Reagan Funeral Repeat Blogging
So I had an idea about why the nations farewell to Reagan seems over the top, even for a president, even for a popular, two-term president. It is this: We, as a country, have recently been confronted with a mirror image of ourselves we do not want to believe.
We don’t want to believe we torture, but we have tortured. We don’t want to believe our highest officers allowed, whether by inaction, direct or tacit approval, torture, but that is what happened.
If America is a dream of what it used to be, as Neil Tennant said, and it is–or rather, a dream of what it wants to believe it once was–then recent nightmare events are forcing us very near to waking up. That’s why George W. Bush is going to lose the election. But remembering Reagan through our rose-colored mist one more time lets us dream of the things we wish we were, not the creatures we have become.
And one more thing. Tom Brokaw took time out from kissing up to “The Greatest Generation” today to preside over MSNBC’s coverage of the Reagan funeral. He said that Reagan had shown the country how to die with dignity.
To which I say no, Mr. Brokaw, there are thousands of people who died of AIDS while the president kept his big mouth shut who did that.
