Former seminary classmate Jim Haugh wrote this response to “John Lewis: ‘What did you do?'” published with his permission by Views from the Edge earlier this morning.
Memorial at Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. John Lewis is third from the right with the inscription,”When we pray, we move our feet.”
1965
I took the Illinois Central train from Chicago to Montgomery.
I remember the three Army National Guard Officers with bayonets fixed and their pointy ends against my sternum.
I remember Jerry’s admonition. “If you find yourself in trouble and go to a high steeple church expecting help, You Will Be Killed.”
I remember speaking at Lawndale Presbyterian (Clarence Lennon, Pastor) after returning to Chicago. I said something to the effect “the parable of the Good Samaritan to the Alabama Black is a myth. The victims got out of the ditch and picked each other up.” An ancient woman approached me after the service. “I hated you until this morning.”
2020
I have a friend in Norfolk who took her children to Selma in 2015 when Obama and John Lewis spoke. The KKK was leafleting the city.
We now live adjacent to the City of Baltimore. 500,000 people have fled from its peak. Segregation ordinance of 1910, redlining (still) Brown vs Board of Education 1954, White Flight.
Of the 150 public schools 12 have water students can drink. 138 schools have lead pipes.
Republican Governor Larry Hogan says a program supported by the Kirwan Commission will bankrupt the state. 35% of the students who graduate cannot read at the 4th grade level. One-third of that number are incarcerated in Maryland Prisons.
The struggle against Structural Racism continues. The struggle has just begun. Even though the Constitution of Maryland requires funding for every school district in accordance with the needs of the students.
Best,
Jim
Gordon C. Stewart, Views from the Edge, Chaska, MN, Feb. 22, 2020.
P. S. “When we pray, we move our feet.”
Views from the Edge 
sometimes it’s so hard to live in this world, and almost never is there total peace of mind. But despair (hopelessness) is the last thing that will help. My feet kind of resist moving these days, butI I can still care — and sign petitions, and appreciate what you include in your blog.
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Hi, Mona. You’re right. Hope resists despair and the surrender to the evils we deplore. But, as you say, it IS hard. You’re still moving your feet . . . with your fingertips!
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I like this “like.” Thanks as I dance my fingers over the keys.
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Remember “Discretion is the better part of valor?”
Where has discretion gone? Where is valor? Is it all dead and gone?
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I think it was a misprint. It was “depression is the better part of valor.”🤓
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