Civil Rights Leader Is Eulogized by Obama
President Obama during the funeral for civil rights activist Dorothy Height at the National Cathedral in Washington on Thursday.
By HELENE COOPER
Published: April 29, 2010
WASHINGTON — President Obama eulogized civil rights leader Dorothy Height on Thursday as a “drum major for freedom,” describing the civil rights and women’s rights leader as an American icon who pursued justice tirelessly.
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Ms. Height, who died April 20 at 98, had an “unambiguous record of righteous work,” Mr. Obama said during Ms. Height’s funeral at Washington National Cathedral. Mr. Obama drew frequent chuckes from the audience with a fondly humorous portrait of the feisty Ms. Height.
“When you have a nephew who’s 88, you’ve lived a full life,” Mr. Obama said.
“We did come to know her during the early days of my campaign, and we came to love her as so many loved her,” the president said. “We loved her stories, and her smile, and those hats.”
He said that Ms. Height was a constant presence at the White House. “She came by not once, not twice,” he said. “Twenty-one times she stopped by the White House.”
Ms. Height, who even in the last months of her life took part in health care discussions at the White House, had been scheduled to come by in February for a meeting between Mr. Obama and civil rights leaders, he recalled.
Even though Washington was buried by a blizzard, he said, Ms. Height wanted to come anyway. “She was not about to let a bunch of men in this meeting. It was only when the car literally could not get to the driveway that she decided not to come.”
Ms. Height was widely viewed as one of the last links to the social activism of the New Deal era. Her civil rights career spanned almost a century, from anti-lynching protests to culminate with the inauguration of President Obama. She has recounted for reporters first meeting Martin Luther King when he was 15 years old, and was on the stage when Dr. King delivered his historic “I have a dream” speech in 1963.
Mr. Obama ordered American flags to be flown at half-staff on Thursday in Ms. Height’s honor.
THIS MOMENTOUS DAY!
ReplyDeleteNot one day in anyone’s life is an uneventful day, no day without profound meaning, no matter how dull and boring it might seem, no matter whether you are a seamstress or a queen, a shoeshine boy or a movie star, a renowned philosopher or a Down’s syndrome child.
Because in every day of your life, there are opportunities to perform little kindnesses for others, both by conscious acts of will and unconscious example.
Each smallest act of kindness – even just words of hope when they are needed, the remembrance of a birthday, a compliment that engenders a smile – reverberates across great distances and spans of time, affecting lives unknown to the one whose generous spirit was the source of this good echo, because kindness is passed on and grows each time it’s passed, until a simple courtesy becomes an act of selfless courage years later and far away.
Likewise, each small meanness, each thoughtless expression of hatred, each envious and bitter act, regardless of how petty, can inspire others, and is therefore the seed that ultimately produces evil fruit, poisoning people whom you have never met and never will.
All human lives are so profoundly and intricately entwined – those dead, those living, those generations yet to come – that the fate of all is the fate of each, and the hope of humanity rests in every heart and in every pair of hands.
Therefore, after every failure, we are obliged to strive again for success, and when faced with the end of one thing, we must build something new and better in the ashes, just as from pain and grief, we must weave hope, for each of us is a thread critical to the strength – the very survival – of the human tapestry.
Every hour in every life contains such often-unrecognized potential to affect the world that the great days for which we, in our dissatisfaction, so often yearn are already with us; all great days and thrilling possibilities are combined always in THIS MOMENTOUS DAY! – Rev. H.R. White
Excerpt from Dean Koontz’s book, “From the Corner of His Eye”.
It embodies the idea of how the smallest of acts can have such a profound effect on each of our lives. Go with God, until we see you again, Dorothy Height thank you.
THIS MOMENTOUS DAY!
ReplyDeleteNot one day in anyone’s life is an uneventful day, no day without profound meaning, no matter how dull and boring it might seem, no matter whether you are a seamstress or a queen, a shoeshine boy or a movie star, a renowned philosopher or a Down’s syndrome child.
Because in every day of your life, there are opportunities to perform little kindnesses for others, both by conscious acts of will and unconscious example.
Each smallest act of kindness – even just words of hope when they are needed, the remembrance of a birthday, a compliment that engenders a smile – reverberates across great distances and spans of time, affecting lives unknown to the one whose generous spirit was the source of this good echo, because kindness is passed on and grows each time it’s passed, until a simple courtesy becomes an act of selfless courage years later and far away.
Likewise, each small meanness, each thoughtless expression of hatred, each envious and bitter act, regardless of how petty, can inspire others, and is therefore the seed that ultimately produces evil fruit, poisoning people whom you have never met and never will.
All human lives are so profoundly and intricately entwined – those dead, those living, those generations yet to come – that the fate of all is the fate of each, and the hope of humanity rests in every heart and in every pair of hands.
Therefore, after every failure, we are obliged to strive again for success, and when faced with the end of one thing, we must build something new and better in the ashes, just as from pain and grief, we must weave hope, for each of us is a thread critical to the strength – the very survival – of the human tapestry.
Every hour in every life contains such often-unrecognized potential to affect the world that the great days for which we, in our dissatisfaction, so often yearn are already with us; all great days and thrilling possibilities are combined always in THIS MOMENTOUS DAY! – Rev. H.R. White
Excerpt from Dean Koontz’s book, “From the Corner of His Eye”.
It embodies the idea of how the smallest of acts can have such a profound effect on each of our lives. Go with God, until we see you again, Dorothy Height thank you.
Thank you for your comment Benito.
ReplyDelete