Schaff Funeral Service

No one who occupies the Oval Office escapes fierce division — it is the nature of the job. Gerald R. Ford, the last president mourned by the nation after his death in December 2006, angered many with his pardon of his predecessor, Richard M. Nixon. Ronald Reagan, whose elaborate state funeral was in 2004, provoked many divisive fights over his eight years in office. George Bush, who is being mourned and celebrated this week, was no stranger to harsh criticism on both foreign and domestic issues during his one-term.But instead of dwelling on the inevitable presidential failures, the highly choreographed spectacle of a presidential funeral — a fitting bookend to the heavily scripted inaugural ritual — offers Americans a welcome chance to reflect on the nature and value of public service, to celebrate the achievements of the person and the office.In this way, presidents can be more unifying in death then they ever were in life.“We might not agree in historical hindsight on what they did or how they did it,” said Matt Costello, a historian with the White House Historical Association. “But they were always trying to do what is best for the country.”“In a strange way,” he said, “it is not about the past. It is looking forward to unity and cohesion and to remind people of what makes us Americans.”That was a sentiment shared by many of the thousands who visited the Capitol through the night to pay their respects to Mr. Bush, even though some might not remember the specifics of a presidency that was crucial to the reunification of Germany and the expulsion of Iraq from Kuwait but that struggled with the economy at home.“There’s not a perfect life or a perfect country,” Pamela Timus, who works at the Securities and Exchange Commission, said as she was leaving Tuesday morning after paying her respects to Mr. Bush. “This president worked for American citizens and the good of the country.”“All decisions he made may not have been favored by all Americans,” she added. “But it was in the best interest of the country.”The historian Doris Kearns Goodwi...