Page 8 - Florida Sentinel 7-31-20

Political
Rep. John Lewis Taken Across Edmund Pettus Bridge In Selma
US To Withdraw Nearly 12,000 Troops From
More than five decades after he was slammed in the head by a white state trooper's billy club while he led a march on behalf of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, the late Rep. John Lewis made one last crossing on Sunday.
In an emotional ceremony that symbolizes the 80-year-old Lewis' lifelong work for civil rights, hundreds of mourners watched the procession escort the congressman's casket across the 1,284-foot bridge spanning the Alabama River. A horse- drawn caisson carried Lewis' casket alone across the bridge.
In an act that Alabama Rep. Terri Sewell described a "po- etic justice," Alabama state troopers saluted Lewis' casket, draped in an American flag, as it crossed the bridge.
The somber journey brought Lewis full-circle to the spot where he almost died as a 25- year-old on March 7, 1965, when Alabama state troopers attacked him and other civil rights
GermanyIn
Cost Billions And Take Years
Rep. John Lewis makes final crossing of Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma.
The U. S. is moving for- ward with President Don- ald Trump's plan to withdraw nearly 12,000 troops from Germany, a deci- sion that has attracted bipar- tisan congressional opposition and roiled key al- lies who see the move as a blow to NATO.
Secretary of Defense Mark Esper acknowledged the plan will cost billions to exe- cute when he formally an- nounced the decision on Wednesday from the Penta- gon. U. S. defense officials said it will take years to relo- cate the troops.
The plan to pull US troops from the long-time NATO ally has been met with broad bi- partisan opposition amid concerns that it will weaken the US military's position vis a vis Russia, however the Trump Administration has decided to proceed with the move.
Trump defended the deci- sion Wednesday, saying the troop drawdown was taking place because Berlin was not spending the NATO target of 2% of its GDP on defense and because Germany was taking "advantage" of the U. S.
"We spend a lot of money on Germany, they take ad- vantage of us on trade and they take advantage on the military, so we're reducing the force," he told reporters at the White House.
"They're there to protect Europe, they're there to pro- tect Germany, and Germany is supposed to pay for it," Trump added. "We don't want to be responsible any- more."
Defense officials, however, said Wednesday that the de- cision on where to house the US troops leaving Germany was not influenced by whether the new host country was meeting the 2% target.
demonstrators in an incident that became known as "Bloody Sunday." Lewis' skull was frac- tured in the ordeal in which then-Alabama Gov. George Wallace ordered troopers to use all the force necessary to stop the marchers from reaching their destination at the state capitol building in Montgomery.
"I was hit with a billy club, and I saw the state trooper that hit me," Lewis, who was first elected in 1987 to represent Georgia's 5th Congressional Dis- trict, would recall later during a federal hearing. "I was hit twice, once when I was lying down and
was attempting to get up."
In subsequent interviews, Lewis said, "I thought I saw death. I thought I was going to
die."
A nine-member military honor
guard carried Lewis casket from the church to the horse- drawn caisson.
Mourners lining the streets leading up to the bridge shouted "We love you" and "We got this," vowing to carry on Lewis' work for equality and racial justice.
Sunday's tribute to Lewis came during a six-day celebra- tion of the man who became known as the "conscience of the U. S. Congress."
Move That Will
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