Raw Courage
There is a word in my parents’ native language that I love: “himmat”. It’s tricky to spell, pronounce and define in English…it sounds like “heem – mutth”, but with a silent ‘h’, maybe closer to “ihm – mutt”, and it loosely translates to “daring”. It sometimes drifts to “bravado”…maybe “balls”. I love the word, but perhaps it can best be defined as raw courage.
John Lewis talked about good trouble…necessary trouble. He also said, “You cannot be afraid to speak up and speak out for what you believe. You have to have courage, raw courage.” Pick anything associated with his history: The Freedom Rides, Bloody Sunday, or his sustained disobedience toward segregated rooms across the Jim Crow South. They all demonstrate raw courage. Even the cancer that took his life was one of the most deadly forms – and while he battled it for the past 6 months, he remained an iconic presence front and center in support of BLM and nonviolent protests around the country. Maybe balls is right, after all.
John Lewis was one of the first victims of violence during the Freedom Rides. Think about how much raw courage it must have taken to face KKK mobs and know that not only are the cops not going to protect you, but they are organizing to inflict bodily harm on you. Sound familiar? Freedom Riders rode to show the country that a law meant to protect their liberty wasn’t going to be enforced in the South. And they did it resigned to taking whatever violence was going to be dished out on them. That’s himmat.
As news of the attacks on them spread, the number of Freedom Riders grew from the original 13 to nearly 500. That is fucking himmat! By the way, it looks to me like the crowds in Portland right now have grown as more tear gas, abductions, and beatings get dished out…just an observation.
As Representative Lewis lay in State earlier today in the Capitol, they played a recording of one of his recent speeches. That unmistakable voice echoed through the Rotunda amongst the socially distanced in their masks, and I thought it was all very fitting. He said, “We all live in the same house. Be bold. Be courageous.”
I’ll try.
