Reagan's funeral mirrored his presidency in its precision, pageantry

By Chuck Raasch | GNS

WASHINGTON - It was a fitting finale for the Great Communicator, a last act that befitted the precision and pageantry of Ronald Reagan's presidency.

As aging actors of the Cold War congregated in the mists of Washington, Reagan's state funeral turned into a symbolic bridge between the vanquished challenges of the 20th century and the fresh troubles of the 21st century. Old adversaries and allies filled the cavernous Washington National Cathedral. Fresh threats were alluded to in the eulogies they heard.

Reagan's optimistic spirit was offered up.

``Darkness is real and it can be terrifying. Sometimes it seems to be everywhere, so the question for us is what do we do when the darkness surrounds us,'' said the Rev. John Danforth, the former Missouri senator and Episcopal priest who presided over the ceremony. ``Saint Paul answered that question when he said we must walk as children of light. President Reagan taught us this is our mission, both as individuals and as a nation.''

George W. Bush, the current president, said the office fit Reagan like ``a white Stetson.'' Reagan would have loved the line, would have cocked his head in a knowing smile. The stories told about him would have delighted him.

But the dark moments of recent history - a growing terrorist threat, the new violence in the Middle East -almost surely have passed over Reagan as he faded into the unknowing world of Alzheimer's disease.

In his last days, he would not have recognized Margaret Thatcher, history's Iron Lady who touchingly eulogized him on tape; or Mikhail Gorbachev, the detente partner who sat stoically in the congregation of famous and once famous. Reagan would not have known the ex-presidents who preceded and followed him, nor would he have recognized Supreme Court justices he appointed nor the members of Congress with whom he sparred or shared a laugh.

But judging by the homage paid to his basic ways, Reagan would have taken childlike delight in the pomp and circumstance, the flag-draped ceremony, the military presence that accompanied his leaving. And there would have been one final, knowing nod to the allusions that light conquers darkness in all things.

Reagan had ``a cheerful and invigorating presence,'' the now-frail Thatcher said, recalling a man who had come to the presidency ``to mend America's wounded spirit.''

The elder George Bush, who emotes more easily as an old man at 80 than he ever did under the pressures of the presidency, broke down momentarily in his short eulogy. Reagan was synonymous with America, his former vice president said: ``Hopeful, big hearted, idealistic, daring, decent and fair. That was America, and yes, our friend.''

The younger Bush, whose presidency is framed in fresh doubts about America's intentions and purpose in a post-9/11 world, made subtle but undeniable rhetorical connections to his time, and to Reagan's.

``When he saw evil camped across the horizon, he called evil by its name,'' said Bush, who labeled Iran, Iraq and North Korea the new ``axis of evil'' shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The younger Bush obliquely addressed current doubters when he recalled how Reagan confronted communism and its symbolic Berlin Wall in the 1980s. ``There were no doubters in the shipyards and churches and secret labor meetings where brave men and women began to hear the creaking and crumbling of a collapsing empire," Bush said. ``There were no doubters among the men and women who swung the first hammers at the hated wall.''

As Reagan's body was flown through the dreary skies of Washington to his sun-shrouded burial ground in California, those who had come to pay homage went back to work.

John Kerry, the Democratic challenger for president, prepared to go back on the campaign trail, newly reminded of the bonds of history. Kerry's ancestor, John Winthrop, first talked about Reagan's favorite ``shining city on the hill'' in a sermon nearly four centuries ago.

Danforth, the minister, now turns from spirituality to real politic. His next job: U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

And Bush, a plain speaking man who found fresh eloquence in eulogizing the Great Communicator, turned forward to the abrupt challenges of this age.

Obituary

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Appreciation

Reagan's funeral mirrored his presidency in its precision, pageantry

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