An 'illegitimate president' -- let me count the ways

I honor and respect John Lewis, for his courageous stands for civil rights and his long service in Congress. Good man.

Just yesterday, though, I heard and saw another black representative on TV criticizing Lewis for his allegiance to the Democratic Party, which birthed the KKK all those years ago – to prevent blacks from voting.

Yes, that was long ago, but Martin Luther King Jr. identified with the Republican Party, as much of his family does today, because much of the civil rights legislation and support for black equality came from that quarter when King was launching out.

I want the reader to be aware that I, too, have a record of support for civil rights and equality for all of us, regardless of color. Very briefly, I wrote songs like "Time Marches On," a story of the black man's journey from tribal power in Africa to slavery and injustice in "the Land of the Free." I recorded the song, and it was played on black radio, but nowhere else. Sammy Davis wanted to record the song himself, but his death intervened.

The day after MLK was killed in Memphis, I wrote "I Had a Dream," pairing his emotional and powerful words with a gospel melody. Eventually, I introduced a video of that tribute as MC of the 40th anniversary celebration of CORE, the Congress of Racial Equality. I was accorded that honor by founder Roy Innes and his son Niger.

Most people don't know about these public stands I've taken, and there are others. I only mention these to validate my right to take loving exception to John Lewis calling Donald Trump "an illegitimate president"!

Lewis seems mainly concerned with the Russians "hacking" into our political system and possibly having some influence on the outcome of our election. He states that the information they "leaked" was prejudicial to the Hillary Clinton campaign.

My question to Mr. Lewis: What did Donald Trump have to do with that? Answer: nothing.

Next question: Then who do we blame now?

Well, we only know, or think we know, what Trump will do when he assumes the presidency. Meanwhile, there was another president, in office for the last eight years, who obviously failed to secure America, to safeguard even our classified communication, as in the case of the private servers used by our secretary of state, with whom we've only recently learned they shared private passwords so they could communicate on her unsecured private server! Happy "hacking", Russia!

And if what was leaked, or revealed, by the "hackers" was detrimental to the Clinton campaign – it was only what she and Podesta and others had shared in the over 40,000 emails back and forth – MU

Again, Donald Trump had nothing to do with any of that.

And, on the subject of "hacking into" or influencing elections: What does John Lewis think about the president, our current president, spending over $300,000 of our taxpayer dollars to send his own social media experts to Israel to make their political expertise on the Internet available to Prime Minister Netanyahu's opponent in the Israeli election! At his behest, these experts hired buses to transport Arabs to the polls to vote against Netanyahu – though the prime minister won anyway. What gives an American president the right to intervene so directly and overtly in another sovereign nation's election? Is it wrong for Russia but acceptable for our president to do it?

Is such meddling a right – or a high crime? And is it legitimate?

Further, is it legitimate for a president to personally create 33 new regulatory agencies by executive order – without so much as a nod to Congress? And to personally appoint 33 "czars" to head those agencies, reporting only to him and not the legislature? Is it "legitimate" for a president and his then attorney general, who had both sworn to uphold our laws, to openly and publicly state they would not enforce immigration laws they personally objected to?

What makes for "legitimacy," Mr. Lewis? Words and expressed intentions before assuming the presidency, or actual deeds and misdeeds and betraying the promise to "uphold the Constitution" during eight years as president?

I earnestly hope you'll pray and think carefully before you continue to foment rebellion and rejection of the duly elected incoming leader of the United States – and ask yourself honestly which of the two men, the current president or the incoming one, should be thought of as "illegitimate"?