A funeral turns into a spirited tribute to democracy.(big barf alert)

WSJ - Opinion Journal ^ | Friday, February 10, 2006 12:01 a.m. EST | Peggy Noonan

[Eva]

Listen, I watched the funeral of Coretta Scott King for six hours Tuesday, from the pre-service commentary to the very last speech, and it was wonderful--spirited and moving, rousing and respectful, pugnacious and loving. The old lions of the great American civil rights movement of the 20th century were there, and standing tall. The old lionesses, too. There was preaching and speechifying and at the end I thought: This is how democracy ought to be, ought to look every day--full of the joy of argument, and marked by the moral certainty that here you can say what you think.

There was nothing prissy, nothing sissy about it. A former president, a softly gray-haired and chronically dyspeptic gentleman who seems to have judged the world to be just barely deserving of his presence, pointedly insulted a sitting president who was, in fact, sitting right behind him. The Clintons unveiled their 2008 campaign. A rhyming preacher, one of the old lions, a man of warmth and stature, freely used the occasion to verbally bop the sitting president on the head.

...........With Bill nodding beside her, his hands clasped prayerfully in front of him, nodding and working that jaw muscle he works when he wants you to notice, for just a second, how hard it is sometimes for him to contain his admiration.

God I love them. .........

[Maria S]

Great posts!!! Especially the "worked his jaw muscles so everyone would think he was masculine."

Believe it or not, most of us in the female audience actually recognize masculinity from pseudo-stuff.

[vetvetdoug]

Maybe the mourners at the funeral just repeated what others had said at other funerals in honor of MLK. Plagiarism is ok if one was MLK.

[Tunehead54]

With Bill (Clinton) nodding beside (Hillary), ...(snip)

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I didn't watch much but I did see a fair amount of X42's crap and 'lil hil was right there BESIDE HIM AT THE PODIUM nodding CONSTANTLY - maybe he did the same - sorry I couldn't take it. I remarked that she looked like a bobble-head doll and she just kept nodding and nodding. At BC's side that's code for "Here's our next annointed one." She even kept nodding when he paused. Pure politics.

Puke.

Thanks - yes I do feel better now. Sorry for the mess ... ;-)

[TChad]

This was the authentic sound of a vibrant democracy doing its thing. It was the exact opposite of the frightened and prissy attitude that if you draw a picture I don't like, I'll have to kill you.

I suppose that it is admirable that we restrain ourselves from beheading offensive speakers. It is also nice that we don't practice cannibalism, that we use bathrooms and take the occasional shower. These are pathetically low standards of civilized behavior.