I’m a purist on this point. Fergit random camera shots of family and attendees at the funeral. Funerals are mixed celebrations of life and mourning its loss, and focusing too closely on the real human process behind the ceremony doesn’t reveal much of substance, no matter how unavoidably public the services.
IMO most people are whipsawed by fatigue, grief, awkwardness, respect, sympathy, memories, the whole stew. Cameras just capture glimpses without nuances.
I give full props to Reagan’s children for gracefully paying tribute to their father at his death, fond humor and all. And no fault should be implied to attendees who lapsed into like moments of celebration or moments of reflection about mortality.
I do find fault with with the pastor’s performance. His personal encounters with the deceased weren’t all that relevant. His appointed role was to act as a spiritual filter, encompassing everything mourners said toward the official farewell into the unknown. He upstaged the deceased, and the occassion. And THAT was tacky.
You don’t need to be a mind-reader to watch the news, listen to her family talk, listen to her aides talk, know anything about the history of the Reagan and Bush clans, etc.
You do to know whether someone is sleeping or praying or listening with their eyes closed just from a few camera cuts. Or maybe you just have to be eager to see what you want to see for whatever reason.
I’m glad someone else found the pastor’s remarks were inappropriate. After what appeared to be an almost flawlessly planned week of memorializing, I thought perhaps my negative reaction to the pastor was misguided.
Given that there has been a lot of talk, true or not, of Bush thinking he has a mandate from God, this is a pretty direct swipe. Dunno what other politicians he might be reffering to.
Ron Reagan has also made no secret of despising GW and his attempts to appropriate the gravitas of his father into his own schemes.
No, of course, that’s an earlier quote from Ron Jr. about Bush the Current. The top quote about not acting like he had God’s mandate is what was in the eulogy.
And as for Clinton, come on, this is really grasping. One thing I’ve noticed is that if you’re halfway through a hectic day, and suddenly you’re put in a position of enforced stillness for an hour, you WILL drift, no matter how animated you were earlier.
Now, if he had nodded off completely, pitched forward and headbutted Dick Cheney, that would have been crassly inappropriate. Hysterically funny, but crassly inappropriate. Hey, presidents and former presidents are human. They fall asleep during papal audiences and state funerals, they throw up on the Japanese PM’s shoes, they bang their heads on the AF1 forward hatchway, they choke on pretzels.
Ron Reagan: “Yes, some of the current policies are an extension of the '80s. But the overall thrust of this administration is not my father’s – these people are overly reaching, overly aggressive, overly secretive, and just plain corrupt. I don’t trust these people.”
Wow, if John Kerry had said that, the right-wing insta-pundits would’ve been screaming for his head. I guess being the son of St. Ron has its advantages…
Oh, you’re far too talented to need news or family. I’ve never been on the news. You’ve never heard my family talk. I have no aides. And you know next to nothing of my history. It can only have been your super powers that led you to discern my OP as “eagerly manufactured outrage”. Of course, in your boundless humility, you will no doubt attribute your abilities to more mundane causes, such as a logical mind superior to my own.
I thought it was fine. He was defining what set his father’s piety apart from others who seek to claim it by association. I saw it as defending his father’s reputation. IMO it was well and gracefully done.
How utterly dreadful…Bill Clinton is spotted looking mildly inattentive for an indeterminate period of time at an enormously long public funeral. Clearly, this man’s evil nature knows no bounds. It’s hard to even imagine how anecdotes about Reagan could ever get stale, or how praising the man’s thoroughly immaculate presidency could ever become less than completely and utterly riveting.
Malefic demon-spawn that he is, Clinton is probably the sort of Communist traitor that would go so far as to roll his eyes at the suggestion that Reagan’s image shouldn’t be immediately slathered all over America’s currency and national landmarks, or that the public adulation currently dominating our media shouldn’t be extended indefinitely. Who does this so-called “Clinton” think he is, anyway? After all, Reagan was elected for two terms, whereas Clinton was elected for only two.
Reagan, of course, was famous in life for his laser-like acumen and ability to focus for hours on any topic in any situation, like some kind of superintelligent being from the future, so any display of boredom or distraction at his funeral is doubly out of place. Whatever one’s opinion of Reagan, it is inarguable that he was the embodiment of pure good, and nothing but paeans to his character and achievements should ever be permitted. Personally, I hope that all Americans will visit Reagan’s grave at least once to paean him.
Nothing so special. I need only watch it’s manufacture right before my very eyes. Based on evidence that is, at best, inconclusive, you decided to be outraged at two brief shots of Clinton where his eyes were closed. Working up a pit thread for that takes some doing, especially because in this context its a pretty nasty and charged atmosphere to want to help along. And there is a pattern: I still think you grossly misrepresented the Wellstone funeral as well, for what reasons I have no idea since, no, I can’t read your mind, but don’t need the reasons to think the carrying on is unjustified.
The last paragraph of your post sure put everything into perspective.