Donald Trump's attack on John Lewis was an attack on us, too

Over the past many months, The Saber has made a pointed and quite deliberate decision to refrain from providing opinion commentary on Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, and many elements of the election and the campaign. Our mission has always been to focus explicitly on what matters to us, to our community, and to our campus. Much of the time, national politics just doesn’t meld well with that.

But at this moment, we feel that the time has come for us to speak plainly, and we will begin doing so with greater frequency in our opinion pages.

John Lewis is the U.S. Representative for Georgia’s 5th Congressional District (that’s most of Atlanta, for those a little hazy on their congressional maps). He also marched in Selma with Dr. King. He was the chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. He helped organize the original March on Washington (yes, the ‘I have a Dream’ one). He was beaten and jailed by police countless times. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He has been a dedicated Georgia public servant for 30 years.

In an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Lewis said that he would not be attending Mr. Trump’s inauguration because he “[did] not see him as a legitimate president” because of Russia’s interference in the national election. The next morning, the eve of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday, Mr. Trump tweeted the following:

We are not here to make judgements about the truth or falsehood of Rep. Lewis’s remarks. They remain outside our realm of interest. But Mr. Trump’s response ensures that any high ground he was entitled to was washed away faster than a paddle down the Chattahoochee.

This isn’t just a civil rights icon and American hero who our new President has called “all talk, no action.” He is a Georgia public servant and loyal representative of a city hundreds of Columbus State students, staff and faculty know and love. Many of us are from Atlanta. Even more of us have spent time there. Georgia is big, but it ain’t that big; we’re all of us Georgians, brothers and sisters. And our President just called our town terrible, crumbling, an awful place. We’re from here. We know our state, our region, our cities. We know he’s wrong. And we, at least, aren’t afraid to say so.

We are profoundly disappointed that Senator Josh McKoon, a Columbus representative to the state capital, argued that Lewis’s “petty and dangerous” comments justified this disgraceful attack. Petty? Quite possibly. “Dangerous” and worthy of such disgusting insult from the upcoming President of the United States? Sorry, no dice.

So we were emboldened to learn that LaGrange College, another great Georgia institution, has announced that they are standing by their decision to have Rep. Lewis give their annual MLK address on Jan. 26 despite protests from alumni who have demanded his disinvitation.

“Our invitations never imply institutional agreement with everything individuals might say,” said Lagrange’s president Dan McAlexander. “Likewise, our students are accustomed to hearing from speakers who represent a wide political spectrum, and we are confident they possess the critical-thinking ability to value a lifetime of service, while perhaps disagreeing with statements of that individual.”

We’re confident that the students can do just that. We’re less sure about a few others.