the Wind

Since I was a child I have admired the work that John Lewis did in the civil rights movement. In interviewing him, I always respected his restraint. When I lived in his district, I sometimes wondered where he was, never seeing him in the public eye and figuring that he was just not a media hog.
In the current political campaign, I was glad to see that he understood the successes of the Clintons in the 90s, in terms of such things as job creation, increasing the number of police on the street, welfare for work, children’s health care and much more. As before I wondered why he was not more outspoken in his support for Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
Now that his district has come out overwhelming in support of Barack Obama he changes his vote.
My opinion has changed. John Lewis is no longer a leader. Perhaps if he had been more outspoken, he could have convinced more of his constituents to vote as he did. I was in the bookstore the other day and noticed the name of his memoir. Walking with the wind, indeed.

Give a brother a chance

I spoke with a friend’s son the other night who had voted for the first time. He’s African-American and he said “Had to give a brother a chance.” I congratulated him on his first vote and told him a story about when I first voted in 1976. I told him years later I had a chance to tell Jimmy Carter, while working for him on the Jamaica elections, that I had voted for him twice.

One of my oldest friends, the night before, talking to me from New York said the exact same thing as the young man. Being such an old friend and way more mature than the first-timer, I responded, “Well, if I had said that I supported John Edwards, which I didn’t, because he is the same race as me, you would have called that racist.” He responded that Bill Clinton’s comments about Obama being a fairy tale turned him off for good. (For the record, Obama has voted for funding the war every time he has had a chance in the Senate, even though he says he has always been opposed to the war. That is the fairy tale to which Clinton was referring.)

My friend in New York is a reporter and even he had been influenced by misquotes parroted by pundits, columnists, including those in the AJC, and by Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin. I am sure that they affected others voting in the Democratic Primaries, if only to rationalize a propensity to vote for a person of one’s race.

It all got me thinking about Clinton’s accomplishments as President and I was struck by the thought, “How soon we forget!”

Let me recap just a few: 22-million new jobs, the most ever by an administration, lowest poverty rate in 20 years, the Family and Medical Leave Act, expanded education grants, Title I-Aid to disadvantaged students, 95-percent of schools connected to the internet, welfare to work programs, Empowerment Zones, New Markets Initiative, preventative Medicare, S-CHIP and many environmental accomplishments.

And for the conservatives, who are gnashing teeth now because McCain seems too liberal, chew on these: longest economic expansion in U.S. history, moving from record deficits to record surplus, paying off the national debt, 22 million new jobs, fastest and longest real wage growth and lowest unemployment in thirty years, tax cuts for working families, low crime rates, 100,000 more police on the streets, lowest percentage of Americans on welfare in 35 years, increased adoptions, cutting $136-billion is government fat, smallest civilian federal workforce in 40 years, lowest federal spending as a share of the economy since 1966, Northern Ireland, Haiti, Kosovo, no-fly zones in Iraq, East Timor, reducing the North Korea threat…sorry time’s up and besides, conservatives' irrational hatred of the man can’t be dented anyway.

For those who turned their back on him and his spouse in the primaries to “give a brother a chance,” well, at least think back and remember what he did while he was in office and if a brother has to be VP so that we can have sixteen years of such progress this time, give that a chance too.