All I Have Is Rage
Letting go of my anger feels impossible when anger is all there is
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Did you know that John Lewis forgave George Wallace?
That George Wallace — one of the most vile racists in American history. The man who, during his 1963 inaugural address after being elected governor of Alabama, proclaimed “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.” The man who sent the guard dogs and armed police that beat marchers, John Lewis among them, in Selma in 1965.
Starting in the 1970s, Wallace began seeking forgiveness, engaging with African American organizations and trying to reckon with his own past. Following Wallace’s death in 1998, Lewis wrote in The New York Times about his decision to accept the man’s apologies. “I had to forgive him,” he wrote, “because to do otherwise — to hate him — would only perpetuate the evil system we sought to destroy.”
John Lewis’ ability to forgive, to find optimism despite the America he lived in, confounded me for most of my adult life. He could put his life on the line, bear the consequences of his quests for freedom, stare down batons and K-9s, and still go through his life with the conviction that things will be better.
