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John Lewis
John Lewis
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Growing up as a child I saw segregation and racial segregation. I tasted the bitter fruits of racism. I saw hate. And I came to the conclusion that hate was too heavy a burden to bear.
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The words of Dr King inspired me, I felt like he was talking directly to me, saying, "John Lewis, you too can be part of this effort." There was something about his words that was very much in keeping with the teaching of Jesus, with the teaching of humanity, that somehow and someway that we have to look out for each other. And I knew then that I had to do something. I had to find a way or make a way to be part of an effort.
I started sitting in at segregated lunch-counters in restaurants. We'd be sitting there in an orderly, peaceful, non-violent fashion and someone would come up and spit on us. Or put a lit cigarette out on our hair or down our backs. But we didn't fight back, we didn't strike back, we didn't hate - we had been taught to love. Love is a better way, much more powerful, much more creative. And somehow I came to not only internalize but to personalize that teaching to realize that in every human there is something very special, there is a spark of the divine in every human being and I didn't have a right to dislike, to despise or to hate or to strike out against that spark of the divine.
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When you accept non-violence simply as a technique or tactic you become like a faucet - you can turn it on, you can turn it off.
When you accept non-violence as a way of life, as a way of living, you're saying in effect the way of love, the way of peace is one of those immutable principles you will not deviate from.
Please visit John Lewis' Visionary Page to learn more about him
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