Monday, June 14, 2004
Living History
So the first State Funeral in about 30 years happened this last week in Washington. One of the reasons I like DC is that cool things happen there. So when I realized I had a chance to watch the funeral processional, I jumped at the chance.
A couple of other summer associates from the firm went with me down to the Mall to wait in the hot heat of the summer. We arrived at the Mall at about 2:30, and we finally saw the processional at about 6:30. That's a lot of time to stand and sweat.
At about 4:30, the police in the area, who had been herding us behind barricades and being curt with us, suddenly started yelling, "EVERYBODY MOVE! EVACUATE! GO! GO! GO!" They told us to run for our lives in the direction away from the Capitol building. So we ran (OK, we really kind of walked briskly, though one dude was truly running for his life; we laughed at him). After a while, when we were a few blocks away, we realized we couldn't see the police anymore, and there hadn't been any explosions coming from the Capitol. So I did what any normal person would do when he lacks information. I called my wife. "Hi, babe. Can you turn on the TV and tell me why we just evacuated the Capitol grounds?" She told me there was a private jet which had violated airspace, and that it was now OK to return. Turned out it was the governor of Kentucky, flying in for the funeral. The police had merely been told: "You have one minute till impact." I will never vote for the governor of Kentucky again, no matter what office he runs for, and regardless of his ideology.
The processional, when it got there, was impressive. After a couple of the military people that had been standing guard along the road had passed out during the wait, it was cool to see the tight formations of every group of military people you could think of, and then some. The riderless horse was fraught with meaning. All in all, it was very 19th Century--steeped in tradition and symbolism, except for one part. The best part.
In the middle of the processional was the flyover. 21 F-16s boomed past the Mall, first one solo, and then five waves of four planes in "missing man" formation, where five planes would have formed a perfect V, but one of the end planes is missing (symbolism again). On the last wave, one of the planes pulled out of formation and shot straight up in the air until he was lost from my view. Again, symbolism. That symbol got to me. Boots backwards in the stirrups are a good symbol of respect for a fallen hero, but somehow a rogue F-16 leaving the group to rocket into oblivion is a bit more impressive.
A couple of other summer associates from the firm went with me down to the Mall to wait in the hot heat of the summer. We arrived at the Mall at about 2:30, and we finally saw the processional at about 6:30. That's a lot of time to stand and sweat.
At about 4:30, the police in the area, who had been herding us behind barricades and being curt with us, suddenly started yelling, "EVERYBODY MOVE! EVACUATE! GO! GO! GO!" They told us to run for our lives in the direction away from the Capitol building. So we ran (OK, we really kind of walked briskly, though one dude was truly running for his life; we laughed at him). After a while, when we were a few blocks away, we realized we couldn't see the police anymore, and there hadn't been any explosions coming from the Capitol. So I did what any normal person would do when he lacks information. I called my wife. "Hi, babe. Can you turn on the TV and tell me why we just evacuated the Capitol grounds?" She told me there was a private jet which had violated airspace, and that it was now OK to return. Turned out it was the governor of Kentucky, flying in for the funeral. The police had merely been told: "You have one minute till impact." I will never vote for the governor of Kentucky again, no matter what office he runs for, and regardless of his ideology.
The processional, when it got there, was impressive. After a couple of the military people that had been standing guard along the road had passed out during the wait, it was cool to see the tight formations of every group of military people you could think of, and then some. The riderless horse was fraught with meaning. All in all, it was very 19th Century--steeped in tradition and symbolism, except for one part. The best part.
In the middle of the processional was the flyover. 21 F-16s boomed past the Mall, first one solo, and then five waves of four planes in "missing man" formation, where five planes would have formed a perfect V, but one of the end planes is missing (symbolism again). On the last wave, one of the planes pulled out of formation and shot straight up in the air until he was lost from my view. Again, symbolism. That symbol got to me. Boots backwards in the stirrups are a good symbol of respect for a fallen hero, but somehow a rogue F-16 leaving the group to rocket into oblivion is a bit more impressive.
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