But it was arresting to watch at times because critics of the current administration skewered President Bush as he sat just a few feet away, outside the White House bubble that usually protects sitting presidents, especially this one.
Rev. Joseph Lowery, former head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the group the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. once led, spoke after President Bush’s brief remarks and with the freedom that comes from being 84 years old with little left to lose.
“How marvelous that presidents and governors have come to mourn and praise. But in the morning, will words become deeds that meet needs?… [Mrs. King] extended Martin’s message against poverty, racism and war. She deplored the terror inflicted by our smart bombs on missions way afar. We know now there were no weapons of mass destruction over there. But Coretta knew and we knew 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.”” (Chicago Tribune)
