A funeral service was held at Washington National Cathedral this morning for former President Jimmy Carter, attended by President and Mrs. Biden as well as all living ex-presdients. The eulogies given for Mr. Carter were a striking lesson in how to live a good man's life, for anyone who had an ear to hear.
Good-looking Jason Carter, chairman of the Carter Center in Atlanta, spoke with fondness and deep appreciation for his grandfather:
Former Atlanta mayor and United Nations ambassador Andrew Young warmly praised the former president's work for civil rights:
President Biden spoke of the shining exanple of Mr. Carter's character, in and out of the Oval Office:
No one could witness this scene and listen to the tributes paid to Mr. Carter without being deeply impressed and clearly shown what a true patriot is. No one but a fool or a criminal.
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P. S. -- It's cold AF down here in Texas, and we've been covered with snow since early morning:
Fortunately, we got our necessities stockpiled before Jack Frost arrived, so we're styaing in and staying warm.
Elizabeth II, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of Her other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith Coronation portrait by Cecil Beaton, 1953
After a solemn, splendid funeral in the capital, Her Majesty the Queen was taken through massive crowds of her grieving people to Windsor Castle - fortress and home of the kings of England for a thousand years - and laid to rest beside her beloved husband, parents, and sister - her duty done at last.
Well done, thou good and faithful servant: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.
May her soul, and the souls of all faithful departed, rest in peace.
For the record, the schedule of today's events from the BBC:
6:30 BST - The window for the public to see Elizabeth II lying in state comes to an end, as the doors to Westminster Hall are closed
8:00 - Doors of Westminster Abbey open for the 2,000 guests expected - from world leaders to charity workers and the Japanese emperor
10:44 - The day’s first procession will set off, with King Charles and other senior royals walking behind the Queen’s coffin as it’s pulled by sailors on the State Gun Carriage from Westminster Hall to Westminster Abbey
11:00 - The state funeral service begins
11:55 - The Last Post bugle sounds, followed by a national two minutes’ silence
12:00 - Service ends, and at 12:15 a second, larger procession brings her coffin to Wellington Arch
13:00 - Her coffin is transferred to the state hearse and driven to Windsor along a route expected to be lined by crowds
15:00 - The day’s third procession begins, through the grounds of Windsor Castle to St George’s Chapel
16:00 - Committal service takes place at St George’s Chapel
19:30 - Royal Family returns to the chapel for a private burial service that will see Elizabeth II interred alongside her late husband, the Duke of Edinburgh
Well done, Ma'am. Thank you for your service. Godspeed and bon voyage.
A hearse bearing the Queen's coffin, draped in the Royal Standard, heads for Edinburgh. Click to enlarge.
The globe-trotting Queen's final journey has begun, as her coffin is brought by car from Balmoral to Edinburgh, where it will lie in state, first overnight at Holyrood Palace, and then for 24 hours at St. Giles' Cathedral, before being flown to London on Tuesday. Watch the journey live on Sky News:
The Queen's funeral has been set for Monday, September 19th, in Westminster Abbey, with the final obsequies to be held at St. George's Chapel, Windsor. A very helpful schedule of events, complete with pictures and maps, is found on the BBC website.
Here is the BBC broadcast in its entirety; the funeral itself begins at the 2:30 mark with the arrival of the coffin at the steps of St. George's Chapel and a minute of silence that was observed across the United Kingdom.
The service was very simple yet meaningful, very much reflecting the Duke's wishes and his own character. The Order of Service, with all the prayers, hymns, and readings, is here.
A great loss to the Queen and her family; but a splendid send-off of a "true and valiant knight" whose virtues stand out in relief against the darkening backdrop of the modern world.
My own dear parents, now long gone to their rest, were married in the same year as the royal couple; so this service touched on some tender chords in my heart.
After his funeral in Houston today, George Floyd was carried
to his final resting place in a horse-drawn hearse.
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As I said in Sunday's post, I can't keep up with all the news that's going on right now, but I will continue to post from time to time, under the above heading, my thoughts about where we are as a nation and where I think we ought to go, and how.
And let me say, for the benefit of any new readers, something that I suppose has been apparent to my longtime truckbuddies: I represent a party of one, and this blog is my personal forum in which I express my own independent thoughts, not all of them necessarily in tune with the zeitgeist of the modern world. My party's platform includes the Golden Rule, the Golden Mean, and the Baptismal Covenant, as well as a plank in favor of the Oxford comma, and another one denouncing the use of gift as a verb.
Being fairly well versed in the English language, I say what I mean and I mean what I say: it's my privilege as a free, though flawed, man in a free, though flawed, country. I don't want to argue with anyone. If you don't agree with me, just move on and find someone else you do agree with: that's your privilege. There are millions of other voices in the world, and mine, small and obscure, has no influence over the course of events, one way or the other. Which may be all for the best; at least it passes the time for me here in retirement.
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"Defund the Police" Needs a Rebrand: It certainly does, for all sorts of obvious reasons. As Kevin Drum says:
We can write thousands of pieces telling people that “defund” doesn’t really mean defund, but honestly, you can hardly blame people for nevertheless thinking that defund means defund. That is, cut police budgets to zero and get rid of them entirely.
There’s not a Democratic politician alive who thinks we should do this, and keeping the phrase in use is just an invitation for unnecessary conflict between politicos and their base. Maybe it’s too late, but can’t we come up with something better? Rebuild the Police? Reform the Police? Demilitarize the Police? There’s got to be something.
Notice how Senator Kamala Harris, a former state prosecutor, struggles to explain what the phrase really means - "not that we get rid of the police, of course not" - which is baffling to any intelligent listener who believes that words have meaning:
Mayor Jacob Frey of Minneapolis was booed out of a protest march on Saturday after he refused to accede to the demand to "defund the police." He was quite right to decline, in my opinion. Here he explains his stand:
Now I certainly agree with Sen. Harris that increased funding for public schools, healthcare, job creation and training is necessary to make better communities: you get what you pay for. Although I do have to wonder why, more than fifty years after LBJ called for the building of a "Great Society" in America - and the countless billions of dollars that have been spent on those very issues - why is our society not great? Why are black communities still impoverished, with all the unhappy outcomes that go with poverty? Why have fifty years of massive federal aid to cities and minorities had no better effect on its intended beneficiaries than what we see today in this country - the richest and most powerful in the world?
Please understand that I do not know the answers - I am simply asking the questions. Questions that are long overdue a proper answer free of bias, one way or the other.
Some uninformed people in this great country think that it was established as an exclusively Christian nation and intended to be such forever. The facts are otherwise, but even if that were true, they should not boast about it, but weep. Jesus did say, "The poor are always with you." But this hardly justifies complacency about the fact; I think it likely that He was quoting, in part, Deuteronomy 15:11, where God commands the Israelites:
For the poor shall never cease out of the land: therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land.
And of course, Jesus himself told the parable of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25, enjoining those who love God to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, house the homeless, care for the sick, and comfort the prisoners; in other words, to do whatever was needed to alleviate poverty and misery. In the Sermon on the Mount, He blessed the poor, saying the Kingdom of Heaven belonged to them.
Now, you need not believe in God or Christ or the Bible to grasp the exalted moral imperative here, which is expressed in different words in all other religions worthy of the name: love your neighbor as yourself. Believer or non-believer, conservative or liberal, rich or just getting by - if we are not barbarians, we must as individuals and as as a nation do what needs to be done to help and heal and lift up the poor among us - poor in body, mind, or spirit - and that is what will truly Make America Great Again.
From a friend of the family at Addicting Info, presumbly a straight woman:
My friend Barbara, the daughter of the deceased woman, was denied communion at her mother’s funeral. She was the first in line and Fr. Guarnizo covered the bowl containing the host and said to her, “I cannot give you communion because you live with a woman and that is a sin according to the church.” To add insult to injury, Fr. Guarnizo left the altar when she delivered her eulogy to her mother. When the funeral was finished he informed the funeral director that he could not go to the gravesite to deliver the final blessing because he was sick. . . .
I am not about to paint all Christians with a broad brush. There are those out there who understand that the teachings of Jesus boil down to one thing. And that thing is Love. For if you love, you do not deny a person the solace of communion with the Creator, if that is their belief. You judge not, lest ye be judged. Only God knows the true heart of any person and in the end, if there is to be judgment, it will not come from some misguided, prejudiced priest who needs to go back to the seminary and learn the basics. And if he can’t find them there, then he needs to get down on his knees and pray to his Jesus to forgive him the terrible trespass he visited upon a grieving woman on the occasion of the death of her mother.
This is but one small story but it is indicative of the battle raging in America today. It is an ugly battle and one I never thought I would see. But it is here and we must deal with it. We must keep politics out of religion and religion out of politics. Perhaps if we can get back to a place where the separation of church and state are once again accepted as one of the founding principles of this country, stop trying to out-Christian each other, stop vilifying other religions and other people based on purely human and not godly concepts, we will begin to mend the fractures that are tearing us apart today. To do that, the Father Guarnizos and the Rick Santorums of the world will have to undergo a radical change of heart and I don’t think they have it in them. So it is up to the rest of us.
What I say: Your Head Trucker is going to repeat: It boils down to one thing - Love.
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, harmony; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. Grant that I may seek not so much to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.
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We cannot all do great things, but we can do small things with great love.
and welcome to the Blue Truck, a blog for mature gay men with news and views on gay rights, history, art, humor, and whatever comes to mind. Plus a few hot men. The truck's all washed and gassed up, so hop in buddy, let's go.
CAUTION: For mature gay men only beyond this point. Some posts and links may not be suitable for children or the unco guid. You have been warned.
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My Story
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Churches say that the expression of love in a heterosexual monogamous relationship includes the physical, the touching, embracing, kissing, the genital act - the totality of our love makes each of us grow to become increasingly godlike and compassionate. If this is so for the heterosexual, what earthly reason have we to say that it is not the case with the homosexual?
It is a perversion if you say to me that a person chooses to be homosexual. You must be crazy to choose a way of life that exposes you to a kind of hatred. It's like saying you choose to be black in a race-infected society.
If God, as they say, is homophobic, I wouldn't worship that God.
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