I was on a flight today that landed at 12:20 so I missed most of the Reagan funeral. By the time I got to my car and turned on the radio they were already up to Amazing Grace and then bringing the coffin out. Why do reporters insist on talking when they should just shut up? Instead of a solemn quiet, I had to listen to comments like "the pallbearers are gathering and now putting their hands on the coffin to pick it up and now taking a step and now another one...." and "they are carrying out a man who holds no evil toward anyone" (can ANYONE explain that one?) and then as they were walking toward the hearse one reporter made this intelligent remark - "many have tried to detract from the former presidents legacy during the past week but I think this moment detracts them" - HUH?
Reagan was the first president that I can remember. Honestly, I was never old enough during that time to understand his poilitics and frankly I don't care. He was the leader of the free world at the time and we owe him the dignity, honor, and respect due to any of our elders who pass on. If only the reporters understood that sometimes silence is golden.
Posted by ravomess at June 11, 2004 06:13 PMSomeone said to me today how she felt like she were the only one who remembered how messed up things were for "ordinary people" when Reagan was president. My response was that he's a former president and he's dead. You tend to forget the bad things that happen in peoples' lives when they die and just because you disagree with his politics doesn't mean Reagan shouldn't be accorded the same leeway.
No matter what you thought of him, I have no doubt that he had the country's best interests in heart as president just as I'm sure all presidents do (except for maybe Clinton - just kidding).
Posted by: dabrettman at June 11, 2004 06:20 PMHey daB - did you see Clinton sleeping during the eulogies - I missed it, but that was the one thing that a reporter mentioned that made me smile!
Posted by: ravomess at June 11, 2004 06:27 PMum, no. I'm not one to sit through funerals for people I knew let alone televised funerals for people I didn't know. But there was a vid cap of the Clintons dozing on the Drudge Report this afternoon. And I'm sure C-SPAN will rerun it at some point if you're feeling masochistic.
Posted by: dabrettman at June 11, 2004 07:44 PM1) I watched it. Clinton was NOT sleeping. He is too media-smart to do that. He was in the first row sitting next to the President and First Lady. He would not have permitted himself to doze off. He just had this serene kind of smile throughout the whole thing. Hillary looked more serious.
2) I think I might be a little older than Rachi, give or take 8 years, but I did follow politics avidly as a child. And I remember what the "ordinary people" were like. Any sense of being "messed up" was only in their imagination.
And now the point that is relevant to this blog:
3) I do confess to understanding the angry reaction of President Reagan's political enemies. I don't think I would have had the will power to refrain from making at least one or two negative comments if Clinton had died.
Posted by: Yehupitz at June 13, 2004 10:39 AM