President Jimmy Carter’s life mapped the American Century. His funeral Thursday at the National Cathedral in Washington suggests that century, like Carter’s life, is ended.
The US can still do an impressive state funeral. America looked, for about two hours, like a self-respecting nation that takes itself seriously. The service members bearing the flag-draped casket of the former commander-in-chief were crisply synchronized. The orchestra was nimble and rich, the choir heavenly, the dignitaries of the highest quality. But the flags outside the cathedral, flapping in the wild Washington wind, recalled the fire tornado devouring one of the nation’s largest cities. And inside the cathedral, between Barack Obama and Melania Trump, in a pew in the second row, sat the president-elect, Donald Trump.
