Moral Authority

John Lewis is a national treasure. With John McCain’s and Sarah Palin’s rallies descending into orgies of hate, Congressman Lewis sounded this warning:

As one who was a victim of violence and hate during the height of the Civil Rights Movement, I am deeply disturbed by the negative tone of the McCain-Palin campaign.  What I am seeing reminds me too much of another destructive period in American history.  Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are sowing the seeds of hatred and division, and there is no need for this hostility in our political discourse.

During another period, in the not too distant past, there was a governor of the state of Alabama named George Wallace who also became a presidential candidate.

George Wallace never threw a bomb.  He never fired a gun, but he created the climate and the conditions that encouraged vicious attacks against innocent Americans who were simply trying to exercise their constitutional rights.  Because of this atmosphere of hate, four little girls were killed on Sunday morning when a church was bombed in Birmingham, Alabama.

As public figures with the power to influence and persuade, Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are playing with fire, and if they are not careful, that fire will consume us all.  They are playing a very dangerous game that disregards the value of the political process and cheapens our entire democracy.  We can do better.  The American people deserve better.

John McCain is apparently outraged by what John Lewis said and is demanding that Barack Obama apologize for Lewis’s comments. John McCain should be ashamed of himself. Just recently McCain lauded John Lewis and called him one of the "three wise men" he would consult as president. Consider this an early consultation, Senator McCain. McCain would do well to be more outraged by the hate spewing out of the McCain/Palin rallies than by what John Lewis has said. John Lewis has sounded the alarm. It is up to John McCain to now rediscover his honor and heed John Lewis’s words.