Today, we stand at a crossroad. To our right is a path that has been cleared by the tireless efforts of those who came before us, and to the left is a path that goes nowhere, looping around and coming back to the crossroad.

Over the course of our nation’s history, we have often found ourselves at crossroads very similar to this one. Many times we have chosen the correct path, but on a few occasions we have chosen the loop where we have had to endure extra hardship only to arrive back at the same crossroad.

Martin Luther King, Jr. worked tirelessly to clear the path, and his devoted wife, Coretta, worked even harder to keep it clear for nearly 40 years after his death. The death of Coretta Scott King marks the end of an era, but not the end of our journey, and while our paths may be clear, it’s up to us to choose the right one.

Yesterday, thousands of people met at the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church to celebrate the life of Coretta Scott King. President Bush was one of dozens who praised her work and her life.

President Bush, leading the nation in celebrating the life of Coretta Scott King, praised the civil rights leader for enduring extraordinary pain and loss to give generations of people “a better, more welcoming country.”

“We knew Mrs. King in all the seasons, and there was grace and beauty in every season,” Bush said at a New Birth Missionary Baptist Church service Tuesday that was attended by four presidents and a crowd of thousands.

“As a great movement of history took shape,” Bush said, “her dignity was a daily rebuke to the pettiness and cruelty of segregation.”

Bush noted that Mrs. King and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., her husband who was assassinated nearly 40 years ago, confronted vicious taunts, threatening phone calls and even the bombing of their home because of their early work for equal rights for blacks. Even after her husband’s slaying and in the years since, she never gave up, he said.

“Coretta had every right to count the costs and step back from the struggle,” the president said. “But she decided that her children needed more than a safe home – they needed an America that upheld their equality and wrote their rights into law. And because this young mother and father were not intimidated, millions of children they would never meet are now living in a better more welcoming country.”

Thousands of people may have turned out to celebrate her life, but two people decided to try and steal the limelight from this very gracious and dignified woman.

The Rev. Joseph Lowry, a civil rights icon in his own right, stood up and in the blink of an eye, turned a beautiful celebration into a political slugfest.

“We know now there were no weapons of mass destruction,” Lowery said. His words were met by “oohs” and a long, loud applause. “But Coretta knew, and we knew, there were weapons of misdirection right here.

“Millions without health insurance, poverty abound. For war billions more, but no more for the poor.”

Then, former President, Jimmy Carter took his own pot shots.

Carter said Coretta Scott King and her husband were “violated” by “government wiretapping and government surveillance,” a thinly veiled reference to the current administration’s domestic surveillance program.

He added that the struggle for equal rights was not over. “All we have to do is remember the color of the faces in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, those who were most devastated by [Hurricane] Katrina,” he said.

While some will argue that politics played a big part of the lives of Martin and Coretta, I hardly think the comments made today were appropriate in that place, at that time. It seems a few old timers had a “theme” in mind, and decided their personal attacks on our President were more important than honoring the life of Coretta Scott King.

The comments Tuesday continued the rhetoric that infused a Monday night service at Ebenezer Baptist Church. The Monday service, an homage to the civil rights movement, included many who were not invited to speak at the funeral Tuesday.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson questioned why Bush would attend. “I’m not sure the pharaoh went to Moses’ funeral,” Jackson said. “Mr. Bush, honor Dr. King. Feed the hungry in the Katrina zone. Remember the homeless and helpless.”

Can we really move forward down the path when people like Jesse Jackson are comparing President Bush to Pharaoh and Mrs. King to Moses? Are we really moving forward when Jesse Jackson tells President Bush to honor Dr. King, rather than Mrs.King, at a service for Mrs. King? Talk about living in the past.

Did any of these men realize that their comments would be the lead-in for almost every news story written or shown about the funeral? Of course they did, they all originate from that group which has chosen the wrong path on many occasions. They have been stuck in the loop for so long they no longer realize they are on the wrong path.

Our country, and the entire world, will never realize Martin Luther King Jr’s vision unless we let go of the past and move on to the future. We should never forget the past, but if we choose to live it every day, the future will never come.

Bernice King said it best in her eulogy to her mother.

… and I think the glimpse that she got at that moment, was a glimpse that told her, that unless a seed fall into the ground and die, it abides alone, but if it dies, it produces much fruit.

In other words, I think she got a glimpse to understand that there was a moment in God’s calender that if she not make the transition that she made, that there were some things in the Earth that could not be released to the people in the nations, of my God…

…

There’s a mantle that has fallen and we are going to wait and see what God does, through the seed, of Martin and Coretta.

God bless you.

I agree with Bernice when she said that a new order is emerging. There must be new birth, new focus, and new direction.

Our world will never know another Martin or Coretta, but our world needs someone who can take the seeds planted by them and focus on the future.

People like Joseph Lowry and Jimmy Carter, and even Jesse Jackson, serve as a constant reminder of what the past was like, and why we must move forward. But, we’ll never get there if we keep listening to men like them.

Other bloggers covering this story:

GM’s Corner
The Anchoress
In The Bullpen
D.C. Thornton
Midwest Pundits
Sister Toldjah
Expose The Left
Pundit Review

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