Through the mist and rain of Sunday afternoon, we went to Riverside Church where, in packed pews, crowded choir-loft, we remembered Martin Luther King Jr. Celebrities to the front (except for Bill Moyers who sat quietly in the middle), TV Camera to the right and left. I personally expected a made-for-TV event -- something like Dr. King's Dream Has Come True. That's not what happened.

Channneling King's anti-war speech of April 4, 1967, Democratic presidential aspirant Jonathan Edwards brought the crowd to its feet time and time again. He began by pointing to his own vote for the Iraq war and said "I was wrong." Repeating Dr. King's point that there comes a time that "silence is betrayal" he called on the crowd to pick up King's blood-stained banner of peace and justice. The crowd, black and white, graying civil rights veterans and their graying children, just loved it. The people I was with were set on fire. It felt less as though we were being asked to support Edwards and more like a call for moral action. Can Edwards run for President from the left in this way? Well, it certainly appears as though he's going to try. Ben Smith has some thoughts about the speech here and a here's a NYT article. Neither convey what seemed to me to be the electrifying force of Edwards remarks. Politiker has posted video of the speech here along with the (I think) flatly wrong claim that it was a Hillary challenge.

The memorial meeting was put on by Bill Watchel and Martin Luther King III who've been active in the Drum Major Institute, and a vehicle for Martin III Realizing The Dream. Also signing the call, but whom I didn't see there, was Andrew Young, DMI chair.

Marian Wright Edelman, a second featured speaker, was, as ever, firmly focused on the acheivable. The long-time head of the Childrens' Defense Fund called health care for all children and pregnant women. he was plugging the "Healthy Child Act of 2007". Watch for it. She's aged over the years but she's grittier and more determined than ever.

Senator Schumer and Re. Weiner, were called and spoke. Schumer, as though walking through a minefield, managed not to utter the works "war" or "Iraq" was especially forgettable; Weiner spoke with the humor, candor and passion he put into his Mayoral run. Harry Belafonte and Danny Glover posed, but were silent.

While I tell everybody I hate schmaltz, I, too was moved by the swaying, handholding, congregation singing "We Shall Overcome." I guess I am cheap, easy and a sucker for a cliche.

Looking at my notes, I see I've omitted mention of two religious folk who read passages which moved me (and, it seemed, my co-congregants). Rabbi Sarah Reines of Central Synagogue read accounts by King & Heschel of the Selma March and Imam Al-Hajj Talib'Abdur Rashid, of the Mosque of Islamic Brotherhood, read from King's last sermon at the National Cathedral days before his death.

It was a pleasure to be in the company of people who, for the most part, didn't think of King as a kind of non-violent plaster saint. For a somehat more insider's view see James Carmichael's post on the DMI Blog.