I think the French say it best... "...une mer de merde."
Posted on 02/07/2006 3:39:43 PM PST by madprof98
President Bush, leading the nation in celebrating the life of Coretta Scott King, praised the civil rights leader for enduring extraordinary pain and loss to give generations of people "a better, more welcoming country."
"We knew Mrs. King in all the seasons, and there was grace and beauty in every season," Bush said at a New Birth Missionary Baptist Church service Tuesday that was attended by four presidents and a crowd of thousands.
"As a great movement of history took shape," Bush said, "her dignity was a daily rebuke to the pettiness and cruelty of segregation."
Bush noted that Mrs. King and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., her husband who was assassinated nearly 40 years ago, confronted vicious taunts, threatening phone calls and even the bombing of their home because of their early work for equal rights for blacks. Even after her husband's slaying and in the years since, she never gave up, he said.
"Coretta had every right to count the costs and step back from the struggle," the president said. "But she decided that her children needed more than a safe home - they needed an America that upheld their equality and wrote their rights into law. And because this young mother and father were not intimidated, millions of children they would never meet are now living in a better more welcoming country."
The funeral took on political overtones as former President Carter said of the Kings: "It was difficult for them then personally with the civil liberties of both husband and wife violated as they became the target of secret government wiretaps." Later, he said that Hurricane Katrina showed that all are not yet equal in America.
And both Bush and his father winced as they sat behind the pulpit and heard the Rev. Joseph Lowery, who co-founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference with Martin Luther King Jr., take several jabs at foreign and domestic policies.
"We know there were no weapons of mass destruction over there, but Coretta knew and we knew there are weapons of misdirection right down here," Lowery said, complaining that were far too many in the U.S. are living in poverty and without health care insurance.
"For war, billions more, but no more for the poor," Lowery continued, a take-off of a lyric from the song "A Time to Love" which drew a roaring standing ovation.
Bush's father tried to defuse any political tension by joking that Lowery used to challenge him when he was president, too.
"I kept score in the Oval Office desk - Lowery 21, Bush 3," former President George H.W. Bush said. "It wasn't a fair fight."
The audience showed where its allegiance lay when former President Clinton and his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, came to the podium to wild cheers and a long standing ovation. He opened by saying that he was honored to be with the other former presidents. Someone in the crowd yelled out, "Future president!" in reference to his wife's possible 2008 bid.
"We can honor Dr. King's sacrifice," Bill Clinton said. "We can help his children fulfill their legacy. ... Every one of us are in a way the children of Martin Luther and Coretta Scott King."
Real class.
Carter also mentioned the secret wiretapping of King. But Jimmy neglected to mention that Bobby Kennedy was the one who ok'd it.
Buffalo News
Commercialism mars King legacy
2/4/2006
By LEONARD PITTS
I interviewed Coretta Scott King once. It cost $5,000.
In 1985, I approached the Martin Luther King Center in Atlanta seeking that interview and permission to use old audio of Coretta's husband for a radio documentary. I was told it would cost five grand for the audio rights, and it was made clear that unless that money was paid, there would be no interview.
The ethical constraints of a radio production house are different from those of a news organization; we made the deal. I didn't like it, but I rationalized it by telling myself it was an honor to contribute to the upkeep of a legendary legacy.
Amazing what you can make yourself believe.
Coretta Scott King died this week, five months after suffering a heart attack and stroke. She is being widely and lavishly eulogized. "A remarkable and courageous woman," said the president. "A staunch freedom fighter," said the Rev. Jesse Jackson.
The praise is deserved. There was majesty and grace in Coretta Scott King, a strength of heart that was displayed nowhere more clearly than at her husband's death. Like Jacqueline Kennedy before her, she mourned inconceivable loss with awesome dignity. Since then, she has been a tireless defender of the dream her husband articulated in August of 1963.
She shielded it against racism, pessimism and defeatism. She was less successful against commercialism.
And I don't mean the piddling $5,000. That's a small symptom of the larger malady. I refer you to the King family's 1993 lawsuit against USA Today for reprinting the "I Have A Dream" speech and their subsequent licensing of King's image and voice for use in television commercials, one of which placed him between Homer Simpson and Kermit the Frog. Then there's the attempt to sell his personal papers for $20 million. Perhaps most galling was the family's demand to be paid to allow construction of a King monument on the Washington Mall.
Yes, it's all legal. But if Dr. King's life taught us nothing else, it taught us that legality and morality are not necessarily the same.
I don't mind the King family making money. But not at the cost of Martin Luther King's dignity. Granted, dignity is subjective, and you might draw the line in a different place than I. But I suspect most of us would agree that when a martyr, minister and American hero becomes a TV character hawking cell phones with Homer Simpson, that line has been well and truly crossed.
Coretta Scott King founded the King Center, and it has always been controlled by the family. So it seems plain that she approved this money-grubbing or at least tolerated it. And as a result, her kids have lost their minds.
Particularly the sons, Martin III and Dexter, recently seen publicly feuding over which one will have the six-figure job of running the King Center. Meantime, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution tells us the facility is in need of $11 million in repairs and that $4.2 million of center money has been paid since 2000 to a company Dexter owns. This would be the same Dexter who, in 1995, visited Graceland for tips on how to exploit his father's image as Lisa Marie Presley has exploited her father's.
Martin Luther King, it seems necessary to say, was not Elvis Presley. He was a man who stood for something and died for something. That something was not profit. That something belonged to all of us. One wonders if the loss of their mother will shock his children into understanding this.
I'd like to think so. But had you visited the King Center Web site three days after Coretta died looking for a tribute, here's what you'd have found: a press release, a quote from Dr. King, and a request for money. "Make an online donation in loving memory," it said.
You can do it if you want. Me, I gave at the office.
Bush shouldn't have gone there. People like Carter and Lowery have earned the snub many times over.
G.W. was bashed big time by blacks at the euology. What an idiot for showing up there. As usual G.W. continues to be the punching bag for the left and does nothing about it.
Listen to Michael Savage discuss the Bush bashing.
http://www.homestead.com/prosites-prs/
Great column by Leonard Pitts. He is my favorite left-leaning columnist.
This turned out to be nothing more than another "Wellstone Memorial".
President Bush was the ONLY class act there!!
"Every one of us are in a way the children of Martin Luther and Coretta Scott King."
Wow. My Mom and Dad are going to be really surprised when they find out...
I loathe 'The Clinton.' Such self-serving scum. (To me, they ARE 'Borg.' Luckily, resistance is NOT futile to anyone with a functioning brain.)
Mrs King did not earn such a snub howerver. Once in a while it would be ok for the Whine all the Time Choir to actually ATTACK the Democrats, instead of seizing on every event as an exucse for a new whine at Bush.
What an idiot for showing up there - Sorry, Barbara raised him right; you fit right in with those there, calling the President names for attending a funeral.
It is called being the bigger man. As President and leader of this Nation he very well should have been there today (as he was) and in being there conducted himself with pure grace and dignity. Like the true man he is.
America sees the goodness of this man...the quality and substance of this man each and every time events occur like today.
It is called being the bigger man. As President and leader of this Nation he very well should have been there today (as he was) and in being there conducted himself with pure grace and dignity. Like the true man he is.
America sees the goodness of this man...the quality and substance of this man each and every time events occur like today.
President George W. Bush is no idiot.
Borrowing a quote from madprof98 "Actually the Bush's displayed the only class in the entire place".
how much did she advance the civil rights cause?
what legislation did she craft?
What act did she commit to bring whites and blacks together?
She rode the coattails of her husband's work while she let whores, like jackson and sharpton comandeer and pervert her husband's legacy.
I'm not whining at Bush at all. There are many good reasons, for example, as to why he doesn't attend the NAACP conventions. Why set yourself up to be attacked?
What an utter idiot Mike Savage, and his brainless followers are, to think the President was going to be any less the punching bag if he had NOT shown up. This demonstrates such a complete level of political incompetence on the part of the Savagites to think the Pres could skip this event. Just utterly stupid and politically ignorant. Yet another example of just what a bunch of complete politically irrelevant losers the Savagites are. This view is not only rabidly ignorant, it displays a gross lack of even an elementary level understanding of American politics. Go back to your rooms and play with yourselves boyo. The adults have no time to deal with your petulant temper tantrums tonight.
What an utter idiot Mike Savage, and his brainless followers are, to think the President was going to be any less the punching bag if he had NOT shown up
I think Bush did the right thing going to the funeral. It wasn't Coretta Scott King who insulted him. She deserved the honors she received.
The behavior of the Democrats at Wellstone's funeral dishonored the dead. The behavior of Carter, Clinton, and the audience (which seems a more appropriate word than congregation in the circumstances) dishonors the dead, and it dishonors them. Not that they had any honor to begin with.
The Wellstone funeral lost several races for the Democrats and disgraced those who took part. Coretta Scott King's funeral will be a part of history, and once again it will disgrace those who misbehaved there.
President Bush did the right thing by being there. The Rats are going to bash him no matter what he does anyway,so he might as well continue to be the classy and dignified man that he is. Let the Rats continue to show that they have no class at all-on every occasion,preferably in front of cameras and microphones(I'm sure they will be happy to oblige,being the ranting media whores that they are). Let them by their own actions,more and more desperate and low-life,show the American people just what kind of people they are.
Thank you Bill O'Reilly
Bush showed class and dignity and many of the Democrats let the country know just how petty they are. What is it about funerals that brings out the stupidity of Democrats?
Putting King on the same level as the terrorists?
The DUmmies are having a field day, anyway. And knocking Bush for showing up at the funeral. Spiteful, nasty, small-minded people.
I guess Mrs. King couldn't get to pick who spoke at her funeral. So it became a political free-for-all.
I think the French say it best... "...une mer de merde."
Well said!!
I don't know which is worse. Michael Savage or the fools who listen to his paranoid rantings...........
I see the PLANTATION OWNERS really did themselves good today....and their slaves really were loyal to their "massers." Sheesh. If I were a Black person I would be soooooo embarrassed.
Just remember the very persons that call him an idiot blame him for manipulating them/their cause.
I have always laughed at this.
I cannot figure out what is more amusing your utter ignorance of politics or your arrogance in coming here to aggressively display it. As I said Boyo, the adults have no time to deal with your hissy fit tonight. We have more important things to do then validate your delusions of political relevancy.
What a biased story.
I thought Bush's speech was really good. He got dangerously close to becoming preacher-in-chief at times, which was awesome.
My own observation is the leaders of the Dems still think they are in high school/college but adults don't think that way.
I would bet that President Bush already knew that the lowlife scum in the Rat party would show their azzes at this memorial,just like they did at Paul Wellstone's.I believe that he has enough self-confidence and is secure enough in himself to not give a rat's stinky azz to care what they say. He knows who is going to look like the classless petty disgraceful losers that they are-the Rats.At the end of the day,he is still President with a Republican majority Congress,and the Rats are still-losers.
The Dems who were there acting as they did, insulting the President as he sat there, are just a continuation of segregation 21st century style.....and the continued demeaning of Black people throughout this nation.
I fully respect Mrs. King, and hope she is in a better place. But I have no interest in or respect for these ritual Democrat funerals.
If Bush had not shown up, the blacks would have attacked him for being racist or whatever they would come up with.
He is the president. He had to go.
The Clintons actually give the word "scum" a new meaning, don't they?
"He is the president. He had to go."
Yes, I understand fully.
However, I believe that the Republicans will be the ones that will go in 2008 when the conservative base does not turn out as the Republicans wrongly assume that they will.
Better O'Reilly than Savage!!
Okay, I think Bush did what he believed was appropriate. His critics had no idea of what was appropriate. I have no respect for them.
Ok, we agree to disagree. You can continue believe what you want and I choose to believe what I want.
I choke up when I think of the anxiety and sorrow it would have caused for me and my family if one or more speakers at the funeral of my own mother had behaved in such an inappropriate way as some Democrats did today at the funeral of Mrs. King. The painful and hurtful memories would stay with me for the rest of my life. Eternal shame be upon these despicable, unfeeling people.
Unbelievable, wasn't it??
I wonder if they were serving "Kool Aid" at the service today?
Just when I think democRATS can't get any dumber, or sink any lower, they do.
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