Week 5 Personal Post -Political Funeral

From "The Drudge Report"http://drudgereport.com/flash8.htm
KING FUNERAL TURNS POLITICAL: BUSH BASHED BY FORMER PRESIDENT, REVEREND Tue Feb 07 2006 15:49:48



Did you see the funeral this past week of Corretta Scott King, widow of Dr. Martin Luther King? Disgraceful would be a word I would choose to describe it.From what little I know about Mrs. King, she was interested not so much in advancing politics as in advancing her cause. That makes it all the more apalling that her funeral was not an occasion to celebrate the life and works of an accomplished, dignified woman, but as an occasion for bashing President Bush. Mr. Bush, who attended the funeral along with his wife, was forced to sit through several speakers who seemed determined to use him as a sort of political pinata, whom they each managed to whack several times during the supposed eulogies of Mrs. King.

We had Joseph Lowery, an "activist-pastor", whack Mr. Bush, by saying, " ' 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!' " He is entitled to his opinion ( some call him outspoken, often a polite term for a loudmouth), but it is sad that a pastor had no sense of decorum for the occasion and could not restrain himself from launching into political remarks when he might better have been mindful of the reason he was there.

Even worse though, was former President Carter, who also felt an irresistable urge to dump his political opinions at the funeral to a "captive" guest such as Mr. Bush. Mr. Carter, having been president himself, certainly should have known better, saying;" ' 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.' " Mr. Carter should have remembered the occasion, as well as the dignity of the office of President of the United States, and made more appropriate remarks, saving his opinions on Mr.Bush's job performance for a more appropriate venue.

I save my harshest criticism though, for the family of Mrs. King. Rev. Lowery and former President Carter are, after all, what they are, both political "animals" and opponents of Mr. Bush. Therefore possibly they could not, despite the tastelessness of doing so at the occasion of Mrs. King's funeral, forego the opportunity to attempt to discomfit, embarass, and verbally humiliate with impugnity the President of the United States before an audience of millions . What does surprise me is that the family of Mrs. King did not object to the solemn occasion of their mother's funeral being turned into a political sniping mission to humiliate one of their guests who attended out of respect for their mother. Shame on them.