A funeral or a political rally?

[TK-8252]

So who else saw the clips from Coretta Scott King's funeral of the politically-charged comments, specifically those from Rev. Joseph Lowery and former President Carter?

 

As much as I agreed with what they said, I find it disgusting that the funeral of a civil rights icon was hijacked by a couple individuals and turned into a platform for political attacks. Especially considering that they knew Bush was sitting right there. That's just damn rude and they should be better than that. A funeral is NOT a place for advancing your own agenda, no matter if you're a republican or a democrat.

 

What do you all think?

[edlib]

Agreed.

 

But there's a great many people who, when they know they have a national audience, they just can't keep themselves from grandstanding.

 

From what I saw of it, I personally felt that Bill Clinton's comments seemed to be the most on the mark. And I thought George W. Bush's comments were very appropriate and very well delivered.

[toms]

Didn't see it. If they were representing her views then that would seem ok. I've never thought a funeral should just be a lovely-rose tinted affair. However if they were simply representing their own seperate views then that is a different matter.

(having done a quick search on it i've found nothing but biased extreme right/left wing editorials.. so i'm giving up. I'm starting to think google news is a bad idea.. )

[lord ignarn]

Do you also think that electoralism is something bad? I mean, some politicians use acts like that with a clear intention, win votes (at any cost). I know that is part of the democracy, and that any politician will do it, but it bothers me more and more every day. I just hope it won´t turn me down from the right way!

 

P.S: I mean by tiring me with their electoral maneuvers.

[rccar328]

I agree that funerals shouldn't be rose-tinted affairs, but you need to look at the quotes themselves and make your own judgments.

 

This was the first article that I saw about it, and it presents the information in a pretty unbiassed way:

 

Today's memorial service for civil rights activist Coretta Scott King -- billed as a "celebration" of her life -- turned suddenly political as one former president took a swipe at the current president, who was also lashed by an outspoken black pastor!

 

The outspoken Rev. Joseph Lowery, co-founder of Southern Christian Leadership Conference, ripped into President Bush during his short speech, ostensibly about the wife of Martin Luther King Jr.

 

"She extended Martin's message against poverty, racism and war. She deplored the terror inflicted by our smart bombs on missions way afar. We know now that there were no weapons of mass destruction over there," Lowery said.

 

The mostly black crowd applauded, then rose to its feet and cheered in a two-minute-long standing ovation.

 

A closed-circuit television in the mega-church outside Atlanta showed the president smiling uncomfortably.

 

"But Coretta knew, and we know," Lowery continued, "That there are weapons of misdirection right down here," he said, nodding his head toward the row of presidents past and present. "For war, billions more, but no more for the poor!" The crowd again cheered wildly.

 

Former President Jimmy Carter later swung at Bush as well, not once but twice. As he talked about the Kings, he said: "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." The crowd cheered as Bush, under fire for a secret wiretapping program he ordered after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, again smiled weakly.

 

Later, Carter said Hurricane Katrina showed that all are not yet equal in America.

 

"This commerative cermony this morning, this afternoon, is not only to acknowledge the great contributions of Coretta and Martin, but to remind us that the struggle for equal rights is not over. We only have to recall the color of the faces of those in Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi," Carter said, the rest of his sentence drowned out by loud applause. "Those who were most devastated by [Hurricane] Katrina know that there are not yet equal opportunities for all Americans. It is our responsibility to continue their crusade."

 

Now, I don't really have a problem with Jimmy Carter's comments about Hurricane Katrina. Yeah, they probably were an underhanded stab at President Bush, but for one thing, they have to do with civil rights, and therefore fit in a funeral service for Coretta Scott King, and for another thing, of all of the areas in the US that need to work on racial equality, the South is probably the one area that needs the most work. So I'd be willing to give him a pass on that one.

 

Rev. Lowery's comments and Carter's comment about wiretapping, however, were unexcusable. They were nothing but political attacks, and had no place at a funeral service. Carter clumsily tried to make his anti-wiretapping comment into something appropriate by framing it in the context of the Kings life, but it didn't really work, it was still an extremely transparently political statement.

 

I can understand people making political statements, but there's a time and a place for that, and a funeral service isn't the time or the place.

[TK-8252]

Thanks for posting the quotes, rccar; I couldn't find a decent link.

[RoxStar]

I don't see why the wiretap quotes are a big deal, they are correct.

[rccar328]

They may have been correct, but they weren't offered as some kind of tribute to Mrs. King - they were a stab at President Bush. This was a memorial service, not a political rally, yet these people were exploiting the opportunity to make political points to a cheering crowd (a crowd cheering at a funeral? Sounds inappropriate to me).

 

I heard a guy on Sean Hannity's show today comparing these comments to comments made at President Reagan's funeral, where Jimmy Carter had to sit there hearing people talk about how Reagan brought America back from a failing economy...but there really is no comparison. Those weren't jabs at Carter, they were building up Reagan.

 

The point of the gathering was to honor the life Coretta Scott King, but these guys ended up using her, like some kind of cheap political whore, just to make points they could've made at any Bush-bashing rally, or on any cable talk show, for that matter.

[TK-8252]

Had we not known about Bush's wiretapping program, Carter never would have mentioned the wiretapping of Coretta Scott King and her husband. Okay, so what he said was true (and I'm very much against Bush's spying which is blatantly illegal in nature), but it's a funeral for god's sake, not an opportunity to advance your political agenda. And that's the problem.

[toms]

Well done for finding an unbiased account. No small task in itself.

 

I'd say the reverend's comments were probably out of line... though since I have no idea who he is I don't know if they are to be expected.

 

Carter's comments don't seem too bad to me. They seem to be in context about things that the Kings stood for. And underlining the fact there is still work to do is probably what they would have wanted.

The wiretap comments are a little more political.. but I wouldn't say they were totally out of line. It does quite nicely demonstrate the danger of such actions..

 

Overall, I don't think they seem that big of a deal - or at least not that unexpected. considering the King's role in politics, and their connections with a lot of campaigning activist groups, its not that surprising to me that a lot of those politics and personalities seeped into the funeral service.

Not that polite perhaps, but I can't see that coretta would be that pissed off with any of them.