Fitting tribute to a civil rights icon, statesman
John Lewis was famously stoic a half-century ago. The young civil rights activist, as it was well known among his admiring peers, could take the most brutal beating from violent segregationists without so much as an outcry. The treatment he and others endured in the Selma-to-Montgomery march was just one episode in a long history of such infamous moments.
Fifty-plus years later, he is not just a historic civil rights figure but a veteran member of Georgia's delegation in Congress. And a just-announced tribute managed to do what repeated racist violence couldn't: bring John Lewis to tears.
Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus announced this past week that the first ship of the next consignment of fleet replenishment oilers to be built will be christened the USNS John Lewis.
"I teared up," Lewis told reporters about his reaction at hearing the news from Mabus. "I really cried, and he teared up."
Lewis, who described himself as "deeply moved," apparently didn't know why he had been asked to visit the Navy Secretary's office last week. When Mabus said, "I want to name a ship in your honor," Lewis reportedly questioned whether a vessel could be named for a currently serving member of Congress.
"I'm the secretary of the Navy and I can do it," Mabus said. "Please let us do it."
Lewis put his long journey into metaphorical context: "When I was growing up in rural Alabama, I never learned to swim because we couldn't go to the public swimming facilities; now it is amazing to have a big ship that will be able to travel all around the world named after you."
It's an honor John Lewis has earned through decades of service and sacrifice.
Judge Roy returns
Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore is back in the headlines, once again as a public embarrassment to the state.
This time the issue is same-sex marriage, which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last summer is a constitutional right. Moore ordered Alabama probate judges to stop issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, saying it's up to the state Supreme Court to decide whether the U.S. Supreme Court decision applies to his state. (Keep this in mind next time His Honor inveighs against "judicial activism.")
Federal attorneys in Alabama, the Association of County Commissions of Alabama and a legal representative from the University of Alabama law school, among others, have concluded that federal, not state law, decides constitutional issues. (Duh.) Some counties that stopped issuing licenses after Moore's order have already begun issuing them again, without a go-ahead from state high court chambers.
Alabama's highest-ranking judicial official isn't just becoming more ridiculous, if that's even possible. He's becoming utterly irrelevant.
This story was originally published January 9, 2016 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Fitting tribute to a civil rights icon, statesman."