Bonnie Watson Coleman: “Wherever community is interrupted by evil or hatred, by greed, or by the lust for power, it is the moral responsibility…”

“Wherever community is interrupted by evil or hatred, by greed, or by the lust for power, it is the moral responsibility of people of good will to respond. John Lewis wrote those words over 27 years ago. He was echoing calls for resistance to oppression passed down from our Founding Fathers, but it could very well have been said about today. John was calling on all of us to fight for our communities. It was a call for solidarity. It was a call to reject the corporate influence that permeates our politics and puts profits over people. Today, we are seeing the GOP pass bills that cut nutrition assistance to pay for corporate tax cuts, bills that cut funding to nursing homes to pay for billionaire vacation homes, and Republican Senators with Ivy League degrees working to eliminate college loans for poor students who are trying to work their way into the middle class. It will take all of us to change this culture of greed and put people over politics. John Lewis was a hero of mine not just because he raised up working-class Americans with his soaring rhetoric but because he walked the walk. He put his body on the line because he knew that the power of the people is greater than the people in power.”