If you saw the memorial service on TV, the entire tone of the event was exciting and celebratory, not sad and somber. I'm not sure if that was simply a manifestation of South Africa culture, the fact that Nelson Mandela had lived a very long life or both but that atmosphere of celebration was led by the South African people in the stadium. I think the South Africans electrifying the atmosphere with happiness was likely contagious to those from other places and affected people like our President and the leaders of the UK and Denmark. People in the stands were literally dancing and cheering. You can't go into another culture and impose our ways of doing things on them. When in Rome....
I've found most people I've talked with around the water cooler were fine with it. It seems the only people bothered were those who already don't like the President. In any event, I think it'll help him with younger supporters.
When my father died, we had the obligatory "rosary" service, my dad was a long disaffected catholic like me and had no use for the baloney, but we did it (we had to do a closed casket because he didn't want to be embalmed ($2500) nor buried ($5000 casket, $4000 to dig the ground, $2000 to engrave the stone). His sister in law by way of his brother lost her second husband (not my dad's brother, better), a month before my dad died. His brother is an old school Chicago priest. We had the visitation, and everyone sat down expecting the dreary rosary, but no...
The priest got up and said, "there are so many stories in this room, let's hear them and laugh and revel in this man's life!, we aren't going to recite the rosary" What followed was a lot of great, funny stories from his kids, grandkids, cousins, friends, etc. All the while, people sneaking out to the parking lot to a full ice chest of beer. We laughed, we cried we enjoyed life. The next week, an associate who worked for me, an older man who was a full hellfire and brimstone pentacostalist (who I had several great agnostic vs fundamentalist discussions) came to me and said "I have never, in my life been to something that should be somber and quiet, that was so joyful, and so full of love, thank you!"
Mandela was a great man, because he changed, because he dropped the hate, because he defied all the haters that desperately needed him to hate to make themselves feel superior. Mandela forever made the word "apartheid" a past tense word. Let's enjoy the good and bury the anger and hate that so many people in the media want us to have (after a word from their sponsors)
Is that too much to ask?