this whole reagan lying in state--with pictures of people lining up to see his body--reminds me of seeing the lines of people outside the ho chi mihn mausoleum in hanoi. when i braved the line to see "uncle ho" (as he's called in vietnam) i was kind of disgusted by the whole concept. maybe it's because i come from a jewish family where even an open casket viewing is forbidden. lining up to view a dead person seems odd to me, and even a little disrespectful and gross. when i reached the front of the line in hanoi and finally saw the pickled body of ho, the canadian woman next to me said "if i ever become a dictator of a country, don't ever let them do this to me after i die."
so it seems ironic that reagan, like ho and lenin, lies in state today. especially considering who reagan was and what he is credited with doing. i wonder if reagan himself would have wanted to be on display like that? uncle ho stated specifically that he never wanted to be leninized after death, but his well-publicized wishes were completely ignored by the vietnamese government. for political reasons the people needed a body to revere. not for who he was, but for what he later came to symbolize.
