Thread gone way off topic! Please delete!!!

[roque]

QUOTE=DawnCt1]Absolutely, and Jimmy Carter lead the charge. The man is shameless. He should stick to building houses, keep the hammer in his hand and the nails in his big mouth.[/QUOTE]
as to why the venom ?? i simply don't understand ..oh well moving on

 

[sodaseller]

There are ample attributable quotes that the Kennedy's felt MLK was "a problem". I don't think you can easily expunge them of this either.

I'm not as familiar with those. I am familiar with the political peril that JFK faced as he tried to maintain the coalition that fractured under LBJ, and his sad lack of moral leadership on the issue. And RFK's attempt to back channel support to have both ways. But I was under the impression that the monitoring was by the lingerie clad one in order to check the Kennedys from getting too close. But I'm not very well read on it - do you know otherwise?

 

[sodaseller]

For what it's worth, here's a eulogy MKL gave back in 1963. Given that he was one of these horrible disrepectful people who mentioned politics at a funeral, my guess is his family has no problem with the concept, and doesn't need a lot of folks tut-tutting them for not conducting themselves the way decent folks do...

This afternoon we gather in the quiet of this sanctuary to pay our last tribute of respect to these beautiful children of God. They entered the stage of history just a few years ago, and in the brief years that they were privileged to act on this mortal stage, they played their parts exceedingly well. Now the curtain falls; they move through the exit; the drama of their earthly life comes to a close. They are now committed back to that eternity from which they came.

These children-unoffending, innocent, and beautiful-were the victims of one of the most vicious and tragic crimes ever perpetrated against humanity.

And yet they died nobly. They are the martyred heroines of a holy crusade for freedom and human dignity. And so this afternoon in a real sense they have something to say to each of us in their death. They have something to say to every minister of the gospel who has remained silent behind the safe security of stained-glass windows. They have something to say to every politician [Audience:] (Yeah) who has fed his constituents with the stale bread of hatred and the spoiled meat of racism. They have something to say to a federal government that has compromised with the undemocratic practices of southern Dixiecrats (Yeah) and the blatant hypocrisy of right-wing northern Republicans. (Speak) They have something to say to every Negro (Yeah) who has passively accepted the evil system of segregation and who has stood on the sidelines in a mighty struggle for justice. They say to each of us, black and white alike, that we must substitute courage for caution. They say to us that we must be concerned not merely about who murdered them, but about the system, the way of life, the philosophy which produced the murderers. Their death says to us that we must work passionately and unrelentingly for the realization of the American dream

PS - Think what you like about the man, he gave a heck of a good speech.

That's powerful - thanks

 

[Galahad]

- do you know otherwise?

From the Atlantic Monthly:

On October 10, 1963, U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy committed what is widely viewed as one of the most ignominious acts in modern American history: he authorized the Federal Bureau of Investigation to begin wiretapping the telephones of the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. Kennedy believed that one of King's closest advisers was a top-level member of the American Communist Party, and that King had repeatedly misled Administration officials about his ongoing close ties with the man

 

[sodaseller]

From the Atlantic Monthly:

I stand corrected - thanks. That's what I get for commenting on something I haven't read up on - sorry

 

[Planogirl]

It doesn't really matter what the Right thinks about the funeral and the speakers. The only people that matter are Mrs King's family and friends and if they're OK with it, what's the problem?

I agree with the OP as much as her comment has been lost in all of this. President Clinton was always a good speaker and this great lady deserved no less.

 

[agnes!]

A few observations along the lines of the OP's post...

CSK's life is an example for us all, how she managed to carry on as a widow with three young children to raise. They all turned out alright, didn't they. I was thinking after she died that she was a widow longer than she had been married.

President Clinton has always been a masterful speechmaker.

I wish that I could see more than a snippet or two of MLK's most famous speeches("I Have A Dream", etc.) It was very frustrating when all the news outlets were running short excerpts after Mrs. King died, just a line or two, of the most famous speeches. I know the King family zealously guards the rights to the speeches. I *still* wish that all of us would have the chance to hear his most influential speeches in their entirety again, especially that my DD & her peers would have that chance. I don't think that she & her age group(7th grade) have *EVER* heard any of his famous speeches from start to finish.

agnes!

 

[Obi-Wan Pinobi]

Thanks for posting that, salmoneous.

You didn't post where the eulogy was from, but it sounds like it might have been delivered for the 3 schoolgirls killed in a church bombing in either MS or AL back in the early 1960s. If so, political comments in a eulogy for someone killed in that manner is understandable. Mrs. King, OTOH, lived a full life and died of natural causes.

Yes, she was an activist, but it still comes down to a proper time and place for everything, and IMO this wasn't it. Especially when the person the comments are directed at is an invited speaker. Carter and Lowery showed more crass than class yesterday. GWB, however, knew that it was not the time or place to get into it and showed a ton of class by sitting there, taking it, and not letting it get to him.

Let's flip this around. What if Henry Kissinger or GHWB or someone else had taken the opportunity at Nixon's funeral to make comments about then-President Clinton and his policies? Just as wrong? Absolutely.

I'm not saying Carter, Lowery, or anyone else doesn't have the right to criticize GWB, but a little respect and discretion as to where and when they are made should be expected.

 

[wvrevy]

Let's flip this around. What if Henry Kissinger or GHWB or someone else had taken the opportunity at Nixon's funeral to make comments about then-President Clinton and his policies? Just as wrong? Absolutely.

I'm not saying Carter, Lowery, or anyone else doesn't have the right to criticize GWB, but a little respect and discretion as to where and when they are made should be expected.

What would they have said, Matt? That he (Nixon) never dishonored the Oval by having an affair while in office?

As for respect for the deceased...knowing how she lived her life, do you honestly think she would have been upset by any of this? Not a chance.

Anyway...out of respect for the OP's wishes, this will be my last post to this thread. My apologies to them for the part I played in taking it OT.

 

[sodaseller]

The time is always right to do what is right

 

[Obi-Wan Pinobi]

This thread has been closed at the OP's request. If anyone has any comments for anyone else, please take them to PMs or e-mail. And my apologies to the OP also for any part I took in taking this thread off topic.