January 21, 2003
Coretta Scott King: It's About Peace
Looks like inviting Martin Luther King's widow to the White House and hanging a picture of King there was not enough to shut her up for all time. At a memorial service at King's Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Coretta Scott King said, "May his challenge and his example guide and inspire us to seek peaceful alternatives to a war with Iraq and military conflict in the Middle East." The anecdote is reported from a very pro-Bush point of view by Paul Simao in a Reuters release. The release may have just as well been issued by the White House.The article says coyly, for anyone who hasn't read a paper in the last eight months or so: "President Bush has said military force might be required to remove Iraqi President Saddam Hussein from power if Iraq did not fully comply with a U.N. mandate calling on it to abandon the pursuit of weapons of mass destruction." Maybe that's why hundreds of thousands of troops are being mobilized to the region.
Bush's attempt to abolish the Affirmative Action program was referred to in the article like this: "The president just days ago angered many black community leaders by challenging the use of race in a university admissions program on Jan. 15, which would have been King's 74th birthday. But he was introduced to a standing ovation, as was his national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice."
Bush, it should be remembered, was the beneficiary of a sort of affirmative action for rich white kids all his life. For example, he got into Yale with a C average because his father went there. And he avoided service in Vietnam by getting into the National Guard ahead of thousands of others on a waiting list, again because he was connected. In fact, as this CNN article points out, he became president without ever having accomplished much of anything before suddenly becoming governor of Texas.
The article also talks about the Republican party having to "repair relations" after a comment by Trent Lott. The description really makes it seem like a totally isolated incident, much ado about virtually nothing, as if the Republican Senate leader's comment was not a reflection of Republican attitudes in general.
Bah humbug!