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Sun. Jun 20, 2004

Missing News: Ronald Reagan

Since I was “on hiatus,” I may be the only one of the 2,781,242 weblogs that Technorati tracks that didn’t have something to say about the death and funeral of Ronald Reagan. The lemming effect. Everybody had to say something. Not all of it was very nice (On TV, CNN seemed to specialize in it). Not all of it was very necessary either, at that moment in time. In fact, in my opinion if you don’t have anything nice to say, this would have been a good time not to say it. To keep your irrelevant trap shut. Pundits and bloggers will not have any impact at all on Reagan’s legacy, nor will much of anything said during that week by anyone. That’s the job of history.

To me, it was a brief time to show respect, even if only with your silence. Reagan passed away just before I began hiatus. I wouldn’t have had all kind things to say about him in the kind of historical retrospective so many seemed to feel was necessary (ya know, bloggers don’t have to match the media on every level, in every detail). So I said nothing at all, and went on hiatus. Because it just wasn’t the time for that. And the blather of bloggers and pundits will have zero impact on that man’s legacy, good or bad.

Yet there was boatloads of blogger blather. So I learned by watching that. Maybe that’s what happens when you take a break. You learn what not to write about.

I was also left with the thought that while it is good that we haven’t had the need for a state funeral in 30 years, it is also good that we had one for Reagan. Half of this nation isn’t old enough to have witnessed one. I have vague memories of LBJ’s (I was 15), but we’d had a sad string of state funerals for a decade before that. They had become unfortunately commonplace, and associated with national tragedy.

In this case, there was no tragedy, other than that common to the loss of someone who lead a long full life. But that week showed a side of this country that not only doesn’t the rest of the world get to see, but half this country had not seen. For all our reputation around the world as loudly dressed and voiced barbarians with no sense of … decorum, that week showed America speaking with a formal and traditional respect rarely seen anywhere on this planet. That’s the closest I can come to putting my finger on why it was good to have a state funeral. It’s sort of like the rare occasion when you put on a tux for a special occasion, and it makes you … feel different.

Of the eulogies given, the one by George Bush Sr. was most striking and moving to me. And one thing he noted about Reagan stood in stark contrast to the poisoned partisan environment we see today. Bush talked about Reagan’s overall good natured approach to holding office, and said “he never turned an adversary into an enemy” (well, other than that “Evil Empire” stuff). I think a lot of today’s politician’s would be well served by that approach … as would their constituents. Instead, we see adversaries painted as enemies not only between parties, but even within them (remember the Democratic primaries?).

And speaking of poisoned partisan ploys, I would be remiss in not noting the King of Snubs, er, I mean the President of France. Jacques Chirac, in order to snub Bush, skipped Reagan’s funeral. Oh, yes, he’s a very busy man. Buy every single leader from the G-8 summit was there, except Chirac, and they are certainly all very busy men. I suppose he thinks he made a statement to Bush by not staying for the funeral, but he spoke loud to the American people, too. It apparently takes the special lowness of a French politician to be willing to score partisan political points over a state funeral. A “state” funeral, Jacques, not a “Bush” funeral. You dissed Ronald Reagan and the entire country, not just W.

Jacques, we know you don’t like us, we know you never will, but we really wish you wouldn’t make special trips to our back yard just to kick our dog. It’s petty. It’s ugly. And such acts have become your trademark. A fine representative of French manners.

And then we have a representative of British manners, and British loyalty; Margaret Thatcher. Despite being under doctor’s orders not to travel or give speeches, she did both in order to honor her former ally and friend, Ronald Reagan. She even flew from DC to California to accompany Nancy for the burial. Chirac was shown up by an old woman with a frail body but a strong will, who, to this day, could probably mop the floor with him. And I wish she would, just to wipe that superior smirk off his face.

Some day Chirac will pass on, and I’m sure that the American government will send a representative to his state funeral. And if our President happened to be in or near France on other business the day before Chirac’s funeral, I bet he’d be there. Because it’s the respectful and honorable thing to do.

I was also stunned by the amazing collection of people who came to the National Cathedral to pay their respects. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen such a gathering of world luminaries. Everyone who is anyone was there. So, in the end, perhaps it is fitting that Chirac wasn’t.