American Traditions

~ Clarissa

Kids at Klara’s school watched the Carter funeral today for a whole class period. Is it an American tradition with which I’m unfamiliar? Should I be more respectful towards presidential funerals? I honestly had no idea it meant that much to people.

It’s not a bad thing because now my kid knows the names of all the living presidents. Except for Obama. Somehow, instead of Obama she inserted Ronald Reagan between Bush and Trump. We had a spirited discussion of American presidents at dinner today.

Unknown's avatar

Published by Clarissa

21 thoughts on “American Traditions”

      1. “Imagine no heaven, no religion too” being played at any place of worship, let alone the National Cathedral, is batshit insane.

        Like

        Reply

  2. I remember watching Regan’s funeral when I was younger, maybe around Klara’s age or a little older. But he had an evening service so it was well after school had ended. We may have watched it in school, as well, if it was during the day.

    Like

    Reply

  3. I’ll admit I don’t know too much about President Carter. I just know my grandpa didn’t like him. But I also have found out in the last couple of years, at a lot of people who are disliked tend to be disliked due to the way they have been portrayed by the media.

    Take Nevile Chamberlain for instance. If you asked the average person about him, they would say he was a terrible leader, led Britain into war, and let Germany take Europe.

    I would have thought the same. Today I know he was actually a good man who did his best to keep Europe from exploding into WWII. The media absolutely hated his guts and did everything they could to make him look like a failure. They also did their best to make that absolute vile twisted monster and madman Churchill look like a hero.

    My point is, it could be that he was actually a decent president, but the media has skewed so much stuff that it will likely be a century before anyone really knows for sure. So for now its probably best to simply hope that he had come to Jesus before the end and is currently with Jesus. That and give our condolences to any of his survivors.

    Lastly the playing of “Imagine there’s no heaven” at his funeral was absolutely a final shot at him by someone. There is absolutely no way that was accidental.

    • – W

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

      1. I certainly thought I did. I found out later what exactly he got up to before and during WWII, and lets just say the words “war crimes” comes to mind. Followed swiftly by praises to the guy running bomber command for talking him out of trying to murder 10s of millions of civilians with chemical weapons. Just as an example mind.

        If he wasn’t dead and buried, it might concern you to know that the Presidents and leaders of other countries including both the US and France who interacted with him typically referred to him as that drunken idiot, as did the British leaders who interacted with him.

        I could go on, but I’d rather leave it there.

        • – W

        Like

        Reply

        1. -W

          “…lets just say the words “war crimes” comes to mind.”

          War is always criminal, and WWII was a close thing. At least try to remember that we are not the ones that had to make the ugly decisions.

          Like

          Reply

          1. I understand that, but when you accept money to drag your country into war with another nation on behalf of those paying you. I don’t think you have a leg to stand on.

            Secondly war is not always criminal. There are good reasons, rarely, but there are to go to war. In Churchill’s case he demanded that bomber command use chemical bombs on German cities. Please note, England was a signatory of the Geneva convention, chemical weapons are illegal and for damn good reason.

            He gave orders to the leader of the expeditionary force in France, to withdraw (Dunkirk) without telling the French or Belgians, to leave their forces to die and pull the British and only the British troops back. He also explicitly ordered the leader of the expeditionary force to destroy the evidence he had ordered it. Thankfully that commander wasn’t an idiot and did not.

            He gave orders to launch an invasion of Norway. Said country was neutral. It was not part of the war. The Germans were rightly condemned for launching an invasion of the Netherlands because they were worried the English would use the airbases located there. They were condemned for that action, Churchill was not.

            He started that vile and evil practice of bombing cities. History will tell you that we bombed the cities of Europe because the Nazis bombed London. This is a lie. A single bomber went off course at night and blew up an abandoned barn near London. Churchill overruled his high command and ordered German cities to be leveled. He had already attempted at that point to get them to level cities, but they had previously refused. After the media spun the lost bomber into a deliberate attack he was able to overrule them as the media (propaganda) had riled the English people up into a fury. Up until that point it looked like they would have tossed him out. He was not well liked until the media repainted him as a hero.

            Hitler, you remember him. Yes that fellow, actually tried to get Churchill to agree to no bombing cities. He tried for something like three weeks while German cities were being bombed. Churchill refused. After that the bombing of London began.

            There is more naturally. My point. My original point was that the media does their best to make heroes and villains, to the point where it sometimes take a century before the truth finally starts coming out.

            As for Churchill, he was no hero. He was a drunkard, a traitor, and a murder many times over. Oh yea almost forgot, he was potentially a fraud too. Would it interest you to know he was being accused before the war of forging paintings and selling them as works of a famous but dead French painter. That went away during the war, and as far as I’m aware was never picked back up after it.

            Nevile Chamberlain was a good man. He was principled fellow, and did everything he could to keep another great war from starting. He failed, but that was not on him. As for President Carter, none of us will likely ever know outside of heaven if he was a good man or president. Our grand kids or great grand kids will likely know if they still care at that point, but it will be decades or more before any real facts one way or the other come out.

            • – W

            Like

            Reply

            1. -W

              “I understand that, but when you accept money to drag your country into war with another nation on behalf of those paying you. I don’t think you have a leg to stand on.”

              WTF! I am a retired scientist, with an interest in history. Nobody is paying me to argue with you ;-D

              Liked by 1 person

              Reply

              1. Just got back. I would like to apologize oldcowboy3, I didn’t mean to go off on you like I did. I typically read and comment at the office in the mornings and afternoons. I probably shouldn’t have been after dealing with some of my clients, and you got hit with the backlash from my frustration at them. So again I would like to apologize for going off on you.

                • – W

                Like

              2. -W

                Don’t sweat it, this isn’t my first rodeo. We ran a small business, and only my long suffering wife had the patience to deal with the seemingly endless government bureaucracy ;-D

                Like

            2. I don’t get this at all. Why should we rubbish our own culture for one of its greatest achievements to be subservient to some other culture? Who’s going to be on our side if we can’t? Why are we spitting on our heroes to whitewash Hitler? What did he ever do for us except despise us and want us dead?

              Liked by 1 person

              Reply

              1. Clarissa

                Well, what was there are partical truths deliberately taken out of context, but no sources were given so I have no idea as to reason. For example: on the bombing of civilians, Hitler had no problem bombing Warsaw and Rotterdam to terrify the Polish and Dutch governments into surrender, but perhaps he was still hoping to get a peace agreement as he saw the English as Aryan.

                Like

              2. The important thing, in my view, is that we trounced the bastard. Why should we now play the Untermenschen and make arguments devaluing our great victory?

                Like

              3. Well, despite all his faults, real or imagined, in 1940 when Britain and the Commonwealth stood alone, Churchill saved Western Civilization.

                Liked by 1 person

    1. It’s all really symbolic. If Carter hasn’t been so bad, Reagan might not have won. Then Reagan wouldn’t pass his immigration amnesty that turned California deep blue. And then maybe California wouldn’t be burning today.

      Like

      Reply

Leave a reply to Avi Cancel reply