I bet you thought you were going to be able to survive this week without seeing something about Ronald W. Regan on TealArt. So sorry. Actually, I don’t really give a rat’s ass about the “deify/vilify” Regan thing. There are a couple a poignant responses to Regan’s non-treatment of the AIDS crisis, most notably this, by Brad Graham. Honestly though, I can imagine any other ruler of the era dealing with it differently; not that that excuses him by any means.
In any case, what I really wanted to offer, was this little logistical thought. See according to all of the sources I’ve encountered, Regan’s body has been lying in state for a few days now at the presidential library. His “body” is now being flown the D.C. where it’ll lay in state until a big hoopla at the national cathedral sometime this weekend or Monday. The days are unimportant.
What I’m thinking is that his body will never leave the Regan Presidential library.
Why?
It’s a closed casket; it has to be flown across the country twice. Why would they bother to do that? Who’s to know? More importantly, who’s to care? Flying dead bodies anywhere costs tens of thousands of dollars, and I see little purpose in moving it around so much. “His” presence is unrequited for the formality to serve it’s purpose. And we’ll never know for sure.
Unless someone tries to hit the National Cathedral during the service (given who’ll be there, I suspect the risk is somewhere around a muted orange), they’ll never say, but between you and me it’s empty.