ATLANTA (AP) — Civil rights icon and U.S. Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) has been hospitalized for undisclosed reasons.
Citing a statement from Lewis’ office, WSB-TV reported that the 78-year-old Georgia congressman was “resting comfortably” in a hospital Saturday night for “routine observation.”
The statement says Lewis expects to be released Sunday.
Citing unnamed sources, WSB-TV reported Lewis had become ill on a flight to Atlanta.
Lewis, a Democrat, played a key role in the civil rights movement and marched with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1965 in Selma, Alabama.
Lewis was expected at an Atlanta event Saturday evening but did not attend.
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Information from: WSB-TV, http://www.wsbtv.com/index.html
The man is a giant in an institution full of one-celled parasites.
Nothing but the best of recoveries for you, Rep. Lewis.
How not to present your medical issues to the public.
Lewis has zero obligation to make any public statements whatsoever about his health.
That said, it is certainly true, that if health concerns result in a hospitalization, if you are a public figure like Lewis, word is likely to get out anyway, so you at least have to announce the fact of the hospitalization. Beyond that, perhaps in some sense you are at least under some pressure to talk about why you were hospitalized. But if you decide to do that, offer an explanation rather than stand on your right to privacy, it makes no sense to offer an explanation that explains nothing.
People don’t get admitted to hospitals for observation as any sort of routine, not for decades now, and not really ever. It’s not uncommon to be admitted for observation for concerns that don’t pan out, but such concerns would not be over any routine matter, but would be concern over a heart rhythm problem, or of an impending myocardial infarction or of a possible stroke, etc. ,etc.
Nothing in the list of things that get you admitted for observation is the least bit routine or at all trivial. That is not some bit of arcane and obscure medical knowledge, but the common experience of millions of members of the general public. These millions are also perfectly familiar with the concept that hospitalized observation for concern over very serious health problems often results in that concern being refuted during the hospitalization. Admitting that someone was hospitalized for observation because he had chest pain is not at all going to be mistaken by any members of the general public who have any goodwill towards Lewis for an admission that he had a heart attack. Failing to say what the illness on the plane was that caused the concern is only going to leave people who do not have good will towards Lewis free to fill in the obvious blank with whatever uncharitable speculation they care to insert.
If you do decide to abandon your right to say not a goddamn thing about your health problems, if you decide to go beyond just an announcement of what the public will find out anyway, that you’ve been admitted to the hospital, you should say something informative. Otherwise keep silence, where silence is your perfect right. “Hospitalized for routine observation” is just BS, and Lewis deserves better.
What happens if he has to leave office? Evil GA governor get to appoint?
Get well soon, Rep Lewis.
No need to leave office.
McCain is not leaving. Strom Thurmond was stuffed and propped up in a chair for years.
We need Rep Lewis’ political and moral leadership - he needs to stay.