John Lewis: Election ‘Only A Down Payment On Dr. King’s Dream’
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Linking his own unique life story to today’s current political climate, Congressman Lewis told the audience at Olivet Baptist Church how, as a sharecropper’s son, he had wanted to be a preacher. Since one of his responsibilities was caring for the chickens, he would gather both chickens and his siblings in the farmyard and begin to preach. “And I can tell you I think some of those chickens that I preached to in the 40s and 50s listened to me better than my Republicans colleagues today,” he said.
As a young man, Congressman Lewis was urged by those older to not make trouble, despite the pernicious evidence of racism he said he found all around him. “But I did get in the way, I did get into trouble and it was good trouble and necessary trouble,” he related, speaking of his experiences as a non-violent sit-in organizer and Freedom Rider.
The speaker said Democrats were responsible for the passage of bills that created Social Security,Medicare, the Higher Education Act, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. “We cannot forget,” he said. “We must vote now like we never have. The vote is the most non-violent power in a democratic society and we must use it.” He added, “Some in Washington want to take us back to another period,” but then told a story of a man who had beaten him during one of the Freedom Rides coming forward to apologize and ask forgiveness.
"We all live in the same house in the Democratic Party,” the congressman said several times in his address. “We are the Big Tent.” But Democrats have become too quiet, he said. “We need to make some noise, we need to make some trouble, some necessary trouble.”
read: http://www.chattanoogan.com/2012/2/19/219846/Congressman-John-Lewis-Calls-President.aspx
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There's a whole demographic - and it's not necessarily the "young" nor is it our elders - who have dropped out of the voting habit nor care to vote at all (and this was before all the voter suppression laws were put in place or promoted... when folks had the benefit of "motor voter" and HAVA to get registered).
We need this middle demographic to get out there and get the teahadists out of office! Too many lives were lost, bodies beaten, and livelihoods ruined just to get the vote. I think this past 2010 election is a text book example of ceding the political landscape to the criminally insane because people had "better things to do" or because "Obama wasn't on the ballot". 
