Politics > Politics-USA > Coretta King's funeral: Healthy Dose of Reality for Bush and Republican thugs
| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"Harry Hope" |
| Date: |
09 Feb 2006 04:27:01 PM |
| Object: |
Coretta King's funeral: Healthy Dose of Reality for Bush and Republican thugs |
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat?bid=1&pid=57826
02/08/2006
A Healthy Dose of Reality for Mr. Bush
By John Nichols
Just as they did following the memorial service for Senator Paul
Wellstone in 2002, Republican operatives and their acolytes in the
media are now claiming that there was something inappropriate about
the manner in which those who knew Coretta Scott King best mourned her
passing.
So great is the determination of the spin doctors for a White House
that seeks to protect George Bush from even the mildest expressions of
dissent that commentators rushed Tuesday to television studios even
before the service for Mrs. King was done to denounce former President
Jimmy Carter, the Rev. Joseph Lowery and Atlanta Mayor Shirley
Franklin for expressing sentiments not usually heard by this protected
president.
But don't think that anything untoward actually took place in the
Atlanta suburb where thousands gathered to celebrate the life, the
work and the politics of Mrs. King.
The service provided the president with a healthy -- if all too rare
-- dose of reality.
Bush's policies are not popular, particularly with the
African-American community, and the president needed a gentle reminder
of the fact.
Indeed, the president was far more graceful in the receipt of the
dissenting messages that were uttered at the service for Mrs. King
than were those who rushed to condemn his critics.
What got the Republican spin machine humming Wednesday?
The see no evil, hear no evil, acknowledge no evil crowd was furious
that several speakers used their brief portions of the six-hour
remembrance service for the widow of the late Rev. Martin Luther King
Jr. to pointedly echo the anti-war, anti-poverty and anti-racist
themes that were so central to Mrs. King's life and work.
The event featured no direct attacks on President Bush, who seated
himself prominently on the stage of the vast New Birth Missionary
Baptist Church in an Atlanta suburb. Instead, there were the sort of
knowing, sometimes serious, sometimes lighthearted, prods that often
are heard at memorial services of this kind.
Atlanta Mayor Franklin, whose address followed that of the president,
made reference to Mrs. King criticism of "the senselessness of war"
and recalled, correctly, that the late civil rights activist's voice
was heard "from the tin-top roofs of Soweto to the bomb shelters of
Baghdad."
That did not sit well with those who believe the president's precious
ears must be protected from the sound of any and all dissents with
regard to the quagmire that is Iraq.
Even more unsettling to the critics were the words of the Rev. Joseph
Lowery, a co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference
who worked for decades with the Kings.
Of Mrs. King, Lowery recalled, "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.
But Coretta knew, and we know, that there are weapons of misdirection
right down here."
As the crowd cheered, Lowery boomed:
"Millions without health insurance. Poverty abounds. For war, billions
more, but no more for the poor."
Ultimately, however, it was not Lowery but Carter who took the hardest
hits for daring to dissent.
Noting the slow and inept response to Hurricane Katrina, Carter
pointed out that, "We only have to recall the color of the faces of
those in Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi who are most devastated by
Katrina to know that there are not yet equal opportunities for all
Americans."
For this comment, and for recalling the historical fact that the Kings
were victims of "secret government wiretapping and surveillance" -- a
sore point for a president who is under fire for ordering warrantless
wiretaps -- Carter was denounced as "shameless" by the New York Post
and ridiculed by Republican commentators.
To his credit, Bush seemed to take the criticism is stride, even
shaking hands with and embracing Lowery, Carter and other speakers.
And that may be the most important point that can be made about this
rare moment in which the president heard actual dissent -- as opposed
to the manufactured applause that usually accompanies his
stage-managed public appearances.
As someone who covered Bush long before he took office in 2001, I have
always believed him to be a more gracious and thoughtful man than his
presidency has made him out to be.
Bush and his presidency suffer from having been placed in the bubble
to which his neoconservative handlers have consigned him.
Indeed, despite the ranting and raving of the spin doctors who would
have us believe that it was wrong to honor Mrs. King by echoing the
dissents she made during her lifetime, both President Bush and the
American discourse surely benefitted from a real moment in these
surreal times.
___________________________________________________________
Fun to watch the right-wing mad dogs foaming at the mouth.
Harry
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| User: "" |
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| Title: Re: Coretta King's funeral: Healthy Dose of Reality for Bush and Republican thugs |
09 Feb 2006 05:16:51 PM |
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On Thu, 09 Feb 2006 22:27:01 GMT, Harry Hope <rivrvu@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat?bid=1&pid=57826
02/08/2006
A Healthy Dose of Reality for Mr. Bush
Ahem...are you suggesting by any chance that Bush is capable of learning
anything? You really think he gives a flying crap what anyone says or thinks?
He's a lame duck whose pension is secure, whose pockets will be stuffed to
overflowing from gross overpayments on the talk circuit and a fantastic salary
as a front man for some mega corporation. If Harvard should ever offer a course
in laundry he might even be made a professor. His future is as rosy as the
average American's is grim.
Figaro
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