Much has been made of late about how divided America is, but when we went home to dinner last night, we brought home to share with our children a sheaf of wire photos of the four presidents standing at the funeral of Coretta Scott King. One was a long, narrow photo showing a line of presidents, starting with President Bush on one end holding hands with Laura Bush who was holding hands with President Clinton who was holding hands with Mrs. Clinton who was holding hands with President Bush’s father, President Bush, who was holding hands with President Carter, who was holding hands with Mrs. Carter, who was holding hands with Senator Kennedy, who had just been up on Capitol Hill attacking the man at the other end of the line of mourners. Another photo showed the expressions of grief on the leaders’ faces. And then there was the shot on our front page, four American presidents, lost in a crowd of Americans all coming together to honor the civil rights movement of which Coretta Scott King and her husband stood at the head.

“I’ve come today,” said the president, “to offer the sympathy of our entire nation at the passing of a woman who worked to make our nation whole.” Mr. Bush spoke of how Americans “knew her husband only as a young man…” but “knew Mrs. King in all the seasons of her life.” He said there “was grace and beauty in every season.” He spoke of how, “as a great movement of history took shape, her dignity was a daily rebuke to the pettiness and cruelty of segregation.” He spoke of the courage of the Martin Luther King Jr.’s family and of how it was “subjected to vicious words, threatening calls in the night, and a bombing at their house.” He spoke of how “Coretta had every right to count the cost, and step back from the struggle. But she decided that her children needed more than a safe home — they needed an America that upheld their equality, and wrote their rights into law.” He was interrupted by applause and then said: “And because this young mother and father were not intimidated, millions of children they would never meet are now living in a better, more welcoming country.”

The funeral heard partisan words from some speakers and from others, phrases tinged with bitterness. But it was Mr. Bush’s words that will resonate for the nation. The president spoke of how “in the critical hours of the civil rights movement” the “God of Moses was not neutral.” He spoke of how the “God of Isaiah and the prophets” was impatient with justice. He then spoke in Christian terms of the faith of the King family and of Martin Luther King’s belief in the redemptive power of suffering. Little did Martin Luther King know, the president said, “that this great truth would be proven in the life of the person he loved the most.” Others, the president said, could cause Mrs. King’s sorrow, “but no one could make her bitter.” And he said that by “going forward with a strong and forgiving heart, Coretta Scott King not only secured her husband’s legacy, she built her own.” Applause broke out again, and then he said: “Having loved a leader, she became a leader. And when she spoke, America listened closely, because her voice carried the wisdom and goodness of a life well lived.”