Remember when much political capital was given to hope and change. The context then was the reapplication of American ideals in a diverse and ever-changing world. The core issues within that context centered around securing life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for everybody in an increasingly pluralistic population during an explosive expansion of technology, a global economy, and contending media crosstalk. The goal then, as our President repeatedly reminded us, was to continue the American quest to “form a more perfect union.” Is that goal still sought today?

My thoughts on this question must inevitably fall upon the person who knocked on the door of the White House over 2 ½ centuries ago. When President Lincoln was told a negro man by the name of Frederick Douglas was at the door, he stopped whatever he was doing and ordered him admitted. It was not unusual for any person to show up unannounced at that time. In fact, Lincoln often had people lined up in front of the White House requesting an audience with the President. But never had a negro made that request at the door of an American President. But Douglas was on a mission. He wanted the esteemed log-splitter to understand why it was not enough to block the expansion of slavery to the new territories. He wanted slavery abolished. And he was living proof of that injustice. He had returned from exile in England with enough money to buy his freedom from his slave owner. Many white Englishmen and Americans had contributed to his personal cause, not just because of their ethics, but because they believed in him as living proof of inherent human dignity. He was manifestly not a piece of property.

A few nights ago, we received word that John Lewis had passed. He had been part of Martin Luther King’s attempt to form a coalition of conscience to free African Americans of residual systemic racism. He had walked with King across the Edmond Pettus bridge where he nearly lost his life. And, with King, he too knocked on the door of Presidents, namely, John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson. They, like Douglas before them, wanted to recruit a President to their cause and awaken the conscience of America. They also wanted what Lincoln wanted—to preserve the union. But they also knew that union could not survive unless made more perfect by assuring liberty and justice for all. They wanted to save the soul of America, that is, the revered goals upon which it was founded. I believe it was Lewis’ dedication to saving America that inspired John Meacham to call him a saint. How else would you describe a person willing to sacrifice all his time and energy and risk his very life to a cause that so intrinsically benefited others of all colors?

But the cause that consumed Lewis’ life does not end with him. It continues with the “black lives matter” (BLM) movement. In fact, his life not only inspires but impels that movement forward. For the soul of America has never been more endangered. Centuries of progress are at risk as our President threatens to turn back the clock—and with the aid of a complicit group of Republican Senators and Congressmen/women. We are not only witnessing a reincarnation of the Confederate legacy of white supremacy and George Wallace’s racism, but a reemergence of the political divisiveness characterized by the McCarthy era. But there is a countervailing reemergence of hope and change inspired by recent protests. America has seen similar moments of change before. Joseph McCarthy, for example, was replaced by Republicans who redefined conservatism closer to the vision of Jefferson. In fact, led by Republican Senator Everett Dirksen, the GOP helped pass the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1968, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Today, we have the Lincoln Project, a group of influential Republicans, who are attempting to unseat a corrupt and incompetent Republican President. Together with the BLM protestors and many other American patriots, they are knocking on the door of the White House. Though it is not likely the present resident will welcome them in, they still retain the power to reclaim the “people’s house” and escort him out.

If every human being enters the world through their mother’s birth canal and with the same genetic base, then every individual begins with a clean slate and deserves an equal opportunity to develop their individual talents and realize their personally formed goals. This is the basic birth right that inspired Jefferson to assert “unalienable rights . . . of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” The challenge we still face as Americans is full realization of what Jefferson wrote in our Declaration of Independence and what our founding fathers reiterated in the Preamble of the Constitution. That is the realization that puts all Americans in the same ship of state, all together rowing forward in sync. We no longer need a military revolution, for we have the political power to implement equal opportunity or liberty and justice for all. Unless we do so, we will never realize that “more perfect union.”

At his inauguration, President Trump painted a very dark image of America. Sixty million people identified their grievances with this image. Perhaps, after 3 ½ years, his supporters may well begin to reevaluate how their President has redrawn that image into an even darker portrait. But, as our previous President reminded us, “that’s not who we are” and “that’s not who we can be.” It is once again time to raise the torch of freedom. We must all knock on that White House door and carry that torch forward.

Recently, former President Barack Obama spoke of a conversation he had with John Lewis after a virtual town meeting with young activists. He penned the following remarks:

Afterwards, I spoke to him privately, and he could not have been prouder of their efforts—of a new generation standing up for freedom and equality, a new generation intent on voting and protecting the right to vote, a new generation running for political office. I told him that all those young people—of every race, from every background and gender and sexual orientation—they were his children. They had learned from his example, even if they didn’t know it.

I could conclude with these remarks from our first black President. Or I might rephrase Jefferson’s declarative statement on when “it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve political bands . . . and to assume . . . the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them . . . they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.” It is past the time when America should separate from President Trump and his war on America. We should all follow John Lewis’ example of peaceful, but determined, protests until we bend America to the justice of its grand aspirations.