Hi Everyone:
On Sunday/Monday, we’ll have a special about the transition of power in Washington D.C., as we are now mere days away from the Inauguration. Nothing ‘m going to say is going to surprise anyone, but I’m going to say it anyway.
For now, here is what’s going on…
Los Angeles Wildfires- To call the tragedy that has been happening in Los Angeles heartbreaking doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of it.
Rows of houses, stores, schools and churches have been laid to waste. So far, at least 25 people have died and to me it's a miracle it hasn't been much more, given the destruction.
And it also re-enforces my belief that we will never again be the UNITED States of America.
This is something all of us could unite on and say, "What Can I do to help?" These fires spared nobody, the rich, the famous, the poor and the unknown all suffered tremendous loss. No matter your race, or creed or income, anybody could look at what happened in Los Angeles and say "Shit, that could happen to me." You could own a mansion in Westchester or live in an apartment in the Bronx. Fire doesn't discriminate, and it didn't discriminate here.
But there was the finger pointing. And the blame game.
Me? I blame climate change, and while that may sound like I'm blaming one party over the other, let's face it, all of us are guilty of contributing to that in one form or another. I know I am.
I guess the question is, what are we going to do about it?
And I wish I could say I'm optimistic that something will be done about it, but I'm not.
I'm not optimistic about much of anything these days, and some of that it my own fault, but when it comes to climate change, too many people are burying their heads in the proverbial sand. And pretty soon, sand may be all we have. Sand and dust, because everything else burned to the ground.
President Carter Funeral- A couple of observations..
1) One of the eulogies was given by Steven Ford, the son of President Gerald Ford, the man Jimmy Carter defeated and succeeded as President. Ford and Carter had become very good friends and agreed to give eulogies for each other. Carter did so when Ford passed in 2006 at age 93. And Ford wrote his for Carter and instructed his son to deliver it.
The younger Ford explained that his dad and Carter forged their friendship returning from Egyptian president Anwar Sadat's funeral in 1981.
I've read several books about the Presidency. I mentioned one last week, Bob Greene's Fraternity, and another is , The President's Club by Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy. This book told stories about how the Presidents, especially ones who had either been electoral rivals or at the very least been in opposite parties had worked together and, in many cases, became friends. The chapter that detailed the friendship between George HW Bush and Bill Clinton was especially interesting.
The book details the trip that Steve Ford spoke about.. Anwar Sadat had been assassinated on October 6, 1981, just months after the attempt on President Reagan's life the previous March. For obvious security reasons, sending Reagan or then VP Bush to Egypt for the funeral was a no-go. So, Secretary of State Alexander Haig suggested sending the three surviving former Presidents, Nixon, Ford and Carter. None of them at the time particularly cared for each other. Nixon, who in Bob Greene's book made it clear that he expected to be addressed as Mr. President by everyone including close friends and relatives, agreed with Ford's suggestion that the three of them at least address each other as Dick, Jerry and Jimmy respectively.
On the flight over, according to "The President's Club", Ford and Carter "seemed determined to not get along." Nixon on the other hand, "was being very gregarious" something he wasn't really known for.
After attending the funeral, the three former President's were expected to fly home together, but Nixon instead took a separate flight to Saudi Arabia where he was to attended a private dinner that no one in the Reagan White House was aware of. Nixon, when asked about it, said it was still being worked on.
But alas, Nixon ended up going to dinner with the Saudis, and Haig, whose idea it was to create this delegation and had accompanied the three on the trip, stayed behind in Egypt. Having the plane to themselves, Carter and Ford began to speak to each other, first about policy and then as the trip wore on, about things they had in common. Carter said he would attend a conference at Ford's library, and Ford volunteered to help with projects at the Carter Center.
"We had hours in the plane in a private compartment, just the two of us to talk over previous relationships and what our children were doing and the interests Betty and Rosalynn had, Carter said. "one of the things that we felt bound us together particularly was and onerous and mandatory task of raising money to build our presidential libraries."
After discussing some of the projects the two men worked on together over the next 20 years or so, the final paragraph of the chapter reads this way..
Perhaps most remarkably, they each agreed, whichever died first, to give the eulogy at the funeral of the other, a job that fell to Carter in December, 2006-more than 25 years after the historic flight to Cairo.
Ford's son would keep his father's promise to Carter as well.
2) The five living, former, current and future Presidents all attended. Bill and Hillary Clinton, George W and Laura Bush, Barrack Obama, Captain and Melania Orange, and Joe and Jill Biden.
Cameras caught Orange and Obama chatting amicably before the service, with Obama even chuckling at something CO said. Not sure this would have happened if Michelle Obama had attended the funeral. She did not, and no explanation was given as to why she didn't attend.
3) I didn't get to watch as much of the funeral as I would have liked as I was working on Thursday, I relied on news clips and the reporting of my pal Ed Robinson, but I'm glad that Jimmy Carter received the funeral that he got. I'm glad that even folks who maybe didn't care for him as President honored him as a man of compassion and love. Lyndon Johnson died in January 1973, less than a year before I was born. from then until April 1994 there were no Presidential funerals. Nixon's was the first one I watched. I'm not sure why he didn't have a service at the National Cathedral in Washington DC. . His funeral was held at his Presidential Library in Yorba Linda California. Karl, Ray and I were coaching our hapless CYO baseball team the day of the funeral, I got home from the park just in time to see President Clinton's eulogy.
It was another 10 years before the next Presidential funeral, that for Ronald Reagan. His funeral got the full whole week treatment, a service in California, a flight to DC, where he lied in state in the Capitol Rotunda, a service in the National Cathedral and then back to California for burial. I got to watch a lot of that because I was working at the Post at the time, and if I wasn't watching it at the house, I was watching it in the news room.
Gerald Ford died two and a half years later, like Reagan at age 93. Ford's funeral was a lot less theatric than that of the Gipper, but still, there were services at his home in Rancho Mirage, California, lying in state in the Capitol Rotunda, a funeral at the National Cathedral and burial at his library in Grand Rapids, Michigan* where he was originally from and where he had served as Congressman before becoming VP and later President after Nixon's resignation. I watched the National Cathedral service on my computer at Broadview, which I later found out was not allowed.**
George HW Bush died in November 2018 at age 94. His funeral was similar to Ford's, starting in Houston, followed by lying in state in the Capitol Rotunda, a funeral at the National Cathedral and burial back in Houston. His son George W. Bush, the 43rd POTUS. gave the eulogy in Houston.
4) Jimmy Carter was the first former President to live to be 100. Of the Presidnets who died in my lifetime, Bush 41 lived to be 94, Raegan and Ford lived to be 93, and Nixon lived to be 81.
John Adams and Herbert Hoover lived to be 90. Harry Truman who died only weeks before LBJ lived to be 88. Dwight Eisenhower died in 1969 at age 78.
Carter not only was the longest-lived former President, but he also lived the longest from the time he left office. Had he lived another 3 weeks, Carter would have been a former President for exactly 44 years. As it was, he was a former President for 43 years, 11 months and 9 days. The previous record was held by Hoover, 31 years 7 months, 16 days. Ford was 29 years, 11 months 6 days. HW Bush 25 years 10 months, 10 days. I'm almost 100% sure those are the top 4. Feel free to fact check.
I thought I’d have more to write, but I don’t. Next post will be pretty much all politics.
Till then
Stay Safe
and Have a Great Week
* In Bob Greene's book, Ford admitted to Greene that had he simply retired from Congress as he had intended and not become President, he probably couldn't have afforded to live in Rancho Mirage. "I'd probably be practicing law in Grand Rapids" he told the author.
**When Michael Jackson died a couple years later, a memo went out not to stream the funeral from the Staples Center. Another memo went out from the CFO a year after that about not streaming the World Cup. For a company that bragged about providing top notch communication services, they complained about streaming funerals taxing their broadband.
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