Are we ready for an America without civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis?

This is a scary time.

U.S. Rep. John Lewis has Stage 4 pancreatic cancer. There’s a chance he could survive. But the diagnosis is typically a death sentence, and everyone knows it.

What we don’t know is whether we’re ready for a world without him.

It doesn’t feel like it.

Are people from my generation ready to take over the fights for civil rights and fair pay? Are people from Lewis’ generation ready to pass the reins?

Will my generation use the news of his illness as a reminder to show older people how much they mean to us? Can we learn their lessons and preserve their stories and show our respect while they’re here to appreciate it?

Will his generation see this as the right time to open up and trust us?

But mostly, can we all learn from Lewis’ example how to work across generational lines?

Maybe.

Lewis began fighting in his late teens

Lewis has earned a reputation as a unifier, and it goes beyond the reality that both President Barack Obama and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have each offered condolences and kind words.

If anyone can inspire all that, he can.

Lewis is 79.

He’s seen and experienced things that Generation X, Generation Z and millennials will never know firsthand.

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And he started taking action in his late teens to fight the wrongs and immoralities that he saw in our nation.

He fought for people to be able to use public transportation that their tax dollars help pay for.

He fought for people to have the right to vote.

He fought for sharecroppers to have living wages.

By the time he was 25, he was speaking to the masses at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

A look at his life and times shows how someone so young could become so influential.

He listened to his elders

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