Some thoughts on the "politicization" of King's funeral

Coretta Scott King was an anti-war, anti-poverty, pro-justice activist. One cannot imagne the subjects of war, poverty, and justice not being discussed at her funeral. Could the speakers, particularly Dr. Lowery, have talked about what King stood for without alluding to current events? Yes. Would they have then sounded like natural-born fools? Yes. And would critics have still found the "hidden meanings" in the text? Yes.

One does have to be careful not to go over the top, though. Imagine, for example, that a bunch of crazy people from Saudi Arabia used American airplane passengers to attack the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, kill roughly 3,000 Americans, and temporarily wreck the U.S. economy. Now imagine that that horrific incident was used to sell Americans on the idea of invading Iraq, spying on citizens, removing peaceful protesters from public gatherings, holding people in prisons without benefit of trial or attorney, and establishing secret prisons throughout the world. Imagine that, after this incident occurred, Americans became convinced that anyone disagreeing with the above outrags would be considered a hater of America.

That would be carrying it too far.

The Heretik has a poem for you.