Down to the Last Detail, a Reagan-Style Funeral

[kskiska]

WASHINGTON, June 7--Nothing has been left to chance in the 300-page funeral plan for Ronald Reagan.

A riderless jet-black horse will walk with Mr. Reagan’s riding boots turned backward, as Nancy Reagan requested. A group of F-15’s will streak above Constitution Avenue in the missing-man formation, as the family wanted.

(snip)

Mr. Ryan said that officials from the Military District of Washington, who oversee presidential funerals, asked the Reagans to begin planning the rites in 1989, the year Mr. Reagan left office, as is the custom. (Former Presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and George Bush have a funeral plan on file with the Military District, but Bill Clinton does not.)

Many presidents have chose not to have a state funeral, like Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose rites were held at the family home in Hyde Park, N.Y. Many others have chosen not to lie in state, like Richard M. Nixon, who was buried in a simple ceremony at his presidential library in Yorba Linda, Calif. Mr. Nixon, who resigned in 1974 at the height of the Watergate scandal, never felt welcome in Washington.

more…
http://nytimes.com/2004/06/08/national/08PREP.html?hp

[dsc]

1. Clinton is still young

many people his age won't plan funerals. I wonder what Carter's plans are.

[dsewell]

2. Mule-drawn wagon?

Seriously... as at his inauguration. I'm sure it will be modest, tasteful, and not a huge waste of resources.

[PaDUer]

3. Remember this...

ACTOR.

[DS1]

4. They're going to stop outside Mann's Chinese Theatre?

:shrug:

[PartyPooper]

5. Will Ollie North be a pallbearer for Reagan?

It seems likely he would be.

:shrug:

[Maddy McCall]

6. That horse is gonna look stoopid wearing backwards boots...

I bet he stumbles and falls.

;-)

[Doosh]

8. I hear it's going to be Smarty Jones

[Doosh]

7. how about a little modesty?

seems like too much pomp for his burial. He hasn't been president for 16 years, he's been extremely sick for the past 10. His death is not a shock, it's not as if he passed away suddenly. They're turning this into a week long spectacle. Personally I feel the riderless horse with the boots turned backward should only be reserved for the death of a sitting President.

[Lex]

9. In fact I heard it is unusual for

this riderless horse with boots turned backward to be for anyone other than the death of sitting presidents or actual veterans/commanders in war.

I think it may be a breach of protocol/etiquette or whatever.

[PartyPooper]

10. Well, as far as future pageantry is concerned I think an ass or a donkey

will do just fine.

:evilgrin:

[hughee99]

11. I don't want our

donkey pulling Raygun. Let them get a goat.

[Doosh]

12. let Peggy Noonan do it

I'm sure she'd be happy to.

[DaveSZ]

13. I thought he didn't believe in "big government"

How much is this funeral going to cost taxpayers?

[burrowowl]

18. I agree

trying to mimic JFK's funeral make me want to :puke:
And either RayGun was a very evil man or he was a mindless puppet to very evil men. He doesn't merit a week long puff fest.

[Morning Dew]

19. And if I hear "now he belongs to the ages" one more time

I am going to puke.

Can't they make up their own phrase for him, at least?

[Pachamama]

14. Are they handing out jars of Jelly Belly's to the Crowds? n/t

[PartyPooper]

15. No, just tubes of KY jelly.

:eyes:

[Pachamama]

16. Ha ha...that's a good one...n/t

[MnFats]

17. Do they plan to bury a few poor people with him?

so he has some slaves in the afterlife?