John Lewis is a national treasure!

I am outraged today to see the online comments from the president-elect pertaining to our congressional representative John Lewis.  I have the pleasure of living in the 5th congressional district of Georgia and have had John Lewis as our member of the House of Representatives for the past 20+ years.

A few immediate points of rebuke/commentary:

> Over the past fifty years, John Lewis has been an icon of the civil rights movement, marching arm in arm with Dr. King, Ralph Abernathy, Jesse Jackson and so many others.  He marched in Selma, was beaten by southern police, took part in the "freedom rides" of the early 60's, trying to expand voting registration across the south for those whose rights had been trampled by Jim Crow laws.  Since the late 70's, John Lewis has SERVED his country, his state and his district in Congress, fighting hard for ALL of his constituencies!  Over that same fifty-year period, what has the president-elect actually done?  He built a business that expounded his own name, fraught by bankruptcies, unpaid contracts and labor disputes, built a personal fortune of unknown size (awaiting unreleased tax returns), and built a non-profit foundation of considerable ill repute -- nowhere in the same league as Representative Lewis!

> The 5th district and the City of Atlanta is a thriving, growing, diverse community far different than the images mentioned by the president-elect.  Home to numerous thriving/growing/diverse major colleges and universities, ranging from Morehouse and Spelman, to Emory, Georgia State and Georgia Tech to name just a few.  It is also home to major non-profit organizations including CARE, The American Cancer Society, The Arthritis Foundation, and many more.  It is also home to major corporate headquarters, including The Coca-Cola Company, UPS, Home Depot, again to name just a few.  The president-elect obviously does not know much a about what he is commenting on which is nothing new, it is something we will have to deal with and "CALL HIM ON" in the months and years ahead.

> The president-elect has spent the last year making offensive remarks about women, muslims, Mexicans and Mexican-Americans, democrats, his republican primary opponents, African-Americans, actors, and now a civil rights leader and my congressman!  Some of these quotes were caught on video, many on his twitter feed, but all are offensive!  As a proud father of two children, I am using this behavior of our upcoming president as an example of how NOT to handle yourself publicly.  It is hard to imagine, but I actually think our country has elected an individual to our highest office who is a paragon of how NOT to act in public, how NOT to communicate with others, how NOT to react to those that you might disagree with, and how NOT to listen and learn from others.  I cannot even find the antonym (opposite) of the phrase "role model" in my thesaurus, but our president-elect certainly fills the bill!

> Finally, our president-elect once again has demonstrated THIS weekend, (this MLK weekend!!) that he is not much more than a thin skinned bully.
Quoting from an article on bullying from the Center for Parenting Education (centerforparentingeducation.org/library-of-articles/...bullying.../playground-politics), they define bullying as:

Bullying can take different forms.  Boys, more than girls, tend to use physical bullying by tripping, shoving, or hitting another.  Verbal bullying is the most common type used by both boys and girls and includes cruel criticism, name-calling, racist slurs, intimidating emails or texts, or sexually abusive remarks.  The most difficult type of bullying to detect, but often the most devastating, is relational bullying, which diminishes the targeted child’s sense of self through rumors, shunning, ignoring, or excluding.  It is most frequently used by girls in the middle-school years and involves rolling of eyes, aggressive stares, frowns, and hostile body language.

Careful to attack when adults are not watching, bullies often select targets who are vulnerable and/or unassertive.  While improving interpersonal skills may be helpful to prospective victims, authority figures may be needed to supervise the interactions more closely.

Unfortunately this describes our situation all too well, and the closing line is important, "authority figures may be needed to supervise the interactions more closely."  In our democracy, I think that the "authority figure" has to be US in the broadest sense of the term, and it has to be an active and independent press.  It also has to be active and concerned citizens who need to pay attention and call him on this and other unacceptable behavior to come.  Finally, it has to be members of congress from either party, like our courageous representative John Lewis, who will stand up to the bully in our midst and not let him manipulate or dominate the "playground" of our political landscape!

Postscript: on this special weekend, commemorating the life of Dr. King, you may want to take a few minutes and follow this link to a PBS site highlighting the "Freedom Riders" as it adds more detail on the accomplishments/hardships of representative John Lewis and others. www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/freedomriders/people/john-lewis