Editorial To Vima: The burden of a funeral

History obviously cannot be erased, but it also cannot be corrected or changed.

Former King Constantine will be buried with the respect that he deserves, with the glitter of those invited by the family, and with the dignity that characterises our democracy, thanks to the prudent, as is self-evident, decision of the government for him to have the funeral and burial of a private citizen.

In fact, it is not really a matter of a government decision.

He became a private citizen due to the vote of Greek citizens in a December, 1974, referendum that abolished the monarchy, and he lived as a private citizen for the rest of his life.

Naturally, deaths and funeral are sad events, Sometimes they serve to offer an accounting or as an opportunity to express excessive emotion regarding famous individuals.

What is certain, however, is that they should not be used as a needless pretext to recycle divisions of the past.

It is, therefore, fortunate that Greek society as a whole dealt with Constantine’s death with maturity and sobriety, without high-pitched rhetoric, shouting, exclamations or denunciations.

There may have been contemplation or lingering questions, with a positive or negative outlook.

Yet, people recognised that the accounts of the deceased with the country have closed long ago, and now history is his only interlocutor.

It is true, of course, that history and memory are two different things.

Bidding farewell to a former king is unavoidably accompanied by the memory of his reign, and the weight of events that characterised it.

Expectedly, it is subject to the judgment not only of history, but also of the public and sophists.

This is neither alarming nor degrading.

After all, democracies are rational creations. They know almost subconsciously the measure of things and they evaluate their leading figures at the appropriate moment.

They do not need dragomans, or interpreters.

Obviously, each person can close as they wish his or her personal accounts with the past, but democracy does not open and shut its books based on the ulterior motives or the image that each person seeks to project.

One hopes that the same spirit of maturity and sobriety will prevail at tomorrow’s funeral.

It would be a shame to relive a “small civil war”, especially regarding an issue that was resolved decades ago and which no one has raised since.

I.K. Pretenteris