July 29, 2020 - Issue: Vol. 166, No. 134 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 2nd Session
FORMER REP. CHET EDWARDS REMEMBERS THE LATE REP. JOHN LEWIS; Congressional Record Vol. 166, No. 134
(Extensions of Remarks - July 29, 2020)
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[Extensions of Remarks] [Pages E696-E697] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov] FORMER REP. CHET EDWARDS REMEMBERS THE LATE REP. JOHN LEWIS ______ HON. STENY H. HOYER of maryland in the house of representatives Wednesday, July 29, 2020 Mr. HOYER. Madam Speaker, on July 21, our former colleague, Chet Edwards, who represented Texas's Eleventh District from 1991 to 2010, wrote an op-ed in the Waco Tribune to share his remembrances of our friend Rep. John Lewis, who today will depart the Capitol for the last time before returning home to Atlanta for his funeral and burial. I am privileged to share Mr. Edwards's moving article about his friendship with Rep. Lewis and include it in the Record. [From the Waco Tribune July 1, 2020] How We Can Honor John Lewis (By Chet Edwards) In his Gettysburg Address, President Abraham Lincoln spoke eloquently of his humility in the wake of great service and sacrifice for our nation when he said: ``In a larger sense, we can not dedicate--we can not consecrate--we can not hallow--this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract . . .'' Today, as I think about the passing of Congressman John Lewis, I find it difficult to conjure the words to adequately hallow his lifetime of service, sacrifice and courage. Our founding fathers embedded in the first sentence of the Constitution the ideal of making ours ``a more perfect union.'' In doing so, they sent a message to every one of us in each generation that true patriotism is about making ours ``a more perfect union.'' [[Page E697]] By that high standard, John Lewis was a true patriot. His entire life was committed to bringing our nation ever closer to the principle enunciated in our Declaration of Independence that ``all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights . . .'' At the age of 23, on Aug. 28, 1963, just before Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his historic ``I Have a Dream'' speech, a youthful John Lewis spoke powerfully about the need to ensure real freedom for all Americans. John led the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee; rode in the Freedom bus rides in the South; and on March 7, 1965, led the march in Selma, Alabama, in support of a national voting rights act at a time when black World War II and Korean War veterans were being denied the right to vote all across the South. The nationally televised image of John nearly losing his life that day, of peaceful marchers being brutally beaten by Alabama state troopers, awoke a powerful conscience across our nation and led to passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. It made our nation a more perfect union. I served in Congress with John Lewis for 20 years. For eight years we worked together almost daily as two of the four Democratic chief deputy whips in the U.S. House of Representatives. Every time I was in his presence, I knew I was in the presence of true greatness . . . and goodness. John was a historic figure, one of the Big 6 of our nation's Civil Rights Movement, but he was also one of the most decent, kind and humble persons I have ever known. History will record that John Lewis made our nation a better place, a more perfect union. I agree. But what I respected most about John was that, despite all of the racial hatred he faced in his life, there was not one ounce of hatred in his body or soul. Not ever. One day in a conversation just off the House Floor, I asked John how he kept from hating those who had mistreated him and even tried to kill him. He told me that the real key to his life, and to the Civil Rights Movement's progress, was the ideal of Christian love--to love one's neighbor as thyself and to even love one's enemy. John stayed committed to those principles of his faith and to the cause of non-violent protest, even when others within the Civil Rights Movement criticized him for not supporting violence and when many white Americans threatened him. Make no mistake. John Lewis was passionate about the cause of justice; he was willing to go to jail more than 40 times in agitating for change in America. But his actions were always peaceful and he was always motivated by love, not hate. I used to savor it when John would get a twinkle in his eye talking to young people and encouraging them to get into ``good trouble.'' John Lewis was the conscience of Congress, and in 2001 I saw the power of the bipartisan respect he had earned. In the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on our nation, then-Majority Leader Tom DeLay offered a resolution on the House floor that said it was the ``necessary duty'' of all Americans to pray for our nation. As a person of faith, I was concerned that prayer, a solemn choice between a person and God, would be demeaned by Congress in declaring prayer to be a government-mandated ``necessary duty.'' On a nearly vacant House floor, I found John and asked him to speak against this misguided resolution. John, never one to back off from fighting for his principles, spoke eloquently from the well of the House about his reverence for prayer and the constitutional separation of church and state. In a testament to the respect he had among his colleagues, we were able to defeat this badly flawed resolution. As someone who will always cherish the blessing of knowing John Lewis, I am thrilled that across America today journalists and citizens from all walks of life are honoring John with heartfelt words of praise. As I hear those well- deserved words about this great and good American, I'm also challenged by the question posed by President Lincoln at Gettysburg. After recognizing that we could not further hallow the ground of those who died at Gettysburg, Lincoln went on to ask how we could truly honor those who died there. He said these powerful words: ``It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion . . .'' John Lewis dedicated his life, and risked his life, in the of racial justice and the right of all Americans to vote. I will never forget when he spoke at the Waco Convention Center and shared stories of the sacrifices made and lives lost in the Civil Rights Movement and its effort to protect for all Americans the fundamental right to vote. You could hear a pin drop in a room of hundreds of people when he leaned over the lectern and said, ``Given the sacrifices I have seen, I cannot imagine anyone not exercising the right to vote.'' John Lewis never thought that patriotism was to love our country or leave it. As the son of Alabama sharecroppers and as a child who could not check out books at his local library because of the color of his skin, he learned that we should love our country despite its imperfections and commit ourselves to making it ``a more perfect union.'' If we truly want to honor the life of John Lewis, we should each be dedicated to his unfinished work of bringing about racial justice in our community and nation and protecting the right to vote for all Americans, for which he nearly gave his life 55 years ago in Selma, Alabama. If we truly want to honor the life of John Lewis in an age of political division and animosity, we should each do better in honoring his faith in the power of love, in the power of hope, in the power of respecting others. We should strive for the ideal that he called the ``beacon'' of his life--the ideal of a ``beloved community.'' Here on earth, John Lewis marched with the people for a divine cause. Now, in heaven, he will soar with the angels. He will reap what he sowed here on earth. God speed, my dear friend. And thank you for teaching us so much by the sermon of your life. ____________________