June 11, 2004

Nation Bids Final Farewell to Reagan

The nation today bids a final farewell to Ronald Reagan following a week of tribute to the 40th president, a day after President Bush paid his respects at the Capitol Rotunda in Washington. 

Bush, who today will deliver the first eulogy at Reagan's funeral at his library in Simi Valley, Calif., joined tens of thousands of mourners who flocked to the Capitol to bid a final farewell to the "Great Communicator."  

Arm in arm with First Lady Laura Bush, the president walked across the hushed rotunda to Reagan's casket, bowed his head in prayer and touched the flag draping the coffin. The Bushes then quickly exited.

Supreme Court justices, tourists, Boy Scouts and world leaders were also among those who gazed upon Reagan's casket in silent contemplation under the Capitol Dome.

Across from the White House, Nancy Reagan received a stream of visitors drawn from a list of the powerful, past and present, as Reagan's friends and colleagues flocked to his widow's side.

Bush had returned from a Georgia summit with world leaders. Earlier Thursday, he praised the late president as a "great man, a historic leader and a national treasure." He would not say if he supported efforts to put Reagan's image on currency, saying that after the funeral "I will reflect on further ways to honor a great president."

Reagan's Soviet rival-turned-friend, Mikhail Gorbachev , visited, too, and wrote in the condolence book in Russian, "I convey my deep feelings of condolence to dear Nancy and the whole family." Former Secretary of State George Shultz and former chief of staff Howard Baker were among the onetime Reagan aides who came to Blair House.

Gorbachev then visited Reagan's casket in the Rotunda, reaching out and briefly laying his palm on it.

"To Ronnie," former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, the first to see Mrs. Reagan, wrote in the Blair House condolence book. "Well done, thou good and faithful servant." Reagan and Thatcher shared a worldview, conservative politics and enduring mutual affection.

Former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, who shared an Irish ancestry with Reagan, also visited the former first lady, with his wife, Mila. "For Ron with affection, admiration and respect," the Mulroneys wrote. "The Gipper always came through!"

The former British and Canadian leaders were joining President Bush and his father Friday in eulogizing Reagan at Washington National Cathedral to close the curtain on the capital's elaborate state funeral — Washington's last goodbye before Reagan's sunset burial on the grounds of his presidential library outside Los Angeles.

Former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, who also met with Mrs. Reagan, said he recalled the president once showing him where he planned to be laid to rest. "He told me that would be the spot he would be buried and right next to him would be buried Mrs. Reagan," he said. Nakasone asked Mrs. Reagan if that was still the plan.

"She said the plan was still on and she would go next to him when she passes," Nakasone said.

Reagan began talking about his funeral in 1981, the year he became president, family representatives said.

He asked George H.W. Bush, when he was vice president, to speak at his funeral, and years ago asked Justice Sandra Day O'Connor — the first woman on the Supreme Court[...and whom President Reagan nominated to the SCOTUS!--Jen] — to read at his service, specifying she read from a John Winthrop sermon that inspired his description of America as "the shining city upon a hill."

Several years ago he asked former Sen. John C. Danforth, R-Mo.,
[President Bush has just named Sen. Danforth to be our next U.N. representative, too, so he must be a very good man.--Jen]
to officiate, the family said, following a suggestion from the Rev. Billy Graham that someone else be approached in the event Graham could not do it. Both Reagans wanted opera music at the funeral.

And so the service will unfold: Danforth officiating, O'Connor reading, the elder Bush as a eulogist and Irish tenor Ronan Tynan performing "Ave Maria."

The Capitol sergeant at arms office, which oversees security in the building, estimated 30,000 people had viewed the casket in the first 10 hours of Reagan's lying in state. His casket was continuously on view until Friday morning.

Boy scouts in khaki shorts and neckerchiefs, office workers with ID tags around their necks, senators and tourists with their children in tow, an American Indian in feathered headdress, all came to pay their respects.

Iraq's new president, Ghazi al-Yawer, fresh from the summit with world leaders in Sea Island, Ga., visited the Capitol Rotunda, too, placing a hand to his chest in front of the casket before moving on.
[How marvelous! President Bush is following in Reagan's footsteps by liberating more millions of oppressed people from tyranny!]

Art Kreatschman, 52, of New Windsor, Md., stood in line for three hours before his few seconds in the Rotunda. "I did OK until I got inside and then it was very moving," he said. "I teared up little."
[...]
"He did so many great things for our country and I remember a happy and optimistic time for America," Barbara Coward, 37, of Timonium, Md., scribbled in the book. "He made me proud to be an American."

Amen, Barbara!
But what made me almost as proud to be an American in the past few days has been the respect, manners and conduct of my fellow Americans who came to pay their respects to President Reagan by the thousands!
I've kept the TV on C-SPAN on for the last three days, watching the crowds pass by the bier and the honor guards change throughout the hours and somehow, I've had the feeling that I was with them, too, and was paying my respects to the President with them.
So many of us in this country have been united in our sorrow, our love, our gratitude and our thanksgiving for his life in marking President Reagan's service and his earthly passing and I hope we keep that feeling of love of country and love of Liberty, as President Reagan so embodied in his life and work, because this is his enduring legacy.
It only shows that even in his death, Reagan continues to bless us as only a true servant of God can.
May Light Perpetual shine upon him as he has let the Light of Liberty shine for millions here on the earth!