Only two things are certain in a life of a human being: paying taxes and death. That, I guess, is old news. As for the latter, not all people get the same attention when they leave their earthly existence behind. This, admittedly not really mind-boggling detection struck me one morning when I walked from my Capitol Hills home to the Union Station Metro stop on the Red line. Listening to the "Echo der Zeit" podcast, I suddenly realized that the flags decorating the Union Station were on half-mast. ??? Did I miss something in this morning’s edition of the Post? Oops. Of course. Former President Gerald Ford died after spending 93 years and 165 days on our planet. While I learnt recently that Jewish tradition requires a funeral within 24 hours after the death of a person, it is a whole different matter for a former President. The 38th president died on 26 December and he was buried on 3 January. In between the body of the late president was flown from California to Washington, where he arrived in a special convoy on 30 December and was brought to the Capitol. Curious how this would work, I joined several hundred bystanders at Constitution Avenue to watch the convoy, which was announced for 18:15. Well, at 18:30 they closed the usually busy Constitution. All of a sudden it was quiet. No SUV or Prius (the latter, a hybrid car, can be seen by the dozens on the roads in DC) would coast down the 6-lane road that leads from the Obelisk to Capitol. Only an occasional siren of a police car sounded through the night. A rather strange atmosphere. At about 18:50, we could see the convoy coming down the Avenue. Numerous cars filled with military and other seemingly important people passed by, headed and followed by about a dozen policemen on motorbikes that made an incredible noise. "That was it?" I thought after the procession vanished around the curve down the road. But in which of those cars was the casket? Did I miss it while fumbling with my camera? They would not possibly transport the body in one of the numerous SUV's in the convoy??? Hmm. Since no one around me thought it was time to leave, I decided to wait as well. Again it was quiet. With the wind I would hear the generator of a nearby hot dog stand every once in a while. (I mean, how can you survive such an event without food? The Asian vendor must have had a very busy evening. Usually, there are hardly any pedestrians in this area at that time.) Another 15 minutes passed. People stayed in the cold and waited. And then, a second convoy drove down the road. Among the cars were two hearses. Aha. I guess I did not miss the attraction of the evening after all. Constitution Avenue was back to normal five minutes later. Now, was the time for people to say good-bye to their former leader, who not only ended the Vietnam War but also pardoned President Nixon, whom he succeeded after the Watergate scandal. The pardon at that time was not perceived very well... According to the Washington Post, they expected waiting times for up to 6 hours for people who wanted to see the closed casket inside the Capitol. Well, that was too much for me. I left that part to the natives. On Tuesday, 2 January, the remains of Gerald Ford were again moved. This time he was brought to Washington Cathedral, the gothic monument built over the course of 83 years (!) from 1907 to 1990 (!!!). An apparently very moving memorial service was held. Since I do not have a TV (this will soon make me an outcast, as I will never be able to talk about the latest soaps and talk shows...), I missed it completely. The same day, he was then flown to Michigan, where he was eventually buried in the family grave on Wednesday, 3 January 2007. Quite a journey, wouldn’t you think? At some point I was musing how different we deal with the death of Federal Counselors in Switzerland. A State Funeral? Several days of official mourning? Viewing times in the Federal Parliament Building? Tears from Bill Clinton? Not that I can remember. It was really interesting to follow the press coverage (my main source is currently the Washington Post, or simply the Post), how strong the pride of the US Americans for their leaders is and how much they value certain rituals and ceremonies. Protocol took over the city life, at least of the official part of Washington. To come back to my life-changing findings, here is another one. Death comes at the most unexpected moment. I wasn't bothered all that much. For the new mayor of DC, the 34 old Adrian Fenty, son of an Afro-American father and a white woman (they own Washington's equivalent of Ryffel running in Bern), it was slightly different, as he planned to have his inauguration festivities during those days. The fast decider acted again quickly and moved everything by one week. I wonder, how happy he made the people, who had to deal with this decision... I hope they did not have to rely on the US Postal Service, because they did not deliver any mail on Tuesday, as W* declared this day as a national day of mourning in remembrance of Gerald Ford (no such decision was taken when the 3000th soldier was killed in Iraq in late December...). Well, with a few days delay, Fenty took over the leadership of my temporary hometown. Somehow, I find that guy exciting: he is very young (born in 72), he seems to have tons of ideas on how to make life better in this city and he seems to be very close to the people. The expectations towards him are high. He is an achiever. Hence, he already announced several very concrete measures he wants to take. The first one will be to take over control of the schools in the District of Columbia. Apparently, the city spends an incredible amount of money per student, while the results are way below the national average. People are not happy with the schools, to say the least. To the question, why he is starting so quickly with changes, Fenty answered that he had six years to develop many ideas. Now is his chance to put them into reality. Well, as a marathon runner, he certainly brings a certain amount of endurance into his job.

* W or George Walker Bush, the guy who, as of today when the Democrats officially took over the majority in the new Congress, started living his worst nightmare: two years of fighting against the former opposition that hates his guts. The already lame duck will likely become lamer every day from now on... It can only improve the US image abroad...