We Must Take Up…

Today the Civil Rights icon and legend John Lewis is laid to rest in Atlanta, Georgia, where I currently sit and write my thoughts. Three American presidents (President Bush, Clinton, and President Obama) came to speak and pay their respects. As I type, I watch, and I feel inspired. Against all the odds, Congressman John Lewis fought for a new era for black lives and the country. He but his whole being into this fight.

"When you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, you have to speak up. You have to say something; you have to do something."

- John Lewis

As I watched his funeral service, I was curious about his thoughts about global poverty. So I googled it and found that in 2007 he "co-sponsored the development of a strategy to eliminate extreme global poverty.  

A  bill to require the sitting president to develop and implement a comprehensive strategy to promote the reduction of global poverty and the elimination of extreme global poverty."  

The man who helped pass one of the most important laws in our nation, the Voting Right Act, also co-sponsored a bill to eradicate extreme global poverty. 

I feel encouraged because I can't just sit around and watch as millions suffer under the daily and hourly tyranny of hunger and desperate poverty.  

Honestly, in a time where it feels like we still need his guidance, he slips away. But he has fought the good fight, he ran his race and worked until the end. 

As we lay him to rest, he leaves behind the baton of progress, that we must take up and move it forward.