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3 Deaths, 1 Unresolved Issue John L. Perry In late 2006, a trio of funerals attracted worldwide fascination for wildly divergent reasons. Over each hung the same unanswered question: Where do Americans stand? First of the three to die, at age 73, on Christmas Day, was James Brown, the "godfather of soul." According to the Reuters news agency, his "funky" music and message are celebrated as embodying "a generation of revolutionary change for black Americans." As if the editors at Reuters knew even the first thing about Americans — black, white, or whatever. Those worthies are still thumbing through Roget's thesaurus in search of synonyms for their banished word terrorists. An affable sort of fellow, Brown spent parts of his celebrated career under the influence of drugs or in the custody of jailers. This has not inhibited hundreds of thousands from delighting in him, his music, and his message.
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Many more hundreds of thousands felt otherwise. Among those who reflected what Brown stood for was the still-prominent celebrity of diversified America, the role model pop star Michael Jackson, who showed up at the funky funeral, along with Cynthia McKinney, Dick Gregory and the Revs. Jesse Jackson, and Al Sharpton. On the day after Christmas, at age 93, the 38th president, Gerald R. Ford, Republican, died. It was almost as if America had suddenly discovered him. Not an unkind word about him was to be heard. There is no doubt he was a decent and honorable man. It was a most-remarkable funeral. In its quiet dignity it was as much an outpouring of the decency of most Americans as it was a fitting tribute to the late president. Almost every eulogy — most notably that delivered from his heart by an old friend and colleague, Vice President Dick Cheney — made the point that President Ford had provided a welcome period of stability and moderation.
In all, it made you proud of Jerry Ford, proud to be his fellow American. Then, with only two days left in 2006, the vanquished Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, at age 69, dropped to his neck-breaking death beneath a Baghdad gallows to which he had sent so many of his countrymen. There will now follow an indeterminate number of days in which adulating Iraqi thugs will strike out blindly against this mass-murderer's just reward. Families and friends of his countless victims will fire bullets — carnival style — into the air, even as once he did, in celebration. What a contrast in funerals. Saddam's cracked corpse was carted away in the bed of a pickup truck and hastily shoveled over in parched sand not far from where his two criminal sons, killed in capture, molder unmourned. So who cares? That's not the right question about Saddam's execution and burial. In a strange sort of irony the right question applies not only to his demise but also to that of Gerald Ford and James Brown. What each of those men stood for during their lives, and what is symbolized in their deaths, is well known and for all to see. The question, which runs like a thread through the tapestry of the lives of all three, is, Where do Americans stand? Is it with the warped diversity for which James Brown stood? A discordant culture of cacophony? How perverse can diverse get? Is this the nature of diversity Americans want for this great nation? If not, then what? And what are Americas prepared to do about it? Are Americans going to cringe passively in the face of the global onslaught of a tyrannical Islamic dictatorship, symbolized by Saddam Hussein and driven by hatred and maniacal determination to eradicate Christianity, Judaism, and Western civilization? If not, then what are Americans prepared to do about it? How deeply do Americans yearn for the return to the relative, if deceptive, comfort provided by the avoidance of confrontation that Gerald Ford, in all his well-meaning equanimity, symbolized?
Or do they have what it takes to face up to the awful choices that refuse to go away? It all boils down to, What do Americans really stand for? There is something about the American presidency that inexorably divides the occupants of the Oval Office into greats, near-greats, mediocrities, and utter failures. It is the inescapability of having to deal with the hardest of the hard choices. The way the American system of government is structured, President Harry S. Truman didn't have to place that little sign on his desk. The buck stops there whether a president likes it or not, whether he grasps the nettle or not. All the easy and happy choices have long ago been grabbed off by those in lesser office. Only the horrors work their way to the Oval Office. The same cannot be said of Congress. There, a member may spend a lifetime career side-stepping, tip-toeing around or hiding under the bed from unpleasant decisions. This is why you see members of Congress demanding specifics of how a president will solve this or that problem — without ever offering a detailed plan of their own. Ford was an admirable man, a better-than-most president. But the net effect of his presidency was procrastination, to kick the can down the road for some successor to handle. It is George W. Bush's lot — or perhaps it is his innate courage and understanding of the realities of the presidency — that he is the president who is stepping up to make today's hard decisions. This is no sure road to immediate popularity. It may be long after Bush has left the scene that his true greatness is widely realized. That was what happened with previous greats — George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Ronald Reagan. They share this in common: They compelled Americans of their day to decide where they stood. And they, themselves, did it by taking the arduous, unpopular, courageous stands. This is what George W. Bush is doing today. The issue is still in doubt, still unresolved. John L. Perry, a prize-winning newspaper editor and writer who served on White House staffs of two presidents, is a regular columnist for NewsMax.com. Read John Perry's columns here.
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