Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the short Stuff. I'm Josh, there's
Speaker 1: Chuck and this is short stuff, and uh, it's a
Speaker 1: very solemn edition of short stuff. In fact, that's right
Speaker 1: recently in real time, in semi recently in podcast time. Uh.
Speaker 1: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away on September. I think
Speaker 1: she deserves a full show on her, which we'll get
Speaker 1: around too soon enough. But she died at seven from
Speaker 1: complications from pancreatic cancer, and after serving for twenty seven
Speaker 1: more than twenty seven years on the Supreme Court, she
Speaker 1: became the first woman in American history to lie in
Speaker 1: state in the US Capitol Building. Yeah, on Friday, September.
Speaker 1: Like you said, our our time is a little off,
Speaker 1: but as we're recording now, that's tomorrow she will be
Speaker 1: the first woman to everly in state. UM and PEP,
Speaker 1: we'll be able to um visit and they will hold
Speaker 1: a UM a whole ceremony that we'll talk about. Um
Speaker 1: and ceremony is the right word, because this is a
Speaker 1: it's it's meant to be a very solemn, very ceremonial
Speaker 1: occasion where the the nation is basically called to more
Speaker 1: in a very important person who gave to the country
Speaker 1: with all of her might, with with all of her will,
Speaker 1: with all of her strength. Um, somebody like that is
Speaker 1: important enough to say, Hey, as a country, no matter
Speaker 1: how divided we are, we're going to more in this person.
Speaker 1: And that is the entire point of lying in state.
Speaker 1: That's right. Uh. And and now I'm confused whether we
Speaker 1: should talk in past tense or future tense. We'll just
Speaker 1: flip flop back and forth. It'll be like that movie Looper.
Speaker 1: But she she also will lie in repose at the
Speaker 1: Supreme Court, which is a different thing. Um, But lying
Speaker 1: in state at the Capitol is quite an or. The
Speaker 1: last time it happened was UM, Representative John Lewis right
Speaker 1: here from Georgie's fifth district. Before that, it was Representative
Speaker 1: Elijah Cummings. UM, I believe John McCain was only the
Speaker 1: Senator to ever lie in state. So and he was
Speaker 1: the last person from Congress to lie in state before
Speaker 1: Cummings and Lewis, I believe. Yeah. And And the point
Speaker 1: here is it's not like any politician that served the country,
Speaker 1: uh is worthy of this honor, considering McCain was only
Speaker 1: the thirteenth Senator. UM, I think only a handful of
Speaker 1: private citizens, including Rosa Parks, have ever been honored as such,
Speaker 1: and that was in two thousand five. Yeah, and being
Speaker 1: a private citizen, Rosa Parks lied in um honor, which
Speaker 1: is different, as we'll see, but lying in state is
Speaker 1: a very distinct honor. UM. And it's actually, I don't
Speaker 1: want to say fairly new. Was the first time, um,
Speaker 1: it was done in the United States in the capital
Speaker 1: was July one, eighteen fifty two, UM with Henry Clay
Speaker 1: Um who was a Congressman from Kentucky and known as
Speaker 1: the Great Compromiser. And he was honored because he had
Speaker 1: um worked basically his entire political life to stave off
Speaker 1: Civil War. UM. He failed posthumously, but during his lifetime
Speaker 1: he managed to keep it from happening. And so he
Speaker 1: was the first person to lie in state in the
Speaker 1: United States capital. Right, So, uh, maybe we should take
Speaker 1: a break. It's a little cliffhanger and tell everyone who
Speaker 1: actually makes the decision on when this happens right after this,
Speaker 1: all right, so drumroll please, it's Congress. They're nice. I
Speaker 1: hope there was a high hat too when you said Congress.
Speaker 1: I can't do a high hat. Although Uh, ironically, I
Speaker 1: do have a drum set behind me in the day.
Speaker 1: You go, just turn around, Chuck, this is a whole
Speaker 1: other dimension we're just incorporate here. So Congress has to
Speaker 1: propose this and approve of this. It could come by resolution.
Speaker 1: Usually you don't have to have a resolution. Usually they
Speaker 1: can just say, come on, can we just agree on
Speaker 1: this one thing and not have to have an official
Speaker 1: vote on this? Right, Congressional leadership just goes, hey, this
Speaker 1: is what we're going to do, and nobody objects. Um Man.
Speaker 1: There's so many political jokes I'm just avoiding right now.
Speaker 1: But yes, that's exactly what happens for sure. But you
Speaker 1: said something, Um, you said something before that. Not not
Speaker 1: everybody gets this honor. Um, Lying in state, lying in
Speaker 1: lying in honor are basically the same thing. It just
Speaker 1: depends on whether you're an elected official and whether you're
Speaker 1: a private citizen. It's much rare for a private citizen
Speaker 1: to get it. But the only people who automatically are
Speaker 1: offered the opportunity to have their remains lie in state
Speaker 1: at the U. S. Capitol are presidents and ex presidents.
Speaker 1: Isn't that right? Is that true? Yeah? Yeah, so um,
Speaker 1: Congress can decide, hey, you're significant enough to to lie
Speaker 1: in state. UM, but it's not automatic, right right unless
Speaker 1: you're a president right right. So UM, So, like you said,
Speaker 1: Congress has to propose it, and UM, when they do,
Speaker 1: they alert UM this agency called the Architect of the Capital,
Speaker 1: which I had not heard of before, UM until researching
Speaker 1: this said do you uh, well, it's a different AOC,
Speaker 1: that's for sure, right, Yeah, that's what they're known as,
Speaker 1: is AOC, which I'm sure can be confusing, especially when
Speaker 1: AOC eventually dies in office fifty years from now, um
Speaker 1: and is lying in state. When the a o C
Speaker 1: takes care of AOC's state funeral, that's right, the Architect
Speaker 1: of the Capital in this case is notified. And basically, UM,
Speaker 1: it's sort of like just like any event that you're
Speaker 1: going to plan, UM, a lot of cleaning has to happen.
Speaker 1: They like power washed the front of the building. They
Speaker 1: wax and buff the floors. They want everything to look
Speaker 1: top notch. They you know, they fabricate, Uh wouldn't stand
Speaker 1: to hold the casket and polish everything up and they
Speaker 1: just you know, you gotta get all the cobwebs out
Speaker 1: of there. For something like this, that's all right. You
Speaker 1: know you've arrived when their powerwashing the capital for your um,
Speaker 1: your funeral you're viewing, you know. Yeah, And I also
Speaker 1: wonder what that government contract looks like. Right, So the
Speaker 1: the the stand that they put your coffin on. Sometimes
Speaker 1: they construct them, for sure, but they also have one.
Speaker 1: Those things are called um catafalt, and a cattle falk
Speaker 1: is just that it's a decorative, ornamental stand that a
Speaker 1: coffin is resting on. And so when you see um
Speaker 1: images of somebody lying in state, look at what their
Speaker 1: coffin's on. And if they're a president, there's a really
Speaker 1: good chance that that's a pine cattle falque that was
Speaker 1: first built to hold Lincoln's remains uh in eighteen sixty five, which,
Speaker 1: my goodness, I can't imagine too many higher honors than
Speaker 1: being placed having your coffin placed on the cattle folk
Speaker 1: that was originally constructed for Abraham Lincoln. Yeah, what I'm
Speaker 1: curious about is, UM, if the wishes of the person
Speaker 1: or the president is to be cremated post taste, what
Speaker 1: they do, I don't know. I would guess that they
Speaker 1: would probably revise the you know, build a different cattle
Speaker 1: falque or you know whatever. I would hope that they
Speaker 1: would they would UM acknowledge that the dying persons who
Speaker 1: is lying in state's final wish, no matter what it is,
Speaker 1: is UM. But I think you have to you would
Speaker 1: think so. But the I would guess that they would
Speaker 1: do that for sure. UM, they would just adjust their
Speaker 1: their um their m O basically. But they The thing
Speaker 1: is is, you can also say I don't want to
Speaker 1: lie in state in any form, whether cremated or anything
Speaker 1: like that, or your family can say that. And in fact,
Speaker 1: Truman's family and Nixon's family both declined the honor of
Speaker 1: lying of having the remains of those former presidents lying
Speaker 1: in state in the capital and instead, I know Nixon
Speaker 1: for sure was just lying in repose in his library
Speaker 1: and your Belinda, And the only difference between lying and
Speaker 1: repose and lying in state is whether you're basically on
Speaker 1: public display as part of a state funeral or not.
Speaker 1: If it's part of a state funeral, you're lying in state.
Speaker 1: If it's not, you're lying in repose. And so UM
Speaker 1: Justice renquests. Um family also declined the offer, and in
Speaker 1: dead he lay in repose at in the Supreme Court building.
Speaker 1: That's right. And I don't think we mentioned this all
Speaker 1: takes place at the rotunda. Uh, that's the floor they're
Speaker 1: buffing and shining up. UM. There's obviously got to be
Speaker 1: a spot for media. They set up these risers because
Speaker 1: there's an actual ceremony hosted by congressional leadership, and you know,
Speaker 1: you've got to have all the just the nuts and
Speaker 1: bolts in place, the lighting and the microphones, and like
Speaker 1: I said, it's like any other event. They just wanted
Speaker 1: to go down very smoothly and very respectfully and by
Speaker 1: all accounts, very cleanly. Yeah, power washed and everything. Right.
Speaker 1: So there was this anthropologist that this house stuff Works
Speaker 1: article UM interviewed and UM her name is Shannon Lee Doughty,
Speaker 1: and she is an anthropologist at University of Chicago, and
Speaker 1: she puts this really beautifully. She said that the ceremonies
Speaker 1: like laying in state, lying in state, UM are meant
Speaker 1: to embalm an idea that basically, this person, especially upon
Speaker 1: their death, becomes like this electrified, um concentrated reminder of
Speaker 1: national spirit of you know, America itself, of UM, all
Speaker 1: of the things that are good about America that that
Speaker 1: like their work in life and everything they did, especially
Speaker 1: in death, when people, you know, forget about everything else
Speaker 1: and really focus on the good things that the person did,
Speaker 1: that those good things are really about pushing the country
Speaker 1: forward or keeping the country in a good, good state,
Speaker 1: and that that's one of the reasons the main reason
Speaker 1: for for lying in state is to really just kind
Speaker 1: of say, hey, everybody, just let's remember all this, let's
Speaker 1: focus on that. To embalm an idea, I thought that
Speaker 1: was a really good way to put it. Yeah, to
Speaker 1: unite the country for for to twelve hours tops tops.
Speaker 1: I know that's a cynical view, but that's kind of
Speaker 1: the truth. Cynicism and um rationalism are basically interchange bull
Speaker 1: these days, it feels like that's a good quote too. Thanks, Chuck,
Speaker 1: I appreciate that. Um you got anything else about lying
Speaker 1: in state? I got nothing else. I look forward to
Speaker 1: doing so myself. Yeah, me too. I'll be sitting there
Speaker 1: weeping over your casket, wailing for days on and Chuck,
Speaker 1: I appreciate that. Well, that's it for us, that's it
Speaker 1: for lying in state. That's it for short stuff. Short
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