It was pretty sad day that was meant to be a Home Going Celebration for Coretta Scott King. President Bush gave a wonderful eulogy - Some Democrat politicos once again showed that they think every occasion is all about them.
Then the Democrats forgot it was about Coretta Scott King and with a definite lack of class turned a funeral to honor Coretta into political diatribe.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Thank you.
To the King family, distinguished guests and fellow citizens, we gather in God's house, in God's presence, to honor God's servant, Coretta Scott King. Her journey was long and only briefly with a hand to hold. But now she leans on everlasting arms.
I've come today to offer the sympathy of our entire nation at the passing of a woman who worked to make our nation whole. Americans knew her husband only as a young man. We knew Mrs. King in all the seasons of her life. And there was grace and beauty in every season.
As a great movement of history took shape, her dignity was a daily rebuke to the pettiness and cruelty of segregation. When she wore a veil at 40 years old, her dignity revealed the deepest trust in God and his purposes. In decades of prominence, her dignity drew others to the unfinished work of justice.
In all her years, Coretta Scott King showed that a person of conviction and strength could also be a beautiful soul. This kind and gentle woman became one of the most admired Americans of our time. She is rightly mourned. And she is deeply missed. Some here today knew her as a girl and saw something very special, long before a young preacher proposed. She once said, "Before I was a King, I was a Scott." And the Scott's were strong and righteous and brave in the face of wrong.
Coretta eventually took on the duties of a pastor's wife and a calling that reached far beyond the doors of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. In that calling Dr. King's family was subjected to vicious words, threatening calls in the night and a bombing at their house.
Coretta had every right to count the costs and step back from the struggle. But she decided that her children needed more than a safe home. They needed an America that upheld their equality and wrote their rights in the 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.
In the critical hours of the civil rights movement there were always men and women of conscience at the heart of the drama. They knew that old hatreds ran deep. They knew that nonviolence might be answered with violence. They knew that much established authority was against them.
They also knew that sheriffs and mayors and governors were not ultimately in control of events, that a greater authority was interested and very much in charge. The God of Moses -- the God of Moses was not neutral about their captivity. The God of Isaiah and the prophets was still impatient with injustice. And they knew that the son of God would never leave them or forsake them.
But some had to leave before their time. And Dr. King left behind a grieving widow and little children. Rarely has so much been asked of a pastor's wife, and rarely has so much been taken away.
Years later, Mrs. King recalled, "I would wake up in the morning, have my cry, then go into them. The children saw me going forward."
Martin Luther King Jr. had preached that unmerited suffering could have redemptive power. Little did he know that this great truth would be proven in the life of the person he loved the most. Others could cause her sorrow, but no one could make her bitter.
By going forward with a strong and forgiving heart, Coretta Scott King not only secured her husband's legacy, she built her own. Having loved a leader, she became a leader. And when she spoke, America listened closely, because her voice carried the wisdom and goodness of a life well lived.
In that life, Coretta Scott King knew danger. She knew injustice. She knew sudden and terrible grief. She also knew that her redeemer lives. She trusted in the name above every name. And today we trust that our sister, Coretta, is on the other shore, at peace, at rest, at home.
May God bless you. And may God bless our country.
Jimmy Carter said: "It was difficult for them (Martin Luther King Jr. & Coretta) personally -- with the civil liberties of both husband and wife violated as they became the target of secret government wiretapping, other surveillance, and as you know, harassment from the FBI."
***Carter did not mention it was a Democrat, Robert Kennedy, that authorized the wiretaps at the request of J.Edgar Hoover nor did he mention that the current wiretaps are only against foreign terrorists that murder people, not American citizens that fight for civil rights.
Rev. Joseph Lowery said: "She deplored the terror inflicted by our smart bombs on missions way afar," he said. "We know now there were no weapons of mass destruction over there. But Coretta knew and we knew that there are weapons of misdirection right down here. Millions without health insurance. Poverty abounds. For war, billions more, but no more for the poor."
***The Rev. Joseph Lowery failed to mention that for generations trillions of taxpayer dollars have been utilized to prop up a bloated bureaucracy that spends oodles on administration while pennies and blocks of cheese trickle to those in need.
Mr. Clinton began by saying, "I'm honored to be here with my president and my former presidents." Then he paused briefly and gestured toward Mrs. Clinton, his unspoken words seeming to suggest that he wanted to say future president, too. -
***I will give Bill Clinton credit that he pulled the point of the occasion back on track with the line, "I don't want us to forget that there's a woman in there," pointing to Mrs. King's coffin. "Not a symbol, a real woman who lived and breathed and got angry and got hurt and had dreams and disappointments."
Coretta Scott King has joined the 'great cloud of witnesses'! She has run and finished the race. I'm certain that her Savior by now has said, "Well done my good and faithful Servant!" R.I.P. Coretta!
(*** = prying1 sez)
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