Graceless

The Sun Times' Mary Mitchell on Coretta Scott King's funeral, "King's Funeral Descends into Spectacle:

You used to know exactly what to expect at a funeral:

A choir or soloist will sing "Amazing Grace" or some other sad song. Depending on the person's lifestyle, church folk will either read resolutions or street folks will make remarks. Someone will read the obituary, and a child will recite a poem. If there are several preachers involved, one will say a prayer, one will read the Scripture, one will make short remarks (no more than five minutes), and one will give the eulogy...

No one says a mean word at a funeral. Even gang-bangers hold their anger until the casket is removed from the sanctuary.

So the recent funerals of two civil rights giants have been odd.

And here is Congressperson Schakowsky's blog, the "Shocking" Funeral of Coretta Scott King":

What a shock! Some speakers at the funeral of Coretta Scott King had the audacity and poor manners to bring up WAR (as in worshiping the Prince of Peace and the uncomfortable fact that there were no weapons of mass destruction), RACE (as in the faces of Katrina victims), and DOMESTIC SPYING (referring, of course, to the surveillance of Dr. King, but, so sorry if the shoe fits...), and the unfinished business of ECONOMIC INEQUALITY... in the presence of thousands of un-prescreened people of faith, including the President of the United States, Jimmy Carter made this highly political statement: "It is always a temptation to forget that we worship the Prince of Peace."

Indeed.