State funeral reminds us of a good and decent man as president
Downtown Glens Falls diorama nearing completion for Chapman Museum
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State funerals are important.
They are reminders of what our country stands for and the reverence with which we hold the American presidency.
When Gerald R. Ford passed away on Dec. 26, 2007, I thought the event significant enough to take my 11-year-old son to Washington, D.C. to pay our respects. We were there on Dec. 30 when Ford's casket arrived at the Capitol and was carried up the steps through the House of Representatives to lie in state in the Rotunda.
The next day, we joined hundreds of others and paid our respects.
Not because I had voted for Gerald Ford.
Not because I thought he was a great president.
But because and I wanted my son to see history and appreciate the country's respect for its leadership.
Perhaps this goes back to the trauma of John F. Kennedy's assassination in 1963. It was the first presidential funeral televised and the first presidential funeral since Franklin Roosevelt's in 1945.
As a kid I remember watching the funerals of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy as well and each time feeling a sense of national loss.
The timing of President Carter's death is unique with a new president about to take the oath of office in just 10 days.
It's as if the former president had planned his demise as a reminder his legacy as a good and decent man, a Christian man whose character and integrity was something to be emulated at this moment in American history.
It was as if Jimmy Carter, 100 years young, had timed his final moments to make one final point to the American people about what they have done in electing a man who his the exact opposite of President Carter.
It was a reminder to me of what American stands for and what it should always stand for, but most importantly of all on this January day, a counterpoint to who our next president will be for the next four years.
President Joe Biden emphasized one word repeatedly during his eulogy at the Washington National Cathedral Thursday.
"Character, character, character," he repeated three times.
The son of Carter's vice president, the late Walter Mondale, said the two men summed up their term in office this way:
"We told the truth. We obeyed the law. We kept the peace," Ted Mondale said.
The comparison could not be more stark.
Of all the accolades you hear from supporters of the incoming president, I have never heard him called "a good and decent man."
I never heard him lauded as a "truth-teller."
I have never heard him revered for his character or integrity.
When Jimmy Carter was running for president in 1976, it was scandalous that he admitted "lusting in his heart" during a Playboy interview.
Those times seem quaint by comparison to today and the current president-elect.
Jimmy Carter's casket arrived at the U.S. Capitol earlier this week one day after the anniversary of the January 6 riots four years ago.
It was a reminder of what we once stood for as a country and what we have become.
While lying in state, regular folks waited in line up to five hours to walk past the casket in just a few seconds.
One American giving a final nod to a noble leader in the dead of a cold winter night.
We have had many popular presidents, but few have been respected for the way he lived his life as much as Jimmy Carter.
It was good to be reminded this week of how important that once was to Americans.
Trolley chugging along
The Chapman Museum and the Upstate Model Railroaders club have been working together on a project to re-create downtown Glens Falls circa 1890 to 1900 when trolleys ran up and down Glen Street.
The original goal was to have it as part of our Christmas decorating project, but getting the detail right on the old buildings took more time - and research - than expected.
I visited with artist and railroad club member Ken Wheeler the other day and the project is nearly complete. The goal is to unveil it sometime in February if all goes well.
Here are a couple of photos to show you what downtown Glens Falls looked like 125 years ago.
Journalism alive
Thanks to former Adirondack Daily Enterprise Editor Andy Flynn, I was enlisted to give presentations about journalism up in the North Country.
The first school to take us up on the initiative was Tupper Lake.
I made the two-hour drive on Wednesday to talk to eight members of the student newspaper.
The fact that a smaller school like Tupper Lake still values a student newspaper and there are still students who want to be part of that speaks volumes.
Fifteen years ago when my son was a freshman at Queensbury High and interested in journalism, Queensbury curtailed its student newspaper. I urged my son to advocate for continuing the newspaper to the superintendent. He told him if he could get a member of the faculty to be an advisor to the newspaper, they could bring it back. My son could not get any faculty member to be an advisor.
Tupper Lake's advisor is a young teacher named Corrine Mather who is engaged with the students and their student journalism.
It was a pleasure to speak with fellow journalists and writers.
Palmer for mayor
Diana Palmer announced she would challenge incumbent Glens Falls Mayor Bill Collins in the upcoming election this year.
It was refreshing to hear there will be a competitive race for Glens Falls this year after several uncontested elections.
Collins is serving as mayor only because he was the only candidate four years ago. Actually, while Palmer has served on the Common Council for seven years, her election was uncontested four years ago as well.
New job
Jimmy Vielkind, who previously covered the New York State Legislature for the Times Union and Politico before moving on to the Wall Street Journal, is on the move again.
Vielkind announced this week that he is starting a new job as reporter for WNYC radio in New York while writing for its news site gothamist.com.
Vielkind wrote he will be covering New York state issues, but also returning to upstate New York to "tell stories about how state policies impact people."
That is something that is desperately needed in some of the rural news deserts in upstate. I'm looking forward to seeing those stories in 2025.
Vielkind also announced this week he was deleting his Facebook account, right after Mark Zuckerberg announced he would stop fact checking Facebook articles. Vielkind suggested if you wanted to read his work, you could follow him on his "Notes from Jimmy" Substack column.
Dead Presidents Society
I've made hobby out of visiting presidential gravesites over the years. This past spring when I visited the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California, it marked the end of a three-decade journey to visit all the gravesites.
How our presidents chose to be remembered provides insights into the men they were.
From the simple headstone in the family plot for Calvin Coolidge to the monstrous tombs of William McKinley and Ulysses S. Grant.
Obviously, I will soon be on the road to Plains, Georgia.
Ken Tingley spent more than four decades working in small community newspapers in upstate New York. Since retirement in 2020 he has written three books and is currently adapting his second book "The Last American Newspaper" into a play. He currently lives in Queensbury, N.Y.
I wept in my car in a grocery parking lot listening to Jimmy Carter’s grandson’s eulogy.
Carter’s character was held together, not by the threat of the rule of law, but by the his own measure. He was honest with himself, “to thine own self be true.”
Trump brings a whole new meaning to “lying in state.”
Carter-Mondale: "We told the truth. We obeyed the law. We kept the peace." / Trump & Co.: "We lie. We break the law. We sow discord, enmity and chaos."