Posted on 08/30/2011 2:01:32 PM PDT by NoLibZone
t the dedication for the new Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial in Washington, D.C. on Friday, the civil rights leader’s daughter made an interesting mistake regarding Abraham Lincoln. According to her, Lincoln is best known for signing the Declaration of Independence.
“But as I close, I close with the recognition that daddy is standing, Lincoln is seated,” Bernice King said. “Lincoln remembered for signing the Declaration of Independence. Daddy being remembered as standing up for truth and standing up for justice and standing up for righteousness and standing up for peace and standing up for freedom. Daddy is now standing on the National Mall in our nation’s capital.”
Watch it below:
The historical mistake could be simply an honest one that happens all the time when people speak in front of crowds. She probably just meant to say “Emancipation Proclamation.”
But it’s curious that Bernice — who has been labeled a conservative on some issues — would draw the juxtaposition that her father is now immortalized as someone who is standing while Lincoln is immortalized as someone who is sitting. It seems she wants to draw a distinction, and may even want to go as far as to point out her father‘s legacy is grander than Lincoln’s — and their memorials now recognize that.
Comparing legacies is difficult. But her seeming attempt to do so begs the question: Is Bernice King saying that MLK stood for civil rights while Lincoln just sat around? And if she is, would that mean the simple case of misspeaking is something more? Is it actually a misguided attack on Lincoln, trying to lump him into the group of Founding Fathers who signed the Declaration and who are often ridiculed as being racists?
I don’t know what more he (Lincoln) could have done, nor what more he could have given up beyond his life. And I’m not even necessarily a big Lincoln fan.
What the heck? What’s with the sitting, standing comparison?
I really hate this nit-picky and stupid article. So she misspoke. So what? She’s an amazing Christian woman and anti-abortion campaigner. I’m sure she knows Lincoln didn’t sign the Declaration of Independence.
I don’t know how much I’d read into this. People make stupid comparisons in speeches and get carried away with metaphors and rhetorical tricks like the “sitting” vs. “standing” metaphor based on the respective statues. I’d simply take this as a warning to not be “too clever by half” in your public speaking.
I think she must be a cousin of Michelle Bachmann’s.
Martin Luther King....the man stood for many things, one of them was peace. Go to MLK street, road or boulevard in any city in this nation and try to find the peace.
“Forget it, she’s rolling.”
Maybe for her, the Emancipation Proclamation is the Declaration of Independence...
Lincoln sat to sign the Emancipation Proclamation and King stood up for civil rights...or something like that.
That said, I'm sure one of her more educated staff could point his out - if she had any 'educated' staff.
Some people just shouldn’t speak in public.
Well, Lincoln would have said, and did, that the EP was just an extension of the DOI.
Lincoln was largely responsible for bringing the DOI back into public consciousness as an aspirational document for the nation, as opposed to the nuts and bolts Constitution, which other than in the Bill of Rights has little to say about what the government should stand for.
ditto
no luck. www.thugreport.com (not affiliated just a fan)
It seems like she’s belittling Lincoln.
I know that she’s right. He took a copy of the existing declaration and signed his name to it. I was there when he signed it.
Sometimes Glenn Beck over-thinks things to the point he loses some important brain cells. Ms. King is a dedicated Christian and anti-abortion crusader, I doubt she would do or say anything to belittle Lincoln. Beck obviously doesn’t know who she is.
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