vox--2020-07-30--“The march is not over”: Read Barack Obama’s eulogy for John Lewis

Former President Barack Obama delivered a gripping eulogy at the funeral for Rep. John Lewis on Thursday , taking aim at the Trump administration , advocating for the voting rights legislation that was Lewis ’ s legacy , and calling the 33-year Georgia representative a “ founding father ” of what will one day be a “ fuller , better , fairer America.
” From the historic pulpit at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta where Reverend Martin Luther King once preached , Obama expressed shock at the level of perseverance and purpose that Lewis displayed throughout his life .
At @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s sheer determination and will placed him at the forefront of key nonviolence movements throughout the 1960s , including lunch counter sit-ins in Tennessee , Freedom Rides through the Jim Crow South , and a near-fatal march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma , Alabama .
In reflecting on the first time Lewis desegregated the buses in the South alongside his friend and comrade Bernard Lafayette , Obama remarked : “ Imagine the courage of two people Malia ’ s age , younger than my oldest daughter .
On their own .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” And while Lewis “ brought this country a little bit closer to our highest ideals ” Obama said , the member of Congress knew the “ march is not over.
” He pointed out how institutions like policing and the current administration still undermine equality and perpetuate violence : “ Today we witness with our own eyes police officers kneeling on the necks of Black Americans .
George Wallace may be gone , but we can witness our federal government sending agents to use tear gas and batons against peaceful demonstrators .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ the number of jellybeans in a jar to cast a ballot , but even as we sit here , there are those in power who are doing their darnedest to discourage people from voting by closing polling locations and targeting minorities and students with restrictive ID laws and attacking our voting rights with surgical precision , even undermining the postal service in the run-up to an election that ’ s going to be dependent on mail-in ballots so people don ’ t get sick.
” Obama also didn ’ t shy away from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ country should carry on Lewis ’ s legacy .
“ You want to honor John , let ’ s honor him by revitalizing the law that he was willing to die for , ” Obama said .
“ Once we pass the John Lewis Voting Right Act , we should keep marching to make it even better .
By making sure every American is automatically registered to vote , including former inmates who ’ ve earned their second chance .
By adding polling places .
And expanding early voting and making election day @ @ @ @ @ @ @ delivered his remarks toward the end of the private , socially distanced ceremony that featured speeches from politicians and civil rights leaders like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi , former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush , and nonviolence tactician James Lawson .
President Obama also reflected on his personal relationship with John Lewis , which started when Obama met Lewis while in law school .
He told Lewis that he was his hero , and at every step , from becoming a US senator to president of the United States , Obama @ @ @ @ @ @ @ shoulders he stood .
Lewis made sacrifices , like almost losing his life to police brutality , to ensure that future leaders like Obama would see a way forward .
When Obama secured the Democratic nomination for the presidency in 2008 , Lewis said , “ If someone had told me this would be happening now , I would have told them they were crazy , out of their mind.
” But he knew Obama ’ s presidency wouldn ’ t mean America was now a post-racial society .
At the time of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ the election of Barack Obama is a major downpayment on the dream .
The dream is not paid in full .
There ’ s still work to do .
We ’ ve come a distance , we ’ ve made progress , but we still have a distance to go.
” The final time Obama would spend with Lewis speaks to how the Congress member ’ s legacy will continue to inspire the world for generations to come .
The two attended a virtual conference with young activists who were mobilizing their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Floyd .
“ He could not have been prouder to see this new generation of activists standing up for freedom and equality , a new generation that was intent on voting and protecting the right to vote , ” Obama said in his eulogy .
Obama had previously issued a heartfelt statement about Lewis ’ s passing on July 18 , stating that Lewis “ loved this country so much that he risked his life and blood so that it might live up to its promise .
And through the decades , he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the cause of freedom and justice , but inspired generations that followed to try to live up to his example.
” A rush transcript of Obama ’ s full remarks is below .
James wrote to the believers , “ Consider it pure joy , my brothers and sisters , whenever you face trials of many kinds , because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance .
Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete , lacking nothing.
” It is a great honor to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the pulpit of its greatest pastor , Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. , to pay my respects to perhaps his finest disciple .
An American whose faith was tested again and again to produce a man of pure joy and unbreakable perseverance , John Robert Lewis .
To those who have spoken , to Presidents Bush and Clinton , Madame Speaker , Reverend Warnock , Reverend King , John ’ s family , friends , his beloved staff , Mayor Bottoms , I ’ ve come here today because I , like so @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to John Lewis and his forceful vision of freedom .
This country is a constant work in progress .
We ’ re born with instructions .
To form a more perfect union .
Explicit in those words is the idea that we ’ re imperfect .
That what gives each new generation purpose is to take up the unfinished work of the last and carry it further than any might have thought possible .
John Lewis , first of the freedom riders , head of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee , youngest speaker @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the March from Selma to Montgomery , member of Congress , representing the people of this state and this district for 33 years , mentor to young people , including me at the time , until his final day on this Earth , he not only embraced that responsibility but he made it his life ’ s work .
Which isn ’ t bad for a boy from Troy .
John was born into modest means , that means he was poor .
In the heart of the Jim Crow South to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cotton .
Apparently he didn ’ t take to farm work .
On days when he was supposed to help his brothers and sisters with their labor , he ’ d hide under the porch .
And make a break for the school bus when it showed up .
His mother Willie Mae Lewis nurtured this curiosity in this shy , serious child .
Once you learn something , she told her son , once you get something inside your head , no one can take it away from you .
As a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ after bedtime as his father ’ s friends complained about the Klan .
One Sunday , as a teenager , he heard Dr. King preach on the radio .
As a college student in Tennessee he signed up for workshops on the tactic of nonviolent civil disobedience .
John Lewis was getting something inside his head .
An idea he couldn ’ t shake .
Took hold of him .
That nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience were the means to change laws but also change hearts and change minds and change nations .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ helped organize the Nashville campaign in 1960 .
He and other young men and women sat at a segregated lunch counter , well dressed , straight back , refusing to let a milkshake poured on their heads or a cigarette extinguished on their backs or a foot aimed at their ribs , refused to let that dent their dignity .
And their sense of purpose .
And after a few months the Nashville campaign achieved the first successful desegregation of any major facility in the South .
John got a taste of jail @ @ @ @ @ @ @ — well , several times .
But he also got a taste of victory .
And it consumed him with righteous purpose and took the battle deeper into the South .
That same year , just weeks after the Supreme Court ruled that segregation of interstate bus facilities was unconstitutional , John and Bernard Lafayette bought two tickets , climbed aboard a Greyhound , sat up front , and refused to move .
This was months before the first official freedom riots .
He was doing a test .
Trip was unsanctioned .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Every stop through the night , apparently , the angry driver stormed out of the bus and into the bus station .
And John and Bernard had no idea what he might come back with .
Or who he might come back with .
Nobody was there to protect them .
There were no camera crews to record events .
You know , sometimes , Reverend , we read about this and we kind of take it for granted .
Or at least we act as if it was inevitable .
Imagine @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s age , younger than my oldest daughter .
On their own .
To challenge an entire infrastructure of oppression .
John was only 20 years old .
But he pushed all 20 of those years to the center of the table , betting everything , all of it that his example could challenge centuries of convention and generations of brutal violence and countless daily indignities suffered by African Americans .
Like John the Baptist preparing the way .
Like those old testament prophets speaking truth to kings .
John Lewis did not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on board buses and sitting at lunch counters , got his mug shot taken again and again .
Marched again and again on a mission to change America .
Spoke to a quarter million people at the March on Washington when he was just 23 .
Helped organize the freedom summer in Mississippi when he was just 24 .
At the ripe old age of 25 , John was asked to lead the March from Selma , Montgomery .
He was warned that governor Wallace had ordered troopers to use violence .
But @ @ @ @ @ @ @ them across that bridge anyway .
And we ’ ve all seen the film and the photoage and the photographs .
President Clinton mentioned the trench coat , the knapsack .
The book to read , the apple to eat , the tooth brush .
Apparently , jails weren ’ t big on such creature comforts .
And you look at those pictures and John looked so young and he ’ s small in stature .
Looking every bit that shy , serious child that his mother had raised , and yet he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s put perseverance in him .
And we know what happened to the marchers that day .
Their bones were cracked by billy clubs .
Their eyes and lungs choked with tear gas .
And they knelt to pray , which made their heads easier targets .
And John was struck in the skull .
And he thought he was going to die .
Surrounded by the sight of young Americans gagging and bleeding and trampled .
Victims in their own country of state-sponsored violence .
And the thing is , I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they ’ d won the battle .
You can imagine the conversations they had afterward .
You can imagine them saying yeah , we showed them .
They figured they ’ d turn the protesters back over the bridge .
They kept , they preserved a system that denied the basic humanity of their fellow citizens .
Except this time , there were some cameras there .
This time the world saw what happened , bore witness to Black Americans , who were asking for nothing more than to be treated like other @ @ @ @ @ @ @ special treatment , just equal treatment , promised to them a century before and almost another century before that .
And when John woke up and checked himself out of the hospital , he would make sure the world saw a movement that was , in the words of Scripture , hard-pressed on every side but not crushed .
Perplexed , but not in despair .
Persecuted , but not abandoned .
Struck down but not destroyed .
They returned to Brown Chapel .
A battered prophet .
Bandages around his head .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ now .
And the people came .
And the troopers parted .
And the marchers reached Montgomery .
And their words reached the White House .
And Lyndon Johnson , son of the South , said we shall overcome .
And the Voting Rights Act was signed into law .
The life of John Lewis was , in so many ways , exceptional .
It vindicated the faith in our founding .
Redeemed that faith .
That most American of ideas , the idea that any of us , ordinary people without rank @ @ @ @ @ @ @ can somehow point out the imperfections of this nation and come together and challenge the status quo .
And decide that it is in our power to remake this country that we love , until it more closely aligns with our highest ideals .
What a radical idea .
What a revolutionary notion .
This idea that any of us ordinary people , a young kid from Troy , can stand up to the powers and principalities and say no , this isn ’ t right , this isn ’ t true .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ can do better .
On the battlefield of justice , Americans like John , Americans like reverends Lowery and C.T .
Vivian , two other patriots we lost this year , liberated all of us .
The many Americans came to take for granted .
America was built by people like that .
America was built by John Lewises .
He , as much as anyone in our history brought this country a little bit closer to our highest ideals .
And someday when we do finish that long journey toward freedom , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ union , whether it ’ s years from now or decades or even if it takes another two centuries , John Lewis will be a founding father of that fuller , fairer , better America .
And yet as exceptional as John was , here ’ s the thing .
John never believed that what he did was more than any citizen of this country can do .
I mention in the statement that day John passed , the thing about John was how gentle and humble he was .
And despite this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ everyone with kindness and respect because it was innate to him , this idea that any of us can do what he did , if we ’ re willing to persevere .
He believed that in all of us there exists the capacity for great courage .
That in all of us , there ’ s a longing to do what ’ s right .
That in all of us there ’ s a willingness to love all people and extend to them God-given rights to dignity and respect .
So many of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s taught out of us .
We start feeling as if in fact we can ’ t afford to extend kindness or decency to other people .
That we ’ re better off if we ’ re above other people .
And looking down on them .
And so often that ’ s encouraged in our culture .
But John always said he always saw the best in us .
And he never gave up .
And never stopped speaking out because he saw the best in us .
He believed in us @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in ourselves .
And as a congressman , he didn ’ t rest .
He kept getting himself arrested .
As an old man , he didn ’ t sit out any fight .
Sat in all night long on the floor of the United States Capitol .
I know his staff was stressed .
But the testing of his faith produced perseverance .
He knew that the march is not over .
That the race is not yet won .
That we have not yet reached that blessed destination where we are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
He knew from his own life that progress is fragile .
That we have to be vigilant against the darker currents of this country ’ s history .
Of our own history .
Where there are whirlpools of violence and hatred and despair that can always rise again .
Today we witness with our own eyes police officers kneeling on the necks of black Americans .
George Wallace may be gone , but we can witness our federal government sending agents to use tear gas and batons against peaceful demonstrators .
We @ @ @ @ @ @ @ number of jellybeans in a jar to cast a ballot , but even as we sit here , there are those in power who are doing their darnedest to discourage people from voting by closing polling locations and targeting minorities and students with restrictive ID laws and attacking our voting rights with surgical precision , even undermining the postal service in the runup to an election that ’ s going to be dependent on mail-in ballots so people don ’ t get sick .
I know there ’ s a celebration of John @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who might say we shouldn ’ t dwell on such things .
But that ’ s why I ’ m talking about it .
John Lewis devoted his time on this earth fighting the very attacks on democracy and what ’ s best in America that we ’ re seeing circulate right now .
He knew that every single one of us has a God-given power and that the faith of this democracy depends on how we use it .
That democracy isn ’ t automatic .
It has to be nurtured .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ have to work at it .
It ’ s hard .
And so he knew that it depends on whether we summon a measure , just a measure of John ’ s moral courage to question what ’ s right and what ’ s wrong .
And call things as they are .
He said as long as he had a breath in his body , he would do everything he could to preserve this democracy , and as long as we have breath in our bodies , we had to continue his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to grow up in a democracy , not just with elections , but a true democracy , a representative democracy , and a big-hearted tolerant , vibrant , inclusive America of perpetual self-creation , then we ’ re going to have to be more like John .
We don ’ t have to do all the things he needed to do because he did them for us .
But we got to do something .
As the Lord instructed Paul , do not be afraid .
Go on speaking .
Do not be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and no one will attack you to harm you , for I have many in the city who are my people .
Just everybody ’ s got to come out and vote .
We got all those people in the city , but they can ’ t do nothing .
Like John , we ’ ve got to keep getting into that good trouble .
He knew that nonviolent protest is patriotic , a way to raise public awareness and put a spotlight on injustice and make the powers that be uncomfortable @ @ @ @ @ @ @ t have to choose between protests and politics .
It ’ s not an either/or situation .
It ’ s a both/and situation .
We have to engage in protests where that ’ s effective , but we also have to translate our passion and our causes into laws and institutional practices .
That ’ s why John ran for Congress 34 years ago .
Like John , we ’ ve got to fight even harder for the most powerful tool we have , which is the right to vote .
The Voting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ achievements of the democracy .
It ’ s why John crossed that bridge , why he spilled his blood .
By the way , that was the result of Democrat and Republican efforts .
President Bush , who spoke here earlier , and his father signed its renewal when they were in office .
President Clinton didn ’ t have to because it was the law when he arrived .
So instead he made a law to make it easier for people to vote .
But once the Supreme Court weakened the Voting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a flood of laws designed specifically to make voting harder , especially by the way state legislators where there ’ s a lot of minority turnout and population growth .
That ’ s not necessarily a mystery or an accident .
There ’ s an attack on what John fought for .
It was an attack on our democratic freedoms , and we should treat it as such .
If politicians want to honor John , and I ’ m so grateful for the legacy and work of all the congressional leaders who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ better way than a statement calling him a hero .
You want to honor John , let ’ s honor him by revitalizing the law that he was willing to die for .
And , by the way , naming the John Lewis Voting Rights Act , that is a fine tribute .
But John wouldn ’ t want us to stop there , just trying to get back to where we already were .
Once we pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act , we should keep marching .
To make it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ American is automatically registered to vote , including former inmates who ’ ve earned their second chance .
By adding polling places , and expanding early voting and making Election Day a national holiday so if you are somebody who ’ s working in a factory or you ’ re a single mom who ’ s got to go to her job and doesn ’ t get time off , you can still cast your ballot .
By guaranteeing that every American citizen has equal representation in our government , including the American @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and in Puerto Rico .
They ’ re Americans .
By ending some of the partisan gerrymandering .
So that all voters have the power to choose their politicians , not the other way around .
And if all this takes eliminating the filibuster , another Jim Crow relic , in order to secure the God-given rights of every American , then that ’ s what we should do .
Even if we do all this , even if every bogus voter suppression law is struck off the books today , we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ourselves that too many of us choose not to exercise the franchise .
Too many of our citizens believe their vote won ’ t make a difference , or they buy into the cynicism that , by the way , is the central strategy of voter suppression , to make you discouraged , to stop believing in your own power .
So we ’ re going to have to remember what John said .
If you don ’ t do anything you can do to change things , then they will remain the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ once .
You have to give it all you have .
As long as young people are protesting in the streets hoping real change takes hold , I ’ m hopeful .
But we can ’ t casually abandon them at the ballot box .
Not when few elections have been as urgent on so many levels as this one .
We can ’ t treat voting as an errand to run if we have some time .
We have to treat it as the most important action we can take .
On @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , we have to give it all we have .
I was proud that John Lewis was a friend of mine .
I met him when I was in law school .
He came to speak .
And I went up and I said , “ Mr .
Lewis , you are one of my heroes .
What inspired me more than anything as a young man was to see what you and Reverend Lawson and Bob Moses and Dianne Nash and others did.
” And he got that kind of aw , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Next time I saw him , I ’ d been elected to the United States Senate .
And I told him , John , I ’ m here because of you .
And on inauguration day in 2008 — 2009 , um , he was one of the first people I greeted and hugged on that stand .
And I told him this is your day too .
He was a good and kind and gentle man .
And he believed in us , even when we don ’ t believe in ourselves @ @ @ @ @ @ @ last time John and I shared a public forum was on Zoom .
And I ’ m pretty sure neither he nor I set up the Zoom call because we didn ’ t know how to work it .
It was a virtual town hall with a gathering of young actors who had been helping to lead this summer ’ s demonstrations in the wake of George Floyd ’ s death .
And afterward , I spoke to John privately .
And he could not have been prouder to see this new generation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ equality .
A new generation that was intent on voting and protecting the right to vote .
In some cases , running for political office .
And I told him all those young people , John , of every race and every religion from every background and gender and sexual orientation , John , those are your children .
They learned from your example .
Even if they didn ’ t always know it .
They had understood through him what American citizenship requires , even if they ’ d only heard about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ By the thousands , faceless , anonymous young people have taken our nation back to those great wells of democracy dug deep by the founding fathers in the formulation of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence .
Dr. King said that in the 1960s .
And it came true again this summer .
We see it outside our windows in big cities and rural towns .
And men and women , young and old , straight Americans , and LGBTQ Americans , Blacks who long for equal treatment and whites who can @ @ @ @ @ @ @ witnessing the subjugation of their fellow Americans .
We see it in everybody doing the hard work of overcoming complacency , of overcoming our own fears and our own prejudices .
Our own hatreds .
You see it in people trying to be better , truer versions of ourselves .
And that ’ s what John Lewis teaches us .
That ’ s where real courage comes from .
Not from turning on each other .
But by turning towards one another .
Not by sowing hatred and division but by spreading love @ @ @ @ @ @ @ responsibilities to create a better America and a better world but by embracing those responsibilities with joy and perseverance .
And discovering that , in our beloved community , we do not walk alone .
What a gift John Lewis was .
We are also lucky to have had him walk with us for a while and show us the way .
God bless you all .
God bless America .
God bless this gentle soul who pulled us closer to his promise .
Thank you very much .
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Former President Barack Obama delivered a gripping eulogy at the funeral for Rep. John Lewis on Thursday, taking aim at the Trump administration, advocating for the voting rights legislation that was Lewis’s legacy, and calling the 33-year Georgia representative a “founding father” of what will one day be a “fuller, better, fairer America.”
From the historic pulpit at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta where Reverend Martin Luther King once preached, Obama expressed shock at the level of perseverance and purpose that Lewis displayed throughout his life. At such a young age, Lewis’s sheer determination and will placed him at the forefront of key nonviolence movements throughout the 1960s, including lunch counter sit-ins in Tennessee, Freedom Rides through the Jim Crow South, and a near-fatal march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama.
In reflecting on the first time Lewis desegregated the buses in the South alongside his friend and comrade Bernard Lafayette, Obama remarked: “Imagine the courage of two people Malia’s age, younger than my oldest daughter. On their own. To challenge an entire infrastructure of oppression.”
And while Lewis “brought this country a little bit closer to our highest ideals” Obama said, the member of Congress knew the “march is not over.” He pointed out how institutions like policing and the current administration still undermine equality and perpetuate violence: “Today we witness with our own eyes police officers kneeling on the necks of Black Americans. George Wallace may be gone, but we can witness our federal government sending agents to use tear gas and batons against peaceful demonstrators. We may no longer have to guess the number of jellybeans in a jar to cast a ballot, but even as we sit here, there are those in power who are doing their darnedest to discourage people from voting by closing polling locations and targeting minorities and students with restrictive ID laws and attacking our voting rights with surgical precision, even undermining the postal service in the run-up to an election that’s going to be dependent on mail-in ballots so people don’t get sick.”
Every single American needs to watch this clip of Obama talking about voting rights. He calls out GOP for:
-closing polling places
-targeting students & minorities with voter ID laws
-attacking voting rights with "surgical precision"
-undermining USPSpic.twitter.com/zHA5Y2rtQd — Ari Berman (@AriBerman) July 30, 2020
Obama also didn’t shy away from talking forcefully about how he believed the country should carry on Lewis’s legacy.
“You want to honor John, let’s honor him by revitalizing the law that he was willing to die for,” Obama said. “Once we pass the John Lewis Voting Right Act, we should keep marching to make it even better. By making sure every American is automatically registered to vote, including former inmates who’ve earned their second chance. By adding polling places. And expanding early voting and making election day a national holiday.”
The former president delivered his remarks toward the end of the private, socially distanced ceremony that featured speeches from politicians and civil rights leaders like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, and nonviolence tactician James Lawson.
President Obama also reflected on his personal relationship with John Lewis, which started when Obama met Lewis while in law school. He told Lewis that he was his hero, and at every step, from becoming a US senator to president of the United States, Obama recognized Lewis as the giant upon whose shoulders he stood. Lewis made sacrifices, like almost losing his life to police brutality, to ensure that future leaders like Obama would see a way forward.
When Obama secured the Democratic nomination for the presidency in 2008, Lewis said, “If someone had told me this would be happening now, I would have told them they were crazy, out of their mind.” But he knew Obama’s presidency wouldn’t mean America was now a post-racial society. At the time of Obama’s inauguration he said, “the election of Barack Obama is a major downpayment on the dream. The dream is not paid in full. There’s still work to do. We’ve come a distance, we’ve made progress, but we still have a distance to go.”
The final time Obama would spend with Lewis speaks to how the Congress member’s legacy will continue to inspire the world for generations to come. The two attended a virtual conference with young activists who were mobilizing their communities following the police killing of George Floyd.
“He could not have been prouder to see this new generation of activists standing up for freedom and equality, a new generation that was intent on voting and protecting the right to vote,” Obama said in his eulogy.
Obama had previously issued a heartfelt statement about Lewis’s passing on July 18, stating that Lewis “loved this country so much that he risked his life and blood so that it might live up to its promise. And through the decades, he not only gave all of himself to the cause of freedom and justice, but inspired generations that followed to try to live up to his example.”
A rush transcript of Obama’s full remarks is below.
James wrote to the believers, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.”
It is a great honor to be back in Ebenezer Baptist Church in the pulpit of its greatest pastor, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., to pay my respects to perhaps his finest disciple. An American whose faith was tested again and again to produce a man of pure joy and unbreakable perseverance, John Robert Lewis.
To those who have spoken, to Presidents Bush and Clinton, Madame Speaker, Reverend Warnock, Reverend King, John’s family, friends, his beloved staff, Mayor Bottoms, I’ve come here today because I, like so many Americans, owe a great debt to John Lewis and his forceful vision of freedom. This country is a constant work in progress. We’re born with instructions. To form a more perfect union.
Explicit in those words is the idea that we’re imperfect. That what gives each new generation purpose is to take up the unfinished work of the last and carry it further than any might have thought possible. John Lewis, first of the freedom riders, head of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, youngest speaker at the March on Washington, leader of the March from Selma to Montgomery, member of Congress, representing the people of this state and this district for 33 years, mentor to young people, including me at the time, until his final day on this Earth, he not only embraced that responsibility but he made it his life’s work. Which isn’t bad for a boy from Troy.
John was born into modest means, that means he was poor. In the heart of the Jim Crow South to parents who picked somebody else’s cotton. Apparently he didn’t take to farm work. On days when he was supposed to help his brothers and sisters with their labor, he’d hide under the porch. And make a break for the school bus when it showed up.
His mother Willie Mae Lewis nurtured this curiosity in this shy, serious child. Once you learn something, she told her son, once you get something inside your head, no one can take it away from you. As a boy, John listened through the door after bedtime as his father’s friends complained about the Klan.
One Sunday, as a teenager, he heard Dr. King preach on the radio. As a college student in Tennessee he signed up for workshops on the tactic of nonviolent civil disobedience. John Lewis was getting something inside his head. An idea he couldn’t shake. Took hold of him. That nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience were the means to change laws but also change hearts and change minds and change nations. And change the world.
So he helped organize the Nashville campaign in 1960. He and other young men and women sat at a segregated lunch counter, well dressed, straight back, refusing to let a milkshake poured on their heads or a cigarette extinguished on their backs or a foot aimed at their ribs, refused to let that dent their dignity. And their sense of purpose. And after a few months the Nashville campaign achieved the first successful desegregation of any major facility in the South.
John got a taste of jail for the first, second, third — well, several times. But he also got a taste of victory. And it consumed him with righteous purpose and took the battle deeper into the South. That same year, just weeks after the Supreme Court ruled that segregation of interstate bus facilities was unconstitutional, John and Bernard Lafayette bought two tickets, climbed aboard a Greyhound, sat up front, and refused to move. This was months before the first official freedom rides. He was doing a test. Trip was unsanctioned. Few knew what they were up to. Every stop through the night, apparently, the angry driver stormed out of the bus and into the bus station.
And John and Bernard had no idea what he might come back with. Or who he might come back with. Nobody was there to protect them. There were no camera crews to record events. You know, sometimes, Reverend, we read about this and we kind of take it for granted. Or at least we act as if it was inevitable.
Imagine the courage of two people Malia’s age, younger than my oldest daughter. On their own. To challenge an entire infrastructure of oppression. John was only 20 years old. But he pushed all 20 of those years to the center of the table, betting everything, all of it that his example could challenge centuries of convention and generations of brutal violence and countless daily indignities suffered by African Americans.
Like John the Baptist preparing the way. Like those old testament prophets speaking truth to kings. John Lewis did not hesitate and he kept on, getting on board buses and sitting at lunch counters, got his mug shot taken again and again. Marched again and again on a mission to change America. Spoke to a quarter million people at the March on Washington when he was just 23. Helped organize the freedom summer in Mississippi when he was just 24.
At the ripe old age of 25, John was asked to lead the March from Selma, Montgomery. He was warned that governor Wallace had ordered troopers to use violence. But he and Jose Williams and others led them across that bridge anyway. And we’ve all seen the film and the photoage and the photographs. President Clinton mentioned the trench coat, the knapsack. The book to read, the apple to eat, the tooth brush. Apparently, jails weren’t big on such creature comforts.
And you look at those pictures and John looked so young and he’s small in stature. Looking every bit that shy, serious child that his mother had raised, and yet he’s full of purpose. God’s put perseverance in him.
And we know what happened to the marchers that day. Their bones were cracked by billy clubs. Their eyes and lungs choked with tear gas. And they knelt to pray, which made their heads easier targets. And John was struck in the skull. And he thought he was going to die. Surrounded by the sight of young Americans gagging and bleeding and trampled. Victims in their own country of state-sponsored violence.
And the thing is, I imagine initially that day the troopers thought they’d won the battle. You can imagine the conversations they had afterward. You can imagine them saying yeah, we showed them. They figured they’d turn the protesters back over the bridge. They kept, they preserved a system that denied the basic humanity of their fellow citizens.
Except this time, there were some cameras there. This time the world saw what happened, bore witness to Black Americans, who were asking for nothing more than to be treated like other Americans. Who were not asking for special treatment, just equal treatment, promised to them a century before and almost another century before that. And when John woke up and checked himself out of the hospital, he would make sure the world saw a movement that was, in the words of Scripture, hard-pressed on every side but not crushed. Perplexed, but not in despair. Persecuted, but not abandoned. Struck down but not destroyed.
They returned to Brown Chapel. A battered prophet. Bandages around his head. And he said more marchers will come now. And the people came. And the troopers parted. And the marchers reached Montgomery. And their words reached the White House. And Lyndon Johnson, son of the South, said we shall overcome. And the Voting Rights Act was signed into law.
The life of John Lewis was, in so many ways, exceptional. It vindicated the faith in our founding. Redeemed that faith. That most American of ideas, the idea that any of us, ordinary people without rank or wealth or title or fame, can somehow point out the imperfections of this nation and come together and challenge the status quo. And decide that it is in our power to remake this country that we love, until it more closely aligns with our highest ideals.
What a radical idea. What a revolutionary notion. This idea that any of us ordinary people, a young kid from Troy, can stand up to the powers and principalities and say no, this isn’t right, this isn’t true. This isn’t just. We can do better. On the battlefield of justice, Americans like John, Americans like reverends Lowery and C.T. Vivian, two other patriots we lost this year, liberated all of us. The many Americans came to take for granted. America was built by people like that. America was built by John Lewises. He, as much as anyone in our history brought this country a little bit closer to our highest ideals.
And someday when we do finish that long journey toward freedom, when we do form a more perfect union, whether it’s years from now or decades or even if it takes another two centuries, John Lewis will be a founding father of that fuller, fairer, better America.
And yet as exceptional as John was, here’s the thing. John never believed that what he did was more than any citizen of this country can do. I mention in the statement that day John passed, the thing about John was how gentle and humble he was. And despite this storied, remarkable career, he treated everyone with kindness and respect because it was innate to him, this idea that any of us can do what he did, if we’re willing to persevere.
He believed that in all of us there exists the capacity for great courage. That in all of us, there’s a longing to do what’s right. That in all of us there’s a willingness to love all people and extend to them God-given rights to dignity and respect.
So many of us lose that sense. It’s taught out of us. We start feeling as if in fact we can’t afford to extend kindness or decency to other people. That we’re better off if we’re above other people. And looking down on them. And so often that’s encouraged in our culture. But John always said he always saw the best in us. And he never gave up. And never stopped speaking out because he saw the best in us.
He believed in us even when we didn’t believe in ourselves. And as a congressman, he didn’t rest. He kept getting himself arrested. As an old man, he didn’t sit out any fight. Sat in all night long on the floor of the United States Capitol. I know his staff was stressed. But the testing of his faith produced perseverance. He knew that the march is not over. That the race is not yet won. That we have not yet reached that blessed destination where we are judged by the content of our character.
He knew from his own life that progress is fragile. That we have to be vigilant against the darker currents of this country’s history. Of our own history. Where there are whirlpools of violence and hatred and despair that can always rise again.
Today we witness with our own eyes police officers kneeling on the necks of black Americans. George Wallace may be gone, but we can witness our federal government sending agents to use tear gas and batons against peaceful demonstrators. We may no longer have to guess the number of jellybeans in a jar to cast a ballot, but even as we sit here, there are those in power who are doing their darnedest to discourage people from voting by closing polling locations and targeting minorities and students with restrictive ID laws and attacking our voting rights with surgical precision, even undermining the postal service in the runup to an election that’s going to be dependent on mail-in ballots so people don’t get sick.
I know there’s a celebration of John’s life. There are some who might say we shouldn’t dwell on such things. But that’s why I’m talking about it. John Lewis devoted his time on this earth fighting the very attacks on democracy and what’s best in America that we’re seeing circulate right now. He knew that every single one of us has a God-given power and that the faith of this democracy depends on how we use it. That democracy isn’t automatic. It has to be nurtured. Has to be tended to.
We have to work at it. It’s hard. And so he knew that it depends on whether we summon a measure, just a measure of John’s moral courage to question what’s right and what’s wrong. And call things as they are. He said as long as he had a breath in his body, he would do everything he could to preserve this democracy, and as long as we have breath in our bodies, we had to continue his cause.
If we want our children to grow up in a democracy, not just with elections, but a true democracy, a representative democracy, and a big-hearted tolerant, vibrant, inclusive America of perpetual self-creation, then we’re going to have to be more like John. We don’t have to do all the things he needed to do because he did them for us. But we got to do something. As the Lord instructed Paul, do not be afraid. Go on speaking. Do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in the city who are my people.
Just everybody’s got to come out and vote. We got all those people in the city, but they can’t do nothing. Like John, we’ve got to keep getting into that good trouble. He knew that nonviolent protest is patriotic, a way to raise public awareness and put a spotlight on injustice and make the powers that be uncomfortable. Like John, we don’t have to choose between protests and politics. It’s not an either/or situation. It’s a both/and situation. We have to engage in protests where that’s effective, but we also have to translate our passion and our causes into laws and institutional practices. That’s why John ran for Congress 34 years ago.
Like John, we’ve got to fight even harder for the most powerful tool we have, which is the right to vote. The Voting Rights Act is one of the crowning achievements of the democracy. It’s why John crossed that bridge, why he spilled his blood. By the way, that was the result of Democrat and Republican efforts. President Bush, who spoke here earlier, and his father signed its renewal when they were in office. President Clinton didn’t have to because it was the law when he arrived. So instead he made a law to make it easier for people to vote.
But once the Supreme Court weakened the Voting Rights Act, some state legislators unleashed a flood of laws designed specifically to make voting harder, especially by the way state legislators where there’s a lot of minority turnout and population growth. That’s not necessarily a mystery or an accident. There’s an attack on what John fought for. It was an attack on our democratic freedoms, and we should treat it as such.
If politicians want to honor John, and I’m so grateful for the legacy and work of all the congressional leaders who are here but there’s a better way than a statement calling him a hero. You want to honor John, let’s honor him by revitalizing the law that he was willing to die for. And, by the way, naming the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, that is a fine tribute. But John wouldn’t want us to stop there, just trying to get back to where we already were.
Once we pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, we should keep marching. To make it even better. By making sure every American is automatically registered to vote, including former inmates who’ve earned their second chance. By adding polling places, and expanding early voting and making Election Day a national holiday so if you are somebody who’s working in a factory or you’re a single mom who’s got to go to her job and doesn’t get time off, you can still cast your ballot. By guaranteeing that every American citizen has equal representation in our government, including the American citizens who live in Washington, DC, and in Puerto Rico. They’re Americans. By ending some of the partisan gerrymandering. So that all voters have the power to choose their politicians, not the other way around.
And if all this takes eliminating the filibuster, another Jim Crow relic, in order to secure the God-given rights of every American, then that’s what we should do. Even if we do all this, even if every bogus voter suppression law is struck off the books today, we’ve got to be honest with ourselves that too many of us choose not to exercise the franchise. Too many of our citizens believe their vote won’t make a difference, or they buy into the cynicism that, by the way, is the central strategy of voter suppression, to make you discouraged, to stop believing in your own power.
So we’re going to have to remember what John said. If you don’t do anything you can do to change things, then they will remain the same. You only pass this way once. You have to give it all you have. As long as young people are protesting in the streets hoping real change takes hold, I’m hopeful. But we can’t casually abandon them at the ballot box. Not when few elections have been as urgent on so many levels as this one. We can’t treat voting as an errand to run if we have some time. We have to treat it as the most important action we can take. On behalf of democracy, and like John, we have to give it all we have.
I was proud that John Lewis was a friend of mine. I met him when I was in law school. He came to speak. And I went up and I said, “Mr. Lewis, you are one of my heroes. What inspired me more than anything as a young man was to see what you and Reverend Lawson and Bob Moses and Dianne Nash and others did.” And he got that kind of aw, shucks, thank you very much. Next time I saw him, I’d been elected to the United States Senate. And I told him, John, I’m here because of you. And on inauguration day in 2008 — 2009, um, he was one of the first people I greeted and hugged on that stand. And I told him this is your day too.
He was a good and kind and gentle man. And he believed in us, even when we don’t believe in ourselves. And it’s fitting the last time John and I shared a public forum was on Zoom. And I’m pretty sure neither he nor I set up the Zoom call because we didn’t know how to work it. It was a virtual town hall with a gathering of young actors who had been helping to lead this summer’s demonstrations in the wake of George Floyd’s death. And afterward, I spoke to John privately. And he could not have been prouder to see this new generation of activists standing up for freedom and equality. A new generation that was intent on voting and protecting the right to vote. In some cases, running for political office.
And I told him all those young people, John, of every race and every religion from every background and gender and sexual orientation, John, those are your children. They learned from your example. Even if they didn’t always know it. They had understood through him what American citizenship requires, even if they’d only heard about his courage through the history books. By the thousands, faceless, anonymous young people have taken our nation back to those great wells of democracy dug deep by the founding fathers in the formulation of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.
Dr. King said that in the 1960s. And it came true again this summer. We see it outside our windows in big cities and rural towns. And men and women, young and old, straight Americans, and LGBTQ Americans, Blacks who long for equal treatment and whites who can no longer accept freedom for themselves while witnessing the subjugation of their fellow Americans. We see it in everybody doing the hard work of overcoming complacency, of overcoming our own fears and our own prejudices. Our own hatreds.
You see it in people trying to be better, truer versions of ourselves. And that’s what John Lewis teaches us. That’s where real courage comes from. Not from turning on each other. But by turning towards one another. Not by sowing hatred and division but by spreading love and truth. Not by avoiding our responsibilities to create a better America and a better world but by embracing those responsibilities with joy and perseverance. And discovering that, in our beloved community, we do not walk alone. What a gift John Lewis was. We are also lucky to have had him walk with us for a while and show us the way. God bless you all. God bless America. God bless this gentle soul who pulled us closer to his promise. Thank you very much.


vox--2020-07-30--The first episode of Michelle Obama’s podcast proves it’s fun to just hang out with the Obamas

One Good Thing is Vox ’ s recommendations feature .
In each edition , find one more thing from the world of culture that we highly recommend .
As President Trump tweets about canceling the election and the pandemic ’ s death toll rises , it can feel both soothing and painful to recall the last administration to sit in the White House .
Of course , the Obama administration was not perfect , but wow , remember when it was unthinkable for a US president to publicly suggest not holding an election ?
Remember how that now-halcyon time was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this moment of profound nostalgia for pre-2016 election comes The Michelle Obama Podcast , now streaming exclusively on Spotify .
Obama interviews celebrities , close friends , and family members , and talks about her own life and the issues that are important to her .
In the first episode , which dropped July 29 , she interviews her husband , Barack , about marriage , community , and the value of public service .
The Obamas don ’ t say anything particularly earth-shattering together .
The general thrust of their conversation is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ individualism is unsustainable , and that it is important for people to be invested in serving their communities and in making sure the government serves them .
They talk about the way everyone looked after everyone else ’ s kids in the neighborhoods where they grew up , and how giving back to one ’ s community is the key to happiness .
And they do it all with their characteristic combination of warmth and reason .
“ One of the reasons I fell in love with you — ” Michelle Obama begins @ @ @ @ @ @ @ It was just because of my looks , ” Barack Obama interjects jokingly .
“ No , ” Michelle responds shortly .
“ I mean , you ’ re cute , but no .
But one of the reasons I fell in love with you is you ’ re guided by the principle that we are our brother ’ s and sister ’ s keepers .
And that ’ s how I was raised.
” The playfulness of this exchange , and the moral ideas about interdependence embedded into it , would not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
But in this particular moment , they have acquired a wistful , melancholy power .
Listen to these adults who like and respect each other and have clearly thought-out ideas about the role of government in making people ’ s lives better .
Wild stuff .
Barack Obama is not going to appear on every episode of his wife ’ s podcast , but Michelle Obama has more than enough force of personality to stand on her own .
Her great skill as a public figure lies in creating a sense of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that when she went on her book tour last year , she could bill each stadium stop as “ an intimate conversation ” with 20,000 people .
That skill is a natural fit for podcasting , where the hosts seem to live inside their listener ’ s ears , and a show lives or dies by how quickly the host is able to convince the listener that they are close friends .
Part of how Michelle Obama convinces people that they are her close friends is by insulting her husband to his face @ @ @ @ @ @ @ endearing moves , and it gets me every time : “ Oh , Michelle , ” I always think , “ You don ’ t love anything as much as you love reading Barack for filth , ” as though we are all on first-name terms .
On this episode , both Obamas burst out laughing after Michelle asks Barack if he thinks enough people will vote in this fall ’ s election to change things .
He starts to say that yes , he thinks they will , and then Michelle breaks @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” she says ; “ you ’ re the ‘ yes , we can ’ man , ” and she pitches her voice high and squeaky and mocking on “ yes , we can.
” It ’ s not actually a great joke .
But they are both so delighted by it , and by each other , that listening , you feel delighted too .
It ’ s always easy to feel delighted by Michelle Obama .
You can listen to The Michelle Obama Podcast on Spotify .
New episodes will @ @ @

One Good Thing is Vox’s recommendations feature. In each edition, find one more thing from the world of culture that we highly recommend.
As President Trump tweets about canceling the election and the pandemic’s death toll rises, it can feel both soothing and painful to recall the last administration to sit in the White House. Of course, the Obama administration was not perfect, but wow, remember when it was unthinkable for a US president to publicly suggest not holding an election? Remember how that now-halcyon time was less than four years ago?
Into this moment of profound nostalgia for pre-2016 election comes The Michelle Obama Podcast, now streaming exclusively on Spotify. Obama interviews celebrities, close friends, and family members, and talks about her own life and the issues that are important to her. In the first episode, which dropped July 29, she interviews her husband, Barack, about marriage, community, and the value of public service.
The Obamas don’t say anything particularly earth-shattering together. The general thrust of their conversation is that the US’s culture of individualism is unsustainable, and that it is important for people to be invested in serving their communities and in making sure the government serves them. They talk about the way everyone looked after everyone else’s kids in the neighborhoods where they grew up, and how giving back to one’s community is the key to happiness. And they do it all with their characteristic combination of warmth and reason.
“One of the reasons I fell in love with you —” Michelle Obama begins early on in the interview.
“It was just because of my looks,” Barack Obama interjects jokingly.
“No,” Michelle responds shortly. “I mean, you’re cute, but no. But one of the reasons I fell in love with you is you’re guided by the principle that we are our brother’s and sister’s keepers. And that’s how I was raised.”
The playfulness of this exchange, and the moral ideas about interdependence embedded into it, would not have been shocking a few years ago. But in this particular moment, they have acquired a wistful, melancholy power. Listen to these adults who like and respect each other and have clearly thought-out ideas about the role of government in making people’s lives better. Wild stuff.
Barack Obama is not going to appear on every episode of his wife’s podcast, but Michelle Obama has more than enough force of personality to stand on her own. Her great skill as a public figure lies in creating a sense of closeness with her audience, enough so that when she went on her book tour last year, she could bill each stadium stop as “an intimate conversation” with 20,000 people. That skill is a natural fit for podcasting, where the hosts seem to live inside their listener’s ears, and a show lives or dies by how quickly the host is able to convince the listener that they are close friends.
Part of how Michelle Obama convinces people that they are her close friends is by insulting her husband to his face. This is one of her most endearing moves, and it gets me every time: “Oh, Michelle,” I always think, “You don’t love anything as much as you love reading Barack for filth,” as though we are all on first-name terms.
On this episode, both Obamas burst out laughing after Michelle asks Barack if he thinks enough people will vote in this fall’s election to change things. He starts to say that yes, he thinks they will, and then Michelle breaks in: “Of course you do,” she says; “you’re the ‘yes, we can’ man,” and she pitches her voice high and squeaky and mocking on “yes, we can.”
It’s not actually a great joke. But they are both so delighted by it, and by each other, that listening, you feel delighted too. It’s always easy to feel delighted by Michelle Obama.
You can listen to The Michelle Obama Podcast on Spotify. New episodes will release weekly.


vox--2020-07-30--Obama: The filibuster is a “Jim Crow relic”

Former President Barack Obama delivered a passionate and deeply political tribute to the late Rep. John Lewis ( D-GA ) at Lewis ’ s funeral service on Thursday .
Lewis was one of the nation ’ s foremost civil rights leaders beginning in the 1960s , and Obama spoke of how even as a very young man , Lewis endured beatings and other violence to advance the cause of voting rights for Black Americans .
Obama called for legislation restoring the Voting Rights Act , much of which was gutted by the Supreme Court ’ s decisions in Shelby County @ @ @ @ @ @ @ v. Perez ( 2018 ) .
He also endorsed other democratic reforms , including an end to partisan gerrymandering , extending statehood to Washington , DC , and Puerto Rico , and making Election Day a national holiday .
And then he called upon the Senate to remove an obstacle that has consistently stood in the way of civil rights legislation throughout American history .
“ If all this takes eliminating the filibuster , another Jim Crow relic , in order to secure the God-given rights of every American , then that ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said Obama .
The filibuster typically allows a bloc of 41 senators to prevent legislation from passing , and Republican filibusters stymied much of Obama ’ s policy agenda during his presidency .
A common metric used to measure how frequently filibusters occur is the number of “ cloture ” motions filed by the majority in order to break a filibuster .
The number of such cloture motions more than doubled after Sen. Mitch McConnell ( R-KY ) became the Senate Republican leader in 2007 , and McConnell continued to use the filibuster @ @ @ @ @ @ @ later .
Obama has criticized the widespread use of the filibuster in the past .
He told Vox ’ s Ezra Klein in 2015 that the Senate should eliminate “ the routine use of the filibuster in the Senate , ” for example .
But Obama ’ s remarks at Lewis ’ s funeral — in which he didn ’ t just oppose the filibuster but also noted the role it played in preserving Jim Crow — is probably his strongest statement in opposition to the filibuster to date .
The filibuster is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of white supremacy The filibuster itself predates Jim Crow and was created entirely by accident .
In 1805 , shortly after he killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel , Vice President Aaron Burr returned to the Senate to deliver a farewell speech and suggested that the Senate make changes to its rules .
Burr proposed eliminating the “ previous question motion , ” a process that was rarely used prior to his speech , and the Senate followed Burr ’ s advice in 1806 .
But the previous question motion was hardly superfluous @ @ @ @ @ @ @ only process allowing the Senate to cut off debate among members .
No one recognized Burr ’ s error for 35 years — until 1841 , when the first filibuster occurred .
Without a way to end debate , rogue senators could delay Senate action indefinitely by insisting on “ debating ” a proposal forever .
Since then , the Senate has changed the rules many times to make it easier to break a filibuster , but most legislation still can not pass over a filibuster unless 60 senators join together to invoke @ @ @ @ @ @ @ win an absolutely crushing majority in November — they would have to gain 13 seats in the Senate , a nearly impossible feat — Republicans will be able to block nearly any voting rights bill through the filibuster .
Unless , of course , the filibuster is eliminated , something the Senate could do at any time with just 51 votes .
If Republicans were to use the filibuster to stop legislation expanding voting rights , they would join a long and inglorious tradition of illiberal senators filibustering civil rights legislation .
From @ @ @ @ @ @ @ enact a single civil rights bill , even as Jim Crow flourished in the South .
Congress could not even pass civil rights legislation that enjoyed majority support .
Between the end of World War II and 1957 , when a modest bill finally became law , the House passed five civil rights bills .
But white supremacist senators were able to block each of these five bills using the filibuster .
Democrats appear to be turning sharply against the filibuster It took Democrats more than four agonizing years to realize just how @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to govern while Obama was president , and even then they made only modest reforms to the filibuster — allowing most presidential nominees to be confirmed with just 51 votes but leaving the legislative filibuster largely intact .
Indeed , just a few years ago , much of the Democratic caucus appeared committed to maintaining the filibuster .
In April 2017 , Sens .
Chris Coons ( D-DE ) and Susan Collins ( R-ME ) organized a letter calling on Senate leadership to “ preserve existing rules , practices , and traditions ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ More than two dozen Democrats joined this letter , and a total of 61 senators signed it .
And yet , even Coons — once one of the Senate ’ s most outspoken opponents of eliminating the filibuster — is now singing a different tune .
“ I will not stand idly by for four years and watch the Biden administration ’ s initiatives blocked at every turn , ” Coons told Politico in June .
“ I am gon na try really hard to find a path forward that doesn ’ t @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the structural guardrails , but if there ’ s a Biden administration , it will be inheriting a mess , at home and abroad .
It requires urgent and effective action.
” Likewise , presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden recently signaled support for eliminating the filibuster if Senate Republicans are too “ obstreperous.
” There is a very real chance , in other words , that the incoming Senate will have 51 votes to eliminate the filibuster — or to at least pare it back sufficiently to allow voting rights legislation to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ control of the federal government , the chances of such law becoming a reality will almost certainly hinge on whether Senate Democrats are willing to target the filibuster .
Every day at Vox , we aim to answer your most important questions and provide you , and our audience around the world , with information that has the power to save lives .
Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment : to empower you through understanding .
Vox ’ s work is reaching more people than ever @ @ @ @ @ @ @ journalism takes resources — particularly during a pandemic and an economic downturn .
Your financial contribution will not constitute a donation , but it will enable our staff to continue to offer free articles , videos , and podcasts at the quality and volume that this moment requires .
Please consider making a contribution to Vox today .

Former President Barack Obama delivered a passionate and deeply political tribute to the late Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) at Lewis’s funeral service on Thursday. Lewis was one of the nation’s foremost civil rights leaders beginning in the 1960s, and Obama spoke of how even as a very young man, Lewis endured beatings and other violence to advance the cause of voting rights for Black Americans.
Obama called for legislation restoring the Voting Rights Act, much of which was gutted by the Supreme Court’s decisions in Shelby County v. Holder (2013) and Abbott v. Perez (2018). He also endorsed other democratic reforms, including an end to partisan gerrymandering, extending statehood to Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico, and making Election Day a national holiday.
And then he called upon the Senate to remove an obstacle that has consistently stood in the way of civil rights legislation throughout American history.
“If all this takes eliminating the filibuster, another Jim Crow relic, in order to secure the God-given rights of every American, then that’s what we should do,” said Obama.
The filibuster typically allows a bloc of 41 senators to prevent legislation from passing, and Republican filibusters stymied much of Obama’s policy agenda during his presidency.
A common metric used to measure how frequently filibusters occur is the number of “cloture” motions filed by the majority in order to break a filibuster. The number of such cloture motions more than doubled after Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) became the Senate Republican leader in 2007, and McConnell continued to use the filibuster aggressively after Obama took office two years later.
Obama has criticized the widespread use of the filibuster in the past. He told Vox’s Ezra Klein in 2015 that the Senate should eliminate “the routine use of the filibuster in the Senate,” for example. But Obama’s remarks at Lewis’s funeral — in which he didn’t just oppose the filibuster but also noted the role it played in preserving Jim Crow — is probably his strongest statement in opposition to the filibuster to date.
The filibuster is a historical accident that became a tool of white supremacy
The filibuster itself predates Jim Crow and was created entirely by accident. In 1805, shortly after he killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel, Vice President Aaron Burr returned to the Senate to deliver a farewell speech and suggested that the Senate make changes to its rules. Burr proposed eliminating the “previous question motion,” a process that was rarely used prior to his speech, and the Senate followed Burr’s advice in 1806.
But the previous question motion was hardly superfluous. Indeed, this motion was the only process allowing the Senate to cut off debate among members. No one recognized Burr’s error for 35 years — until 1841, when the first filibuster occurred. Without a way to end debate, rogue senators could delay Senate action indefinitely by insisting on “debating” a proposal forever.
Since then, the Senate has changed the rules many times to make it easier to break a filibuster, but most legislation still cannot pass over a filibuster unless 60 senators join together to invoke cloture. That means that unless Democrats win an absolutely crushing majority in November — they would have to gain 13 seats in the Senate, a nearly impossible feat — Republicans will be able to block nearly any voting rights bill through the filibuster.
Unless, of course, the filibuster is eliminated, something the Senate could do at any time with just 51 votes.
If Republicans were to use the filibuster to stop legislation expanding voting rights, they would join a long and inglorious tradition of illiberal senators filibustering civil rights legislation. From 1875 until 1957, Congress did not enact a single civil rights bill, even as Jim Crow flourished in the South.
Congress could not even pass civil rights legislation that enjoyed majority support. Between the end of World War II and 1957, when a modest bill finally became law, the House passed five civil rights bills. But white supremacist senators were able to block each of these five bills using the filibuster.
Democrats appear to be turning sharply against the filibuster
It took Democrats more than four agonizing years to realize just how severely the filibuster had hobbled their ability to govern while Obama was president, and even then they made only modest reforms to the filibuster — allowing most presidential nominees to be confirmed with just 51 votes but leaving the legislative filibuster largely intact.
Indeed, just a few years ago, much of the Democratic caucus appeared committed to maintaining the filibuster. In April 2017, Sens. Chris Coons (D-DE) and Susan Collins (R-ME) organized a letter calling on Senate leadership to “preserve existing rules, practices, and traditions” that allow senators to filibuster legislation. More than two dozen Democrats joined this letter, and a total of 61 senators signed it.
Related How the filibuster broke the US Senate
And yet, even Coons — once one of the Senate’s most outspoken opponents of eliminating the filibuster — is now singing a different tune. “I will not stand idly by for four years and watch the Biden administration’s initiatives blocked at every turn,” Coons told Politico in June. “I am gonna try really hard to find a path forward that doesn’t require removing what’s left of the structural guardrails, but if there’s a Biden administration, it will be inheriting a mess, at home and abroad. It requires urgent and effective action.”
Likewise, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden recently signaled support for eliminating the filibuster if Senate Republicans are too “obstreperous.”
There is a very real chance, in other words, that the incoming Senate will have 51 votes to eliminate the filibuster — or to at least pare it back sufficiently to allow voting rights legislation to become law. If Democrats do win control of the federal government, the chances of such law becoming a reality will almost certainly hinge on whether Senate Democrats are willing to target the filibuster.


vox--2020-07-30--In this joyous fantasy novel, books and art are the key to cheating death

There ’ s something about the books of fantasy novelist Jo Walton that resist straightforward reading .
Technically , they are marvels : The prose is always rich and pleasurable , the characters fully dimensional , the world-building immersive , the philosophical questions twisting and intricate .
But every time I try to sink myself fully into her books , I find myself fidgeting , uncomfortable , viscerally trapped — as if , I wrote a few months ago , I am inside the skull of an alien creature , and the skull is the wrong shape .
Reading Walton @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Will , I didn ’ t feel that sense of constraint any more .
Or What You Will is a playful book about breaking through constraints and expanding past your limits , and it was never difficult for me to immerse myself in it .
But I did learn where that feeling of constraint comes from in Walton ’ s other books because Or What You Will is narrated by a spirit trapped inside someone else ’ s skull .
And he narrates — not all the stories , he tells us , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ alike .
But enough of them .
“ I am trapped inside this cave of bone , this hollow of skull , ” our protagonist tells us on the first page , “ this narrow and limited point of view that is all I am allowed , like a single shaft from a dark lantern .
She has all the power .
But sometimes she needs me .
Sometimes I get out.
” The she in this quote is pretty straightforward .
She is a Canadian fantasy writer named Sylvia , 73 years @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Sylvia , who in certain passages bears a striking similarity to Walton herself , is working on a book about Shakespearean characters living in a fantastical version of the city called Thalia .
In Thalia , Sylvia writes , the Renaissance never ended , and no one ever dies unless a human wills their death .
( The title of Walton ’ s book , Or What You Will , nods to Twelfth Night , and Orsino is a major character in Sylvia ’ s book .
So is Miranda from The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that opening passage is trickier .
This spirit has a complex ontology .
Here is what we know about him : He is male , and playful ; a kind of trickster .
He has been multiple characters in Sylvia ’ s books .
He is an aspect of her mind .
He is her imaginary friend .
He is also a real , literal spirit with an independent life of his own , separate from Sylvia ’ s .
He can be harmed , and even killed .
And as the book @ @ @ @ @ @ @ nearing the end of her own life and that he will die with her .
To save them both , he wants to rewrite Sylvia ’ s Florence book .
He wants to find a way for both he and Sylvia to leave their own world and get to Thalia .
He wants to walk out of the bone cave and into a world where no one has to die .
Or What You Will gives writing life-and-death stakes The idea of finding life through books is central to Or What You Will @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have any illusions about literary immortality , about books living on in the minds of their readers forever .
“ You can be a bestseller for a thousand years after your death , read by every schoolchild , and then five hundred years after the end of that thousand years be almost forgotten and read only by eccentrics , ” the protagonist tells us .
“ Precisely that happened to Lucian of Samosata.
” And he doubts that books by Sylvia , who he says is “ popular , but she ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ popular , ” will survive even as long as the works of Lucian of Samosata did .
Speaking of Lucian : That kind of easy , no-big-deal classical reference is one of the great pleasures of Or What You Will , which is filled to the brim with stories of Renaissance Florence , both historical and imaginary .
We learn of Brunelleschi , who designed the dome of Florence ’ s Duomo and played viciously cruel practical jokes on his friends .
In Sylvia ’ s Florence book , we meet Ficino , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ our world and into , apparently , Sylvia ’ s Thalia to study magic .
And in Sylvia ’ s daily life in Florence , we learn of the socialist haute cuisine supper club Teatro del Sale , where “ the food is incredibly , unbelievably , implausibly good , so good superlatives crack under the burden of trying to describe it.
” Walton is so enthusiastic on this point that a person might be tempted to hop on a plane , pandemic or no , and head off to Florence for lunch @ @ @ @ @ @ @ afternoon at the Uffizi art gallery , and then gelato at Perché No !
, Sylvia ’ s preferred gelateria .
Or they ’ ll wish to step into Thalia , where Sylvia ’ s characters feast on peaches and figs and cake and “ slightly leathery ” omelets .
( Slightly leathery , because they are cooked by a young Victorian lady who has only recently entered the everlasting Renaissance of Thalia , and she is not used to fending for herself in the kitchen .
In my opinion , the fruit @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it ! )
Or What You Will might be narrated by an incorporeal spirit , but it ’ s told with a deep and palpable and sensual joy : of food , of art , of history , of books and learning .
This book is also concerned with mortality , and what it means to live with the knowledge of one ’ s own death .
Thalia seems at first to be a false and beautiful refuge from the idea of dying , but it becomes gradually clearer that it can not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to ever fully change in Thalia , where progress is outlawed .
The Renaissance is exciting to Walton ’ s characters because it was a time of endless invention , but in Thalia , the Renaissance ’ s inventions have already been created , and there are no more left .
Without them , the Renaissance is only an aesthetic .
But our protagonist , locked in the bone cave , is after more than mere aesthetics .
He ’ s after life , and freedom , and specifically the freedom that comes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ seems to make his way toward both in the book ’ s last , redemptive moments — well , reader , that ’ s when I started to cry .
I didn ’ t feel at all that I was in the wrong-shaped skull anymore .
I felt I had at long last been set free .
Every day at Vox , we aim to answer your most important questions and provide you , and our audience around the world , with information that has the power to save lives .
Our mission @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is in this moment : to empower you through understanding .
Vox ’ s work is reaching more people than ever , but our distinctive brand of explanatory journalism takes resources — particularly during a pandemic and an economic downturn .
Your financial contribution will not constitute a donation , but it will enable our staff to continue to offer free articles , videos , and podcasts at the quality and volume that this moment requires .
Please consider making a contribution to Vox today .

There’s something about the books of fantasy novelist Jo Walton that resist straightforward reading. Technically, they are marvels: The prose is always rich and pleasurable, the characters fully dimensional, the world-building immersive, the philosophical questions twisting and intricate. But every time I try to sink myself fully into her books, I find myself fidgeting, uncomfortable, viscerally trapped — as if, I wrote a few months ago, I am inside the skull of an alien creature, and the skull is the wrong shape.
Reading Walton’s latest novel Or What You Will, I didn’t feel that sense of constraint any more. Or What You Will is a playful book about breaking through constraints and expanding past your limits, and it was never difficult for me to immerse myself in it. But I did learn where that feeling of constraint comes from in Walton’s other books because Or What You Will is narrated by a spirit trapped inside someone else’s skull. And he narrates — not all the stories, he tells us, or they would all start to sound alike. But enough of them.
“I am trapped inside this cave of bone, this hollow of skull,” our protagonist tells us on the first page, “this narrow and limited point of view that is all I am allowed, like a single shaft from a dark lantern. She has all the power. But sometimes she needs me. Sometimes I get out.”
The she in this quote is pretty straightforward. She is a Canadian fantasy writer named Sylvia, 73 years old and spending the summer in Florence. Sylvia, who in certain passages bears a striking similarity to Walton herself, is working on a book about Shakespearean characters living in a fantastical version of the city called Thalia. In Thalia, Sylvia writes, the Renaissance never ended, and no one ever dies unless a human wills their death. (The title of Walton’s book, Or What You Will, nods to Twelfth Night, and Orsino is a major character in Sylvia’s book. So is Miranda from The Tempest.)
But the I of that opening passage is trickier. This spirit has a complex ontology.
Here is what we know about him: He is male, and playful; a kind of trickster. He has been multiple characters in Sylvia’s books. He is an aspect of her mind. He is her imaginary friend.
He is also a real, literal spirit with an independent life of his own, separate from Sylvia’s. He can be harmed, and even killed. And as the book begins, he fears that Sylvia is nearing the end of her own life and that he will die with her.
To save them both, he wants to rewrite Sylvia’s Florence book. He wants to find a way for both he and Sylvia to leave their own world and get to Thalia. He wants to walk out of the bone cave and into a world where no one has to die.
Or What You Will gives writing life-and-death stakes
The idea of finding life through books is central to Or What You Will. But neither Sylvia nor our protagonist have any illusions about literary immortality, about books living on in the minds of their readers forever.
Rating: 4 out of 5 vox-mark vox-mark vox-mark vox-mark vox-mark
“You can be a bestseller for a thousand years after your death, read by every schoolchild, and then five hundred years after the end of that thousand years be almost forgotten and read only by eccentrics,” the protagonist tells us. “Precisely that happened to Lucian of Samosata.” And he doubts that books by Sylvia, who he says is “popular, but she’s not the best, not the most popular,” will survive even as long as the works of Lucian of Samosata did.
Speaking of Lucian: That kind of easy, no-big-deal classical reference is one of the great pleasures of Or What You Will, which is filled to the brim with stories of Renaissance Florence, both historical and imaginary. We learn of Brunelleschi, who designed the dome of Florence’s Duomo and played viciously cruel practical jokes on his friends. In Sylvia’s Florence book, we meet Ficino, the 15th-century philosopher who walked out of our world and into, apparently, Sylvia’s Thalia to study magic. And in Sylvia’s daily life in Florence, we learn of the socialist haute cuisine supper club Teatro del Sale, where “the food is incredibly, unbelievably, implausibly good, so good superlatives crack under the burden of trying to describe it.”
Walton is so enthusiastic on this point that a person might be tempted to hop on a plane, pandemic or no, and head off to Florence for lunch at the Teatro del Sale, an afternoon at the Uffizi art gallery, and then gelato at Perché No!, Sylvia’s preferred gelateria. Or they’ll wish to step into Thalia, where Sylvia’s characters feast on peaches and figs and cake and “slightly leathery” omelets. (Slightly leathery, because they are cooked by a young Victorian lady who has only recently entered the everlasting Renaissance of Thalia, and she is not used to fending for herself in the kitchen. In my opinion, the fruit sounds good enough to make up for it!) Or What You Will might be narrated by an incorporeal spirit, but it’s told with a deep and palpable and sensual joy: of food, of art, of history, of books and learning.
This book is also concerned with mortality, and what it means to live with the knowledge of one’s own death. Thalia seems at first to be a false and beautiful refuge from the idea of dying, but it becomes gradually clearer that it cannot quite be paradise because it is impossible to ever fully change in Thalia, where progress is outlawed. The Renaissance is exciting to Walton’s characters because it was a time of endless invention, but in Thalia, the Renaissance’s inventions have already been created, and there are no more left. Without them, the Renaissance is only an aesthetic.
But our protagonist, locked in the bone cave, is after more than mere aesthetics. He’s after life, and freedom, and specifically the freedom that comes with recognition. And when he finally seems to make his way toward both in the book’s last, redemptive moments — well, reader, that’s when I started to cry.
I didn’t feel at all that I was in the wrong-shaped skull anymore. I felt I had at long last been set free.


vox--2020-07-30--Herman Cain, 2012 presidential contender, dies after contracting Covid-19

Herman Cain , the former restaurant executive and 2012 Republican presidential candidate , died Thursday after being hospitalized with Covid-19 .
Cain was 74 , the most high-profile political figure to die in the pandemic .
He served for 10 years as the CEO of Godfather ’ s Pizza , a chain of fast-casual restaurants .
He was also active in politics and public policy for much of his life , serving in several capacities at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City and advising Bob Dole ’ s 1996 presidential campaign , before he sought the White House himself @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Cain was known for his 9-9-9 tax plan : replacing the current tax code with a 9 percent business transaction tax , a 9 percent personal income tax , and a 9 percent federal sales tax .
He briefly surged to the top of the Republican primary field , taking a small lead over eventual nominee Mitt Romney in October 2011 .
But following several allegations of sexual harassment , Cain quickly dropped in the polls and he suspended his campaign in December before voting began .
He had stayed active in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Cain attended Trump ’ s controversial June 20 campaign rally in Tulsa , Oklahoma , held over the objections of local health officials .
He tested positive less than two weeks after attending the rally , though it was not possible to determine where Cain contracted Covid-19 given his travel schedule .
He was admitted to an Atlanta-area hospital on July 1 and died on Thursday .
Cain , who survived colon cancer the decade before , would have been considered at a higher risk of developing severe complications from the coronavirus @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ We knew when he was first hospitalized with COVID-19 that this was going to be a rough fight .
He had trouble breathing and was taken to the hospital by ambulance , ” Dan Calabrese , editor of HermanCain.com , wrote in a post announcing Cain ’ s death .
“ We all prayed that the initial meds they gave him would get his breathing back to normal , but it became clear pretty quickly that he was in for a battle.
” Cain is one of more than 151,000 Americans @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pandemic , according to the Johns Hopkins University coronavirus tracker .
As a Black man in his 70s , he belonged to two groups who are disproportionately more vulnerable to the virus .
Upon the news of his diagnosis , much attention was paid to the timing of Cain ’ s diagnosis , coming so soon after he attended Trump ’ s Tulsa rally ( where he did not always wear a mask ) .
But it will likely never be known how he contracted Covid-19 .
Cain was still traveling frequently , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cases have been rising in most states , including his native Georgia .
Experts have said that events like Trump ’ s indoor , mostly maskless rally could become superspreading events .
Because the coronavirus is airborne and people can be infectious before they show symptoms , the virus is particularly adept at spreading undetected .
As Katherine Harmon Courage recently wrote for Vox , research indicates that closed-air events are up to 20 times more likely to cause increased Covid-19 infections compared to open-air settings , and a very small number of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the reported cases .
Tulsa health officials have said that a spike in local coronavirus cases in the days following Trump ’ s rally was “ more than likely ” linked to the event .
Every day at Vox , we aim to answer your most important questions and provide you , and our audience around the world , with information that has the power to save lives .
Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment : to empower you through understanding .
Vox ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , but our distinctive brand of explanatory journalism takes resources — particularly during a pandemic and an economic downturn .
Your financial contribution will not constitute a donation , but it will enable our staff to continue to offer free articles , videos , and podcasts at the quality and volume that this moment requires .
Please consider making a contribution to Vox today .

Herman Cain, the former restaurant executive and 2012 Republican presidential candidate, died Thursday after being hospitalized with Covid-19.
Cain was 74, the most high-profile political figure to die in the pandemic. He served for 10 years as the CEO of Godfather’s Pizza, a chain of fast-casual restaurants. He was also active in politics and public policy for much of his life, serving in several capacities at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City and advising Bob Dole’s 1996 presidential campaign, before he sought the White House himself in 2012.
During the 2012 race, Cain was known for his 9-9-9 tax plan: replacing the current tax code with a 9 percent business transaction tax, a 9 percent personal income tax, and a 9 percent federal sales tax. He briefly surged to the top of the Republican primary field, taking a small lead over eventual nominee Mitt Romney in October 2011. But following several allegations of sexual harassment, Cain quickly dropped in the polls and he suspended his campaign in December before voting began.
He had stayed active in politics, enthusiastically supporting President Donald Trump. Cain attended Trump’s controversial June 20 campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, held over the objections of local health officials. He tested positive less than two weeks after attending the rally, though it was not possible to determine where Cain contracted Covid-19 given his travel schedule.
He was admitted to an Atlanta-area hospital on July 1 and died on Thursday. Cain, who survived colon cancer the decade before, would have been considered at a higher risk of developing severe complications from the coronavirus due to his age and medical history.
“We knew when he was first hospitalized with COVID-19 that this was going to be a rough fight. He had trouble breathing and was taken to the hospital by ambulance,” Dan Calabrese, editor of HermanCain.com, wrote in a post announcing Cain’s death. “We all prayed that the initial meds they gave him would get his breathing back to normal, but it became clear pretty quickly that he was in for a battle.”
Cain is one of more than 151,000 Americans to die so far in the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the Johns Hopkins University coronavirus tracker. As a Black man in his 70s, he belonged to two groups who are disproportionately more vulnerable to the virus.
Upon the news of his diagnosis, much attention was paid to the timing of Cain’s diagnosis, coming so soon after he attended Trump’s Tulsa rally (where he did not always wear a mask). But it will likely never be known how he contracted Covid-19. Cain was still traveling frequently, according to his family, and coronavirus cases have been rising in most states, including his native Georgia.
Experts have said that events like Trump’s indoor, mostly maskless rally could become superspreading events. Because the coronavirus is airborne and people can be infectious before they show symptoms, the virus is particularly adept at spreading undetected. As Katherine Harmon Courage recently wrote for Vox, research indicates that closed-air events are up to 20 times more likely to cause increased Covid-19 infections compared to open-air settings, and a very small number of people may be ultimately responsible for most of the reported cases.
Tulsa health officials have said that a spike in local coronavirus cases in the days following Trump’s rally was “more than likely” linked to the event.