Posted on 06/08/2004 4:13:51 PM PDT by ambrose
June 9, 2004
THE REAGAN LEGACY Mourning decorum's death
To say that California casual was the dress code among those paying last respects to Ronald Reagan is to put it charitably.
By Booth Moore, Times Staff Writer
A president was lying in repose, but the occasion could just as well have been a Saturday afternoon at Universal CityWalk, judging from the polo shirts, shorts, Harley-Davidson T-shirts, tank tops, flip-flops and dirty white sneakers with pulled-up tube socks.
For some people these days, there is nothing they will dress up for ? not a concert at Disney Hall, a graduation, not even to pay their respects to a former head of state.
When Americans went to see John F. Kennedy's flag-draped coffin at the U.S. Capitol in 1963, women wore dresses and high heels and men donned suits.
But during Monday's procession through the Reagan library in Simi Valley, many men did not even remove their baseball caps as they paid tribute to a man who was never in the Oval Office without a coat and tie.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
A nice, open-collared starched dress shirt with a sport coat is about as dressy as I care to get.
Me too. These people had to stand in line for hours to be shuffled through a room while taking a look at a closed casket. It wasn't as though this was an actual funeral.
One shudders to imagine how people will dress for the funeral of the president who was occasionally in the Oval Office without pants.
What a beautiful picture :)
You have grossly mischaracterized our perspective on this issue.
I have been utterly astounded by the reaction of the American people to President Reagan's death. Astounded and tearfully proud. THAT includes the people who went to see him in repose.
No one was "going beserk". We have been lamenting the fact that standards of decorum have become lax everywhere and during all occasions of this type.
No one was judging anyone either. Did you hear anyone say that anyone else was evil or going to hell? THAT is for God, and only he has that power, to decide at the appropriate time.
It is you who can't seem to understand the difference between "judging" and advocating for higher standards. There is a HUGE difference. I don't know you, and so I can't "judge" you. However, arguments using the bible to discourage people from fighting the lowering of standards and morality are dangerous to our survival.
BTW, by your own (and I think incorrect) standards of judgmentalism, you have judged me and folks on my side of this issue as being judgmental, which is in itself judgmental. It's funny how that works.
Yeah, I guess you really wouldn't want to make any effort or anything.
With that attitude, why even go in the first place? You could watch the whole thing on TV in air-conditioned comfort, only steps away from the refrigerator.
I hate to say it, but on this I find myself agreeing with the LA Slimes.
Advocate for higher standards in your own personal life, and quit pushing your thoughts on what is appropriate on everyone else. It is called grumbling that is going on on this thread. If you didn't find it an issue, you wouldn't be discussing it. And I am here to point that out to you. As maybe you need to have more people do in your life.
Free Republic rightfully engages threads that discuss the decline of standards in our culture. If you ever come across one of those threads, (on an offensive film or tv show, for example) be consistent and please advise the participants to restrict their outrage and just refuse to watch such a film or broadcast. It is pitiful when people berate the decline of our culture but never encourage conservatives to clean up their own backyard.
BTW, I am not putting a great deal of emotion or energy into this. The fact that you thinks so, indicates that you have been engaging in "wrongful judgmentalism."
Good day.
Good grief. You mean they were disappointed that it was a closed casket? You make it seem like they went through so much effort for so little in return. If that's the case, they probably should have stayed at home.
Yes. Our culture has truly benefited by this move to a more genuine and relaxed lifestyle. </sarcasm>
If everybody had shown up dressed like that in that weather, they would have needed to conduct a few more funerals.
That said, some of the people ought to have changed into something a cut or two higher on the formality scale, and certainly ought to have doffed their hats (barring a religious obligation).
It's kind of difficult to square that theory with designer jeans and $200 sneakers.
Look at the size of your posts if you think you are not putting emotion and energy into this. Grow up, stop grumbling. Accept that not everyone has to be your clone.
However, you are confusing a local custom (i.e. socialization to practically antebellum standards) with some kind of an absolute morality.
If the south were allowed to continue the ways of the south I wouldn't be far enough north even now (46.5 N latitude).
Er, the fact that you want both sexes to wear tight clothes verges on TMI. ;-)
Your thinking is inconsistent and confused and as such I don't need your pointers which I strongly rejected from the left in this country long, long ago. You can continue your pointing and I will continue my advocating.
If it were up to people like you, Clinton would never have been impeached.
Read Slouching Toward Gomorrah, by Robert Bork which well addresses the issue you introduced on this thread.
Amazingly, your posts sound as judgmental as the judgmentalism you say you so resoundly dispise. Since you so revere judgementalis, perhps you should begin with yourself.
Hey, its my funeral!
Er, you do realize the problem with those examples, right? (Hint: there are ways to make money that Reagan would not have approved.)
Good manners are never passé
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