Braised Lambchop
a nurse trying to work while suffering with chronic pain - she rambles a bit

Tonight, my kids and I watched President Reagan's state funeral, and a portion of the live C-SPAN telecast of the public viewing.

As I stated earlier, I am not a Reagan Democrat. I'm more of a Kennedy Democrat. But as I also stated earlier, the last time a president had a state funeral was in 1973, and I think it may be a while before another one occurs, since Presidents Ford, Carter, and G.H.W. Bush seem to be in good health. I felt it important that my children see a state funeral of an American president.

While we were watching, after the state funeral was over and the politicians were vying to see who could look the most concerned and stay the longest, I told my kids something I haven't told many people - when I was young, I saw a great American lie in state, in Washington, before his funeral.

In July 1974 I was nine, and my mom, grandma, and aunt took me to Washington for a week for my tenth birthday. I remember snapshots; it was hot, they were building the Metro subway system, and all the roads were torn up and closed, and there was this bus tour guide who ingrained in me that the Washington Monument is "five hundred fifty-five feet five and one-eighths in-ches."

We got there on a Sunday, and did some tourist things, then on either Tuesday or Wednesday of that week we went to the Hill. I don't remember if this was discussed with me in advance of that particular day, but Mom told me we were going to a very solemn place, to pay our respects to an important man who had died, and that I should be respectful. I'm almost positive this was in the morning, and it was the first visit we made that day.

I wanted to go to the Library of Congress first, but Mom said no - first we're going to the Supreme Court. I didn't like all the walking we were doing, and I really didn't want to walk up all those steps, but we did. We almost tiptoed in the building, and I vividly remember a black sign with big white letters that said SILENCE. I was terrified, and I knew this must have been an important man.

The man in the casket was Earl Warren.

I didn't know, at age nine, the lasting impact this man had and would have on my life, even long after he was gone. A few years later, when I put the name and the experience together, I was stunned to realize who I had seen, even for a short time, and I was so glad we went.

I thought about my visit to D.C. while I watched children pass by Reagan's casket with their parents tonight. As I watch I see myself, thirty years ago, and I know that while the kids have a sense of the history, as I did, they do not know as they file by exactly who it is they're seeing, or how he affected their lives. I hope that when they are older they try to learn more about the man, and decide for themselves what to think about him and his place in history.

That's all.

Legislation is pending in the U.S. House of Representatives to expand the USA PATRIOT Act -- and there are reports that HR 3179 will get slipped into an intelligence agency bill that will be debated and voted on behind closed doors on June 16.

Here's how it's going to go: In May, this bill got a hearing in committee, where several organizations got to speak in opposition. However, Rep. Porter Goss, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, is planning to tack the entire bill on to the appropriations legislation for the intelligence agencies, which is debated and voted on behind closed doors, in a classified hearing on June 16.

This is yet another example of Republicans trying to pull an end-around to get a damaging bill passed that doesn't have good prospects in the Senate. Bush doesn't want to be president - he wants a coronation and a Congress that bows to the will of the monarch.

Please urge your Representative to oppose this bill, and to oppose allowing these important issues to be decided without public participation. Defend the Bill of Rights before it's turned into just another piece of paper they can ignore at will.