Coretta's Funeral: Speaking Truth to Power

If you didn't get a chance to see the funeral of Coretta Scott King yesterday, you missed something powerful. Crooks and Liars has a compilation of clips from Keith Olberman's Countdown.

And here's video of Maya Angelou singing out and speaking about her "chosen sister" at the funeral. There were many uplifting and deeply felt words spoken yesterday, but these were some of my favorites. I also very much liked seeing all the magnificent hats worn by many of the now very elderly sisters of the civil rights movement. Icons of another time and place, still kicking, still striving, still elegant.

Could there be a more powerful contrast than seeing so many giants of the civil rights movement, still speaking truth to power, framed by the face of the fearmongering bully, the mocking warmonger in the background? The standing ovations against his immoral, dishonest mangling of the world were satisfying on some deep, unfathomable level to me. Will we really overcome? Hearing so many courageous and impassioned words by those who know what overcoming is all about makes it seem possible, still.

Another of my favorites was the Reverend Joe Lowery, the legendary former head of the Southern Christian Leadership Council. Here's the video. Excerpt:

We know now there were no weapons of mass destruction over there. [Standing Ovation] But Coretta knew and we know 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.

Jimmy Carter (click for video) also gave an excellent speech, bringing standing ovations when he mentioned how Martin and Coretta were harrassed by the FBI and domestic wiretapping and saying we have more work to do:

We only have to remember the color of the faces of those in Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi, those most devastated by Katrina, to know that there are still not equal opportunities for all Americans. It is our responsibility to continue their crusade.

I note the right-wingnutery bloggers are out in full force today, bashing these speakers and others for being "political" at Coretta's funeral. I wonder what they think her life and that of her husband's and those of so many at the event were about? These were decent, honest, righteous, POLITICAL people standing up bravely to bigotry and lies, personally and directly, often at the cost of their livelihoods or even their lives. And there you had the epitome of privileged bigotry and lies sitting right there on the platform, still grinning inappropriately after all these years. Amazing what happens when Bush steps outside his protective bubble of scripted events into the real world, isn't it? Oh, the right-wingers are so SHOCKED!