As I witnessed the casket of Congressman John Lewis being gracefully carried across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, I couldn’t help but notice the golden yellow “VERTICAL CLEARANCE” sign. The height restriction shown on the sign could not limit this giant of a man who stood tall in his convictions, faith, and actions.
Fifty-five years after he was bloodily beaten and injured, the boy from Troy crossed that well-known bridge horizontally but victoriously. On Sunday morning, John Lewis stood much taller than the bridge’s “14 feet 10 inches” vertical limitation. The sheer magnitude and meaning of the moment caused me to reflect on the following question: How can I consume my vertical earthly days to make this world better, so when I’m journeying breathless and horizontal, my children will be able to say, “She left the world better than she found it.”
Today, in memory of Congressman John Lewis, I’m giving myself permission to stand tall, get in the way, and get in trouble—good and necessary trouble. Good trouble means taking on things that are akin to the height restrictions of the Edmund Pettus Bridge. There are still many vertical clearance restrictions that need to be changed. These changes must be pursued by those of us who are alive and remain. This small word us brings me to my second observation.
I cannot count the number of times I’ve seen this bridge. But it was only today that I noticed the last two letters of Pettus. Congressman Lewis saw us. He once said, “Now we have to create a sense that we are one community, one family. Really, we are the American family.”
My prayer for our nation is that all of uswill work together to build an even stronger and more equitable United States of America, a country that embraces two defining moments on that bridge—the sacrifices made on Bloody Sunday and the horizontal, graceful exit of a hero. Enormous sacrifice and amazing grace are two of the many things that resonated with me while watching the horse-drawn carriage slowly move across the bridge.
As the carriage gracefully moved from one end of the bridge to the other, my thoughts went from anger to admiration, from tear gas to tears, and from blood to rose petals. State troopers once used their hands to clinch and wield batons but were now using their hands to salute a hero. On Sunday, I witnessed a touching scene on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. I saw a fitting tribute to a man who fought in a nonviolent way to lift vertical clearance restrictions in all their forms. His heavy lifting was for you, for me, for us.
An earthly lifetime of giving blood, sweat, and tears in the pursuit of equality, equity, and justice has ended. The bridge from pain to progress is forever etched in my heart. Vertical clearance now has a new meaning. I will find ways to “get in trouble, good trouble, necessary trouble.”