The End Of 2006. The Beginning Of 2007.

To close out 2006, the world witnessed three deaths this week.

Three men who individually had a significant impact upon the world, each left it in their very own significantly different way.

Gerald Ford The Almost President:

Gerald Ford died at 93 years old. His life was “blessed” with great health and a magnificent series of government jobs, which led him all the way to the White House.

It’s hard to get all worked-up about a world leader who really did nothing extraordinary, but to lose to the worst President (Jimmy Carter) in modern American history.

But, after all is said and done, Ford did America no harm during his brief stint in office, while giving the USA the rest it needed from the tumultuous Nixon years.

His death was quiet. His memorial was dignified. And his burial will be a class act.

Then There Was Saddam:

Saddam Hussein was hung by the neck, which was recorded on camera for the whole world to watch. His death was as violent and sickening as was his life.

To mark his passing, those who hated him the most, celebrated by shooting their guns into the air.

For those who loved Saddam, they mourned his death by firing their guns into the people who fired theirs into the air. How befitting for the people of Iraq.

His funeral was a secret affair in his hometown, away from those who either loved or hated him.

Saddam’s life and death was a dirty experience best to be forgotten, since his contributions to mankind were on the minus side of the humanity index. Like Hitler and others of that ilk, it would have been best for the world had he never been born.

And Then Came James Brown:

The best funeral show in town belonged to James Brown the soul-singing icon.

Here was a man who led a miserable life, surrounded by miserable people, who went out as big in death as he was in life. Maybe even bigger, since the legend of James Brown began to grow from the moment he took his last breath.

Brown was an alcoholic, a drug addict, a misogynist and a woman-beater who spent time behind bars for just some of his crimes.

But he was also a fabulous talent, who in his own way carved-out a real new sound and way of performing for the world.

At his funeral were the scum of the earth lauding Brown as if he was a Black Messiah.

There were the very “irreverent” con men and religious pimps; Al Sharpton who virtually laid claim to the coffin, and Jesse Jackson who never lost an opportunity to rub shoulders with anyone spotlighted in a camera.

Even if that someone was a stiff-in-a-box.

There was the freaky Michael Jackson who never met a little boy he didn’t like.

And then there were the rest of the mourners celebrating a life that I wouldn’t wish upon anyone I cared for.

Just as Ford’s funeral is dignified. And Saddam’s funeral was secret. Brown’s funeral is an obscene spectacle befitting the man in the coffin.

Isn’t this one hell of a way to end 2006?

I’m certain that the beginning of 2007 will see the freak-show caused by the death of the last standing Communist, Fidel Castro, who will somehow be eulogized by all the Leftists and kiss-ass intellectuals as a great leader.

And that’s as far as I can see into the future for 2007.

HAPPY NEW YEAR AND BEST REGARDS:

Howard Galganov.