Bill Moyers: John Lewis Marches On (full show/video)

[Triana]

(full video at link)

Bill Moyers and Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) meet to share experiences and revelations about the momentous March on Washington both attended 50 years ago.

Their discussion takes them to the spot in front of the Lincoln Memorial where Lewis, Martin Luther King, Jr., Bayard Rustin, Roy Wilkins, and others famously spoke about freedom and justice, creating critical momentum for both the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. While there, Moyers and Lewis attract the attention of schoolchildren, and conduct a spontaneous living history lesson.

. . .

“To look out and see the best of America convinced me more than anything else that this is the product, this is the work of the movement,” Lewis tells Bill. “Sometimes you have to not just dream about what could be — you get out and push and you pull and you preach. And you create a climate and environment to get those in high places, to get men and women of good will in power to act.”

Threading rarely-seen documentary footage into their conversation, Bill — who was deputy director of the newly-created Peace Corps at the time — also shares his own memories of the day. He concludes with an essay about how the goal of equal rights and opportunities for all Americans — so championed at the March on Washington — continues to elude us.

http://billmoyers.com/episode/full-show-john-lewis-marches-on/

[Triana]

1. Shameless kick-worth a watch, esp considering we are fighting 1960s battles again (still) n/t

[liberal_at_heart]

2. I love that quote you put in your post.

"To look out and see the best of America convinced me more than anything else that this is the product, this is the work of the movement,” Lewis tells Bill. “Sometimes you have to not just dream about what could be — you get out and push and you pull and you preach. And you create a climate and environment to get those in high places, to get men and women of good will in power to act.”

That's it exactly. The activists who walked alongside Martin Luther King Jr. know what it takes.

[Triana]

3. In that piece he also talked about the long view...

...that it wasn't a movement or action that lasted a day or a week like so many movements today do. It was a movement that lasted months, years, decades, generations. Yet still those involved had a sense of urgency about their work - that something had to be done about people hurting, being abused, starving, being oppressed, having their civil rights denied. It's happening again - still, and getting worse, not better anymore.

It's also amazing to see them talking to the kids about it - these men are living, breathing pieces of our national history. They were there. We're fighting those same 1960s and 1970s battles again as America slides backwards and so what they have to say is important now, their experience is important now. The movement has to be reconstituted and carried forward now. It's urgent like it was then and it won't be a quick protest now either.

Here we are again - or still - and the experience of the elders and veterans of these social wars is priceless.

[liberal_at_heart]

4. I think it would be great if some of the civil rights pioneers would help organize the

movement again. It is definitely urgent once again.

[Triana]

5. They could help organize, set the tone, be senior advisors.

Today, I've seen three things that bring this time in history back or mention it again. The Moyer's piece was one. This is another:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023355620

And there was a third - and old Cosby Show episode that dealt with it.

Could we today get 250,000 or more people to march on Washington? Or, Wall St? When Occupy did its thing, it was brutalized and thrown out of the public space. I'm amazed that in those days of no internet, no 'facebook' or "twitter" and the like, such an amazing march was organized - and it was well-organized - and peaceful against all supposition and suspicion about it.

Something has to give somewhere - everywhere. People are only going to be pushed so far before they are pushed into the streets and public spaces to demand better from their government, society, economy. At some point, there will be a social 'flashbomb' that will set it off.

The John Birchers need badly to be put back in their place - back to Hell from whence I'm convinced they came if there is such a place - and before they make the world Hell for the rest of us. Soundly rejected by America in the 60s, 70s, and 80s, they went underground, created 'think tanks', and PACS without mentioning anywhere in their propaganda the names of those whose money created and largely support them. They hired the same propaganda firms that helped big insurance and big pharma fight Obamacare and who kept big tobacco in business. They got into public office or slutted into bed (ie: ALEC et al) with politicians they bought, gerrymandered, and now are oppressing anyone who isn't a white heterosexual male and are suppressing the vote - with the help of their like-minded friends on the USSC whose wives openly cavort with their Bircher factions as if the fact that it's a blatant conflict of interest is irrelevant.

Yep. We need those guys who were there in 1963. The tone they set is largely that of Rev. Barber who leads the Moral Mondays protests. It's the one needed. Not of any particular religion or other but one of a morality that transcends any religion - simply, doing what's right for the most people - what's best for the majority, doing the compassionate thing, being responsible for each other and lifting up society and the economy by lifting up everyday people no matter their color, religion or sexual preference. Right now, we all have a jackboot on our necks while the 1% stuff their gullets and bank accounts with all the money they can get their hands on by hook or crook - usually the latter and at our great collective and individual expense. It ain't right. And that's not about religion. It's about plain old right from wrong, good from bad.