Coretta Scott King's Last Words

At the funeral of Coretta Scott King, this week, four presidents were among the mourners. A touching and eloquent tribute was delivered by George W. Bush. His father didn't do too badly either. In fact, the only one more relaxed was, as expected, Bill Clinton. These three presidents did what people should do at a funeral: relying on a combination of eloquence, humor, respect and graciousness, they touted the admirable qualities of the deceased.

But when Jimmy Carter took the mic, we heard a different kind of tribute. Jimmy Carter used this moment to say what I believe Mrs. King would have wanted him to say. He reminded us that the very issues the Kings fought for (and against) are as relevant today as they were decades ago--he reminded us that our own government is even now doing to us what was done to the King family by the Johnson administration.

The Kings spoke out against the war in Vietnam and they suffered for it. At the direction of Edgar J. Hoover, the FBI taped the King's private conversations and fed the transcripts to President Johnson. In an attempt to break the will of the King family, the government even tried to break up the King's marriage, by sending tapes to Mrs. King that they hoped would make her distrustful of her husband. So it was neither inappropriate nor "political" of Jimmy Carter to have reminded us that we face, today, a wiretapping program put in place by the Bush administration that is so steeped in secrecy our own Congress can't tell us if it's legal or not. Jimmy Carter went straight to the heart of the entire King legacy: speak the truth--even when it's ugly.

While some are saying the death of Coretta Scott King is the end of an era in the civil rights movement, they cannot say the need to fight for civil rights has ended. Perhaps the only real difference is that we are all targets now--not just notable activists--all of us. If we have a computer and we practice our right to free speech, we are among the vulnerable. Should the surveillance programs the government refuses to discuss extend to the internet, which they apparently do, nobody is safe; and while we may not be curtailed from speaking, we can hardly call it "free" speech when the consequences of that speech may be the loss of privacy and the possible targeting for political smears or worse.

What's more, we are, once again, in a senseless war--one we cannot win. So for those Republicans who complain that Jimmy Carter was "in bad taste" to use a funeral for the purpose of reminding Americans that we are still fighting for the very rights and policies that the King family devoted their lives to, I say: what better place to do it? And what better tribute to Mrs. King than to have her passing be a forum for continuing the legacy of speaking the truth--even when it's ugly.