The "Shocking" Funeral

Apparently, there's been some kind of an uproar over the fact that speakers at Coretta Scott King's funeral dared to refer to such issues as nonviolence, race, and domestic spying, even though these all directly related to the life of Coretta Scott King and her husband, Martin Luther King, Jr. What's really shocking the Right -- and it is universally the Right which is criticizing such statements -- is that anyone dared to bring these issues up with their beloved dictator in attendance. I guess he was supposed to take precedence over Coretta Scott King's life and the work that will continue after her death, even though it was her funeral.

Was Coretta Scott King's funeral political? You bet your bottom dollar, because Coretta Scott King's life was political. How do you talk about a life likes hers in apolitical terms? Perhaps it would be better if everyone had spoken about her the way President Bush spoke about the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist when he died, as if Bush was reading from an encyclopedia.

Coretta Scott King was a champion of nonviolence. Were speakers just supposed to ignore that part of her life because President Bush was in attendance, he who started an unjust war that has cost thousands of lives on both sides? Coretta Scott King was a champion of human and civil rights for all people, especially for racial minorities. Were speakers just supposed to ignore that part of her life because President Bush was in attendance, he who ignored the plight of so many black Americans after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina? Coretta Scott King and her husband were spied on by our government and made to live in constant fear. Were speakers just supposed to ignore that part of her life because President Bush was in attendance, he who has once again taken up the fascist cause of spying on us in the name of keeping us safe from... well, ourselves?

Absolutely not. If President Bush knew that these issues would be brought up and didn't want to hear them, he shouldn't have come to the funeral. If he didn't know that these issues would be brought up, then he is even more of a fool than I thought, and so are his supporters. Were the speakers at Coretta Scott King's funeral just supposed to not talk about her life? That seems to be the consensus on the Right, as if her funeral should have just been a process by which they could get her in the ground quick. Considering how outspoken she was in opposing so much of what the Right stood for, I guess getting her in the ground quick probably was on their minds, much as it was before the assassination of her husband.

In any event, I'm glad that Coretta Scott King's funeral was a celebration of her life and a pledge to carry on her work. I'm glad it didn't become a means to get her in the ground quick just because President Bush was in attendance for his photo op, and just because that's how his supporters would have preferred it.