UPDATE:
Well that didn't take long. But rather than old white men, it's an old
white woman of the far-right wing of the Republican party telling black leaders to mind their place.
At
the funeral of Coretta Scott King, the grande dame of America's civil
rights and progressive activist community, the Rev. Dr. Joseph Lowery,
a revered elder of that same community, criticized President Bush, and
the war, and the fact that America still has so many poor and needy.
Kind of something you'd expect at the funeral of a woman who after her
husband was assassinated, yet the day before he was buried, led a civil
rights march of 50,000 people. A woman who spoke at an anti-war rally
in NYC only 3 weeks after her husband was mattered. A woman who devoted
her entire life to non-violence.
I say this because you know
it's only a matter of hours before the Republican Swift Boating of Rev.
Lowery and Coretta's funeral begins. How dare a black man not know his
place at a funeral, they'll say. As if the Republican party and its
surrogates have any right whatsoever to speak on behalf of Mrs. King,
to tell black America what they can and cannot do to honor one of their
most revered leaders.
A party that doesn't have a single
African-American member of Congress has no right lecturing black people
about knowing their place.
And you know that lecture they will.
They'll
be all over Coretta and Lowery, with the help of the media they'll
trivialize her funeral, her death, the honor being paid to her, by
claiming her funeral was all a big stunt, a big act, one big political
opportunity for the Democrats to abuse a poor old dead woman, they'll
say.
Just watched the "Snappy" O'Beirne video. She now thinks Jimmy Carter
is as bad an ex-President as he was a President. All that curing the
sick, housing the homeless, negotiating treaties, and monitoring
elections - yeah, the guy's been a disgrace. He should have just whored
himself out for corporate get-togethers like her hero did.
Add
that to thinking it's disgraceful to talk about politics, civil rights,
and injustice at the funeral of a woman who lived these things all her
life. I can honestly say, as a white guy largely ignorant of such
things, that there's no woman who symbolized the black civil rights
movement for folks like me than Coretta Scott King.
Just how
shallow do you have to be to make a living as a pundit? I'd think that
at least some knowledge of one's culture would be required. Oh yes. The wingnut freeper contigency is howling how "Liberal have no
respect for the dead". It's obvious that they love the dead, they've
created so many of them recently.
Maybe
they thought that Chimpy McFlight should have been cut some slack,
since he attends so few funerals. We shouldn't spoil it for him.
I think former President Clinton said it best yesterday:
"Her
children, we know they have to bear the burden of their mother and
father's legacy," Clinton told the crowd. "We clap for that, but they
have to go home and live it." He challenged the mourners. "You want to
treat our friend Coretta like a role model? Then model her behavior."
The
best way to honor Mrs. King is to live by her example. Speak truth to
power. Be kind to those who need a helping hand, and stand up for what
you believe to be the right thing, even when that act of standing is
difficult in the face of overwhelming odds.
One voice -- one
single, solitary voice -- speaking truth into the darkness can become a
beacon for the entire world. Dr. and Mrs. King were such lights. Such
courage and insight is difficult to find, and although we may never see
their like again, we should be that change we wish to see. And in doing
so, we honor all those who have walked the long march before us in the
name of liberty and freedom.
Jeff Greenfield reported how the GOP trash the Democrats and the furneral worked.
Jeff Greenfield on CNN this morning explained clearly how it worked. He
pointed out that Drudge had the whining up on his website before the
service was even finished. Hannity and Limbaugh then picked it up. Kate
OBeirne then whined on MSNBC with Tweety. That's how the story was
developed.
Mehlman and Rove are laughing all the way to the polls: "angry, disrespectful Democrats trash dignified funeral!"
Behold, the Mighty Wurlitzer, in all its gorey.
"The love, the respect and the honor for Mrs. King shines through in so many of the faces and the words."
And then there's the petulant moron and his Stepford Wife - the contrast was amazing.