"Because of you, John. Barack Obama."
That's how Barack Obama signed a photograph of his inauguration for Congressman John Lewis who died in July.
It's quite a thing for a president to say to any person.
John Lewis was a Congressman for many, many years but at the age of 23, he was the youngest speaker to speak at a march on Washington, alongside the famous Martin Luther King, who gave the "I Have A Dream" speech.
John Lewis was one of the six organizers of that massive media-organized rally.
One of the lines from his speech was pulled on that day so as to not embarrass the Kennedy administration. Think about that, a 23-year-old speaker was asked, indirectly, by the sitting president to pull a sentence. Now, that sentence was:
"Which side 'is' the federal government on?"
What a cool question to ask any government. What a to-the-point question.
One of the many things that I'm impressed by about that day was how 250,000 people got there.
But what was also highly unusual was that 250,000 people had all travelled to Washington in that march on Washington.
I've stood on the place where Martin Luther King stood, with my business partner Denise Graveline. She took me there on her speechwriters' tour of Washington. And she said,
"You have to understand, Peter, that there's nobody here at six o'clock in the morning. And you're standing in a place with nobody in front of you, which is highly unusual."
What message had those unions and those six organizers, including John Lewis, used to trigger that much action by so many people? This wasn't signing a petition or clicking something on the Internet or liking a post on Facebook. This was significant, coordinated action by a quarter of a million people without social media, when telephones were on street corners and not every house had one, where letters were written and only arrived days or weeks later.
What messaging was used?
What communication was used?
What were the words that led up to that live stage where Martin Luther King could give his talk and where a sentence gets pulled so that he wouldn't embarrass the president?
Words are powerful.
John Lewis, rest in peace.
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