Presidents Join Mourners at King Funeral

I think its good that Mrs. King is getting all of the respect that she rightfully deserved

NPR played bits of Clinton's and Angelou's eulogies from the funeral. Both were excellent and very humorous.

It's a shame that Carter and Lowery had to intrude on a ceremony honoring Mrs. King by making disgusting political statements.

Never pass up an opportunity to make a partisan political speech over a dead body. It adds poignancy and gravitas.

See, Bush does not hate black people...

Never pass up an opportunity to make a partisan political speech over a dead body. It adds poignancy and gravitas.

I hear ya on that. +1

Dr. King would have done it, and I'm sure Ms. King, who was vocal in her feelings about injustice, would have approved. Those of you objecting, I take it, haven't been to too many black funerals. This was a big one, of course, but it wasn't anything unusual. Leave it to right wingers to not understand how these things differ from WASP funerals.

See Spam above

I was listening to an Abbie Hoffman speech in the other day when he made a statement about the day Dr. King was assassinated in 1968, that went something like this. "And LBJ came on [television] and shed a tear, takes a tricky make-up man to do that stuff, and he said 'My fellow Americans, in the memory of his name we must be nonviolent.' And I put down a joint and said 'Holy @!$%#, LBJ's a pacifist, I didn't know that!'"

So presidents, current and former, use the occasion of a person's death to gain some positive PR. What else is new? Well, that three or four of them do it at once, I suppose. I'm sure anyone who is fooled by this only recently learned who Coretta Scott King was on television anyway.

[blockquote]What experience do you speak from that leads you to believe Dr. King or his wife would be as disrespectful as Carter or Lowery?[/blockquote]

My experience of hearing both Dr. King and his wife speak truth to power, always.

Fine, we can all argue about what Dr. King or his lovely wife would have said if they had been speaking but
come on, that's just a waste of breath.

This will play out as the Paul Wellstone funeral did. The Wellstone funeral wasn't a black funeral so don't make excuses for yesterday. I have no problem with people digging on Bush but Mrs. King was no radical and some of the statements said yesterday just lacked the class and civility her and her husband fought for.

Mrs. King most certainly did speak out against Bush policies. If that makes her a radical, she would have been proud to be called one. This call for class and civility is hogwash. Did you hear the cheering at that funeral? The people there appreciated what was being said. Carter was a friend. The Reverand was a friend a close worker with Mrs. King. These are the people who knew her on a personal level, and they said the sorts of things she was known for saying. She was anti-war, so making comments about the war was quite appropriate. Are you supposed to bury her beliefs along with her body? Play nice for the white folk?

This is nothing more than political cover because for once Bush was forced to hear how a non-selected audience thinks of him. So instead of talking about the issues, people are suddenly lecturing the people in that church about how they ought to have behaved instead. If that isn't insulting, I don't know what is.

What would Dr. King think of his wife's funeral? Why not read a eulogy he gave himself at the funeral for the little girls killed in the Birmingham bombings. Whaddya know? He condemns politicians during the eulogy. His audience understood, and so this the audience for Mrs. King.