Throughout the recent celebrations of the life of Congressman John Lewis I have found deep satisfaction in the acclaim of his heroism in the civil rights movement. I had been involved in demonstrations in Austin, Texas, in 1960 and I remember being concerned but not afraid of going to jail, which did not happen. There were later involvements in NH, one of which involved my joining a Catholic priest debating on public television the Union Leader’s publisher William Loeb and a Lutheran fundamentalist minister. Racism was the topic, well illustrated by a Loeb editorial on keeping the White Mountains White. It was the late 1960’s, a time also of a significant number of African American soldiers at Grenier Air Force base in Manchester. NH clergy joined the Selma protests and a NH Episcopal seminarian, Jonathan Daniels, was shot and killed by a deputy sheriff. And now I read that John Lewis had been arrested 45 or more times for his protesting. That’s according to Michelle Goldberg in the NY Times. We have lost. Heaven has gained.

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