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."
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.
It's so telling when a looser calls the winner a loser: To be overtaken by a loser doubles the "looserness" of the loser.
What did I say?????
I go to church right across the street from the King Center. Today we were preparing lunch for the street people and talking about the King funeral. The general sentiment among the group there (some of whom knew Martin Luther King before he became famous) was that the King family--starting with Coretta--had used Martin's fame to profiteer and avoid doing any meaningful work. I was surprised people would say that so openly--at least today. But it is a widely shared sentiment in Atlanta, black Atlanta as well as white Atlanta.
Idiocy is not reserved for libs.
The Bush family has more class in their little toes combined than those ignorant fools have in their whole bodies. I just hope the Lord above is watching this.
Being there was the right thing for President Bush to do. He showed class, and he showed the world that he was above the petty, back stabbing, bitchy democRATS.
And quite frankly, I don't give a damn what that nut case Savage thinks about it.
"What an idiot for showing up there"
Roughly a third of the country always votes Democrat, a third always votes Republican, and a third can be swayed.
The lack of class demonstrated by the Dems only plays well with the third that always votes for them. Bush played well to the other two thirds. That's smart politics.
I know what you mean, and this is not meant as a slap at you, but I am a black person (albeit a conservative Republican one), and I am not embarrased, nor am I surprised.
To tell you the truth, I'm not even that pissed. I would be borderline GoodFellas/Untouchables, if I hadn't come to expect the Left's performance today, from the day that Mrs. King died. I knew that it would be a DNC rally (95%, because of the invitations to both Bushes) that would make Paul Wellstone's service look like the relative unknown that he was. After all, I didn't know who the hell Paul Wellstone was, until two years after he died, whereas most people in America have heard of MLK Jr., his wife, or both.
I know the feeling you had. I got to watch it "live". There were times I just wanted to scream or throw something at the television. BUT........my admiration and respect for President Bush has never been higher than it was today.
God bless him. He is truly a remarkable man of extraordinary class and dignity. I am proud to call him my President!!
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