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Yes, Governor, the title of President is reserved for the sitting president. In this case, Al Gore. This is why the republicans fear him.
Remarks by former President Bill Clinton By ajc staff | Tuesday, February 7, 2006, 05:08 PM The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Bishop, President, Mrs. Bush, Yolonda, Martin, Dexter, Rev. — we are honored to be here… I don’t want to forget that there’s a woman in there. Not a symbol. But a real woman who lived and breathed, and got angry and got hurt, and had dreams and disappointments. I don’t want us to forget that.
I was sitting here thinking, ‘I wonder what her kids are thinking about now. I wonder if they’re thinking about what I was thinking about at my mother’s funeral. I wonder if they’re thinking about how she used to read books with them, or when she told them Bible stories, or what she said to them when their daddy got killed.’
We’re here to honor a person. Fifty-four years ago, her about-to-be husband said that he was looking for a woman with character, intelligence, personality, and beauty, and she sure fit the bill. And I have to say, when she was over 75, I thought she still fit the bill pretty good.
But I think that’s important — this is a woman, as well as a symbol, as well as the embodiment of her husband’s legacy, and the developer of her own.
The second point I want to make is the most important day in her life for everyone of us here at this moment in this church except when she embraced her faith.
The next most important day was April the 5th, 1968, the day after her husband was killed. She had to say, ‘what am I going to do with the rest of my life?’
We would’ve all forgiven her, even honored her, if she’d said ‘I have stumbled on enough stoney roads, I have been beaten by enough bitter rods, I have endured enough danger and snares, I’m going home to raise my kids, I wish you all well.’
None of us, nobody, could’ve condemned that decision, but instead, she went to Memphis, the scene of the worst nightmare of her life. And led the march for those poor, hard working garbage workers…
That’s the most important thing for us because what really matters if you believe all of this stuff was in the plan, is, what are we going to do with the rest of our lives?
Her children, they know they have to carry the legacy of their father and their mother now. We all clap for that, but they’ve got to go home and live with it. That’s a terrible burden. That is a terrible burden. You should pray for them, and support them, and help them. That is a burden to bear. It’s a lot harder to be them than it was for us to be us growing up. Don’t you think it wasn’t. It may have been glorious. It may have been wonderful. But it’s not easy.
So what will happen to the legacy of Martin Luther King and Coretta King? Will it continue to stand for peace and non-violence and anti-poverty and civil rights and human rights?
Atlanta, what is your responsibility for the future of the King Center? What are you going to do? I read in the newspaper coming down here that there are more rich black folks in this county than any one in America except for Mongtomgery County, Md.
What are we gonna do? This is the first day of the rest of our lives. We haven’t finshed our long journey home. The one thing I always admired about Dr. King, and Coretta, once I got to know her especially, is how they’ve embraced causes that were almost surely lost right alongside causes that they knew if they worked hard enough, they could actually win. They understood that the difficulty of success does not relieve one’s obligation to try.
So all of us have to remember that. What are we going to do with the rest of our lives? Do you want to treat our friend Coretta like a model? Then model her behavior.
We’re always going to have our political differences. We’re always going to have things we can do, and I must say, this has been brilliantly executed, and enormously both moving and entertaining moments. But we’re in the house of the Lord. And most of us are too afraid to live the life we oughtta live because we have forgotten the promise that was made to Martin Luther King, to Coretta Scott King, and all of us, most beautifully for me stated in Isiah, “Fear not, I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by thy name. Thou art mine.”
We don’t have to be afraid. We can follow in her steps. We can honor Dr. King’s sacrifice. We can help his children fulfill their legacy.
Everybody who believes that the promise of America is for every American.
Everybody who believes that everybody in America is caught up in what he so eloquently called the ‘inescapable web of mutuality.’ Everyone of us in the way of all of the children of Martin Luther and Coretta Scott King. And I, for one, am grateful for her life and her friendship.
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