How long does it take to bury an ex-president?

[Carl C]

Get this poor man in the ground already. sheesh............

[rustnrot]

Being a news junkie, I have been able to avoid it, what with James Brown death, 3000th Iraq soldier death, the New Year in general, and Saddam Hanging, at least it has been lost in the "noise" of other items, each of which would stay at the top and be even played for the worse if not for so much happening at once.

[gcarter]

So Carl, you've forgotten how long it took to bury Kennedy?
I have no sympathy for you.

[Tony]

Being 30 miles from Gerald Ford's hometown of Grand Rapids, it has been quite an occasion around here. I had a student whose parents got up at 3:30 a.m. to get in line and experience the viewing, their wait was still about two hours. They estimate that throughout the night (between 5:00 p.m. until 11:00 a.m.) over 100,000 people passed through the Gerald R. Ford Museum to pay their respects.

We briefly turned it on the TV in our classroom today and had a neat discussion...which included Ford's ascension to office, Spiro Agnew, Nixon, Watergate, and the pardon. The students thought it was cool, and many never knew about, the different branches of service represented as pallbearers.

After talking about the Nixon coverup and subsequent resignation, we even got into the ethics of government. For example I posed the (somewhat) hypothetical question of whether our government should condone the asassination of an evil leader. Pretty interesting to hear the maturity level of (some) sixth graders!

Twenty-one F-15's flying the "Missing Man" formation was VERY cool, as were the comments by Jimmy Carter at the service. Yes, they do drag it out, but like they say you don't have to watch if you don't want to. With Ford being from Grand Rapids and the only president from Michigan, it presented a good opportunity for some meaningful educational moments.

[Carl C]

President Ford deserves the respect and state funeral. It's the parading of his body all over the country that seems a little morbid.

[gcarter]

Speaking of respect, I just read the next new carrier, CVN 78, will be called the Gerald R Ford.
Pretty neat.