posted June 08, 2004 05:26 PM            

There are events in life which remind one of what’s truly important. Last week, for example, the subject for this column was going to be the depraved absurdity of O.J. Simpson attempting to explain himself to the media. Again. On this ten-year anniversary of the murders of Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman, Simpson was making the interview rounds as the car wreck of the week.

Then President Reagan died. Once again, in a world which seems to be swamped in the ugly and hopeless (think Michael Moore and O.J. Simpson), Reagan emerges as a reminder of the class, style, compassion and brilliance that makes this nation great.

You will read many tributes to the Great Man in the weeks to come. For my part, I present to you an abridgement of the confessional tribute I wrote a year ago about Mr. And Mrs. Reagan in my book, The Death of Right and Wrong.

Ronald Reagan inspired me to become a better person. With his death, perhaps those with whom I used to associate in the gay and feminist establishments will have the courage to look honestly at him and themselves.

***

In 1994 I was in my fourth year as president of the Los Angeles chapter of NOW. I had also served on the National NOW Board of Directors. It was a year I remember, for several reasons. It was the year O.J. Simpson killed Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman, and the year my town was hit by the devastating Northridge earthquake. It was also the year Ronald Reagan announced to the nation that he had Alzheimer’s. …

Ronald Reagan was hated, and still is, in the feminist-establishment circles in which I grew up. That milieu subsists on enemies and hatred. I took my cues from the women around me, women I admired. They were strong and confident, and they knew. They knew who was out to get us. They knew who was determined to throw us back into the Dark Ages. They knew Reagan was evil.

I tell you this not as an excuse for my past actions but as a further illustration of what I’ve been discussing throughout this book – the way malignant narcissism is spread. You see, the seed of my politics, the politics I espouse now, were already manifested in my voting for President Reagan 10 years earlier. I liked him, and I believed he had the best interests of Americans in mind. During my involvement with NOW, however, what took over was my need to be accepted, the romanticization of my “victimhood,” and the power I could achieve by following the models of the women at the top. Those women were happy that Reagan was sick, so I would be, too.

The conditioning of the Left Elite works so well partly because the people attracted to that camp are looking for family, they are looking to belong; consequently people like that – people like me – are easy pickings. My emptiness compelled me to cheer when a decent man who followed his principles was struck down by an unforgiving assailant. Alzheimer’s had done what many feminist leaders fantasized about doing themselves, if only they could get away with it.

Today, I am still pro-choice, and I still support fetal tissue research. But I now realize that those who disagree with me also have good points. I hope they reflect on their position as often as I do on mine, because both camps are on the razor’s edge. I have made my commitment to women and reproductive freedom, while my compatriots on the other side of the fence, mostly because of their religious faith, have made a pact with what they call “the unborn.”

We will have to agree to disagree, but only now do I consider those on that other side decent people – as decent as I, but with a different focus. Ronald Reagan is one of those decent people, but in all the feminist establishment’s mirth about his illness, never did they consider, never would they consider, the humanity of the man. Some may have made sympathetic public comments, but, like Madelyn Toogood, the woman who beat her little girl in a parking lot, they were simply looking around to make sure no one was watching before they returned to privately declaring that Reagan deserved to suffer. …

By now, you may not be surprised to learn that in certain gay and feminist circles, bottles of champagne wait in refrigerators to be opened when Reagan dies. …

I write this on the night Nancy Reagan appeared on “60 Minutes II.” Mike Wallace interviewed her about the former president, their marriage, and their history. Watching the show, I remembered why I liked Reagan so much – old footage of an early interview with Mike Wallace, at the time Reagan announced his first candidacy in 1976 (I was 14), deeply moved me and reminded me what great leadership was to come. ...

During the interview, Mrs. Reagan disclosed that she’s not sure her husband recognizes her anymore. Long ago he had stopped recognizing his children, but he always knew her. Now, it seems, he doesn’t. There was a deep sadness in the woman’s face. It was the “long goodbye,” as she called it.

The Reagans, like so many other people, had probably approached their Golden Years trusting, assuming, that memories would be shared, and laughed and cried about. For Nancy Reagan that doesn’t exist. She hasn’t said goodbye to her husband because “he’s still here,” but the welling of tears in her eyes revealed a wounded, sad woman. I found it heartbreaking to see, as would any decent person of any political persuasion.

Part of my life, however, is still reflective of what I call my “old” life – my years of leadership in the feminist establishment and involvement in the gay-rights movement. This night, those two lives collided. As I cried after the interview because of the sadness of it and my own guilt and shame, I checked my phone messages. There was one from a gay male friend, whom I see infrequently these days but with whom I share some fun and important activist memories.

He had been watching the same interview, but he was cheering. “Woo hoo! It looks like we might be opening up that champagne sooner than later! I hope you were watching the Dragon Lady on “60 Minutes” tonight. I suppose with Alzheimer’s, he’s not suffering anymore, but it sure looks like she is! There is a God after all.”

I had never thought of my friend as an indecent person, just as I never thought of myself as one. But he really hates those two people and wishes them awful things. He believes he’s in the right and they’re wrong. He also believes that the questions that divide them are moral issues about life and death. The difference, however, is that I think it’s safe to say neither Nancy nor Ronald Reagan ever had a bottle of champagne in the fridge waiting for a gay man or a feminist to die. The Reagans, I’ll bet, don’t hoot and holler at someone else’s pain.

Mrs. Reagan’s humanity illustrated by counterpoint the soullessness of the Left. We, the Feminist and Gay Elites, inflicted on society narcissists’ biggest crime of all: We couldn’t see beyond our own interests and desires. We became indecent in defending our principles. …

While I don’t hold out any hope for the damaged Left Elite I’ve exposed for you in this book, I know that we as individuals can overcome and reject what the Left demands of us – the abandonment of right and wrong, the banishment of decency and integrity, the rejection of what the Reagans, both of them, represent.

posted June 10, 2004 01:08 PM            

God Made Me Black, Ronald Reagan Made Me A Conservative
Steve D. Williams
Thursday, June 10, 2004
I am one of those people who are considered part of a non-existent species – a black American conservative. But it wasn’t always that way. Evolution takes time!
In 1972, I joined the Army out of high school and was sent to Germany, where I was promoted several times and stayed long enough to notice that while my race was somewhat of a novelty in that country, I was judged as an individual and not stung by the same kind of racism I had experienced from my own countrymen. I also liked Germany’s system of socialized medicine in which each citizen was taken care of from "cradle to grave."

It was not until I returned to the U.S., stationed at Fort McPherson in Atlanta, Ga., that I was able to cast my first enthusiastic vote for Jimmy Carter. I felt part of the whole election process, excited that a liberal was in the running, especially because the black communities in New Jersey and Florida where I grew up had instilled in me the conviction that conservatives were either Nazis or Klansmen who hated my guts for merely existing.

While I had witnessed the early years of the Civil Rights movement, more vivid to me was the sight of the signs on bathroom doors and water fountains saying “Colored” or “Negroes” that hung alongside “Whites Only.” Jim Crow seemed to stare me in the face at every turn.

When I left for a three-year stint in Norway (where a girl from Oregon caught my eye and we married) I still admired socialism and, after returning to America at age 27, found that the Democratic Party most closely resembled the system of governance I preferred.

After working in the Veterans Administration, I joined a multi-level marketing company because the then-popular ideas about free markets and rising as high as your talents allowed appealed to me. The management, which was dominated by Republicans who relentlessly drove their conservative message home, invited me to attend a meeting in 1980 at which the Republican presidential candidate, Ronald Reagan, spoke.

What an eye opener! After listening to his spellbinding speech – and more important, hearing the content of his message – I suddenly loved America and its people. I loved the message of personal responsibility Reagan preached and realized how sadly lacking it was in the black community, where people of my pigmentary persuasion always felt that “the system” owed them something.

I walked away convinced that the system owed me nothing; to the contrary, I owed my country the best that I could give it.

Since that time, I have been voting for conservative candidates who preach personal, fiscal and social responsibility. If this message were prevalent in the black community, 70 percent of our children would not be born out of wedlock and we would be known more for formulating law-enforcement policies than occupying prison cells.

On September 11, 2001, America played a home game and lost. Our current president placed his entire presidency on the line by deciding that if we were going to play this game, we would make it an "away game" and take it to the hometowns of the opposition. Because of this decision, we are winning.

Like Reagan in both philosophy and spirit, George W. Bush is another hero of mine. Both of them great men: believers in God and country and consistently but misguidedly underestimated by both the media and Democrats – the party that now has less pro-American sentiment than exists in the city of Baghdad!

Mr. Reagan (like Mr. Bush) did more for all Americans than any Democrat has ever done, by freeing the world of the “Evil Empire”; tearing down the Berlin Wall and thus freeing millions of people from lifetimes of tyranny; and neutralizing the threat of nuclear destruction. On Saturday, Mr. Reagan received his eternal reward as his feet have landed on streets of gold.

Today, by our good fortune, we have a strong leader in President Bush, a man who will never compromise his ideals on the issues of freedom from terror and freedom for all. Since entering office, he has freed over 50 million people in two countries, an astounding accomplishment that no Democrat – who will say and do anything to gain power and win election – will ever do.

posted June 10, 2004 02:05 PM            

Reagan has always been a hero of mine. I remember when I was still just an adolescent I wrote him a letter on my opposition to use of fetal tissue for transplantation. I wanted to let him know that even though I was young, my mind was on science and that I felt we could find better ways to combat parkinsons and alzeheimers.

I remember how happy I was to get a letter back. It was mostly a form letter, but he thanked me for my enthusiasm and encouraged my interest in science. Soon after the bill was signed to ban the use of fetal tissus. Now I KNOW that my little letter didn't make his mind up - but it felt so good to know that he actually listened to the little people - especially a kid out of Orange Co, CA.

So many people don't realize that Bush really is alot like Reagan. They call Bush and idiot or dim because he mixes up his words and sometimes mangles others - what they don't want to admit is that Reagan did the same thing and laughed about it. Bush and Reagan have / had a strong love of the United States, not an obsession with BEING president.

posted June 10, 2004 09:14 PM            

I heard something the other day about Reagan writing letters in reply to those who wrote him. I know he couldn't possibly have answered them all but his secretary said he hand wrote letters for her to type and that grammatically they needed no changes, including punctuation. Reagan was a writer who wrote his own addresses, contrary to the airheads who considered him an amiable dunce, he was a far seeing visionary---but of a different stripe from those who were only pundits and had no responsibility and took none for being eternally wrong.

This is a story about Ronald Reagan's ever present war with the so called intelligencia over the Soviet Union and the weakness of communism.
You will recognize some of the famous names who were oh so wrong.

Reagan vs. the Intellectuals
Dinesh D'Souza
Thursday, June 10, 2004

Although there is a tide of sympathy for Reagan on the occasion of his death, the magnitude of his achievements continues to be debated. Indeed many historians and scholars refuse to credit Reagan’s policies as a decisive factor in assuring America’s victory in the cold war.

Rather, they insist that Soviet Communism suffered from chronic economic problems and predictably collapsed, as Strobe Talbott, a former journalist at Time and later a senior official in the Clinton State Department, put it, “not because of anything the outside world has done or not done but because of defects and inadequacies at its core.”

If so, it is reasonable to expect that the inevitable Soviet collapse would have been foreseen by these experts. Let us see what some of them had to say about the Soviet system during the 1980s.

In l982, the learned Sovietologist Seweryn Bialer of Columbia University wrote in Foreign Affairs, “The Soviet Union is not now nor will it be during the next decade in the throes of a true systemic crisis, for it boasts enormous unused reserves of political and social stability.”

This view was seconded that same year by the eminent historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., who observed that “those in the United States who think the Soviet Union is on the verge of economic and social collapse” are “wishful thinkers who are only kidding themselves.”

John Kenneth Galbraith, the distinguished Harvard economist, wrote in l984: “That the Soviet system has made great material progress in recent years is evident both from the statistics and from the general urban scene.

One sees it in the appearance of solid well-being of the people on the streets and the general aspect of restaurants, theaters, and shops. Partly, the Russian system succeeds because, in contrast with the Western industrial economies, it makes full use of its manpower.”

Equally imaginative was the assessment of Paul Samuelson of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a Nobel laureate in economics, writing in the l985 edition of his widely-used textbook. “What counts is results, and there can be no doubt that the Soviet planning system has been a powerful engine for economic growth. The Soviet model has surely demonstrated that a command economy is capable of mobilizing resources for rapid growth.”

Columnist James Reston of the New York Times in June 1985 revealed his capacity for sophisticated even-handedness when he dismissed the possibility of the collapse of Communism on the grounds that Soviet problems were not different from those in the United States. “It is clear that the ideologies of Communism, socialism and capitalism are all in trouble.”

But the genius award undoubtedly goes to Lester Thurow, another MIT economist and well-known author who, as late as l989, wrote, “Can economic command significantly accelerate the growth process? The remarkable performance of the Soviet Union suggests that it can. Today the Soviet Union is a country whose economic achievements bear comparison with those of the United States.”

Throughout the 1980s, most of these pundits derisively condemned Reagan’s policies. Strobe Talbott faulted the Reagan administration for espousing “the early fifties goal of rolling back Soviet domination of Eastern Europe,” an objective he considered misguided and unrealistic.

“Reagan is counting on American technological and economic predominance to prevail in the end,” Talbott scoffed, adding that if the Soviet economy was in a crisis of any kind “it is a permanent, institutionalized crisis with which the U.S.S.R. has learned to live.”

Perhaps one should not be too hard on the wise men. After all, explains Arthur Schlesinger in the aftermath of the Soviet collapse, “History has an abiding capacity to outwit our certitudes. No one foresaw these changes.”

Not true. Reagan foresaw them. In l981, Reagan told the students and faculty at the University of Notre Dame, “The West won’t contain Communism. It will transcend Communism. We will dismiss it as some bizarre chapter in human history whose last pages are even now being written.”

In l982, Reagan told the British Parliament in London: “In an ironic sense, Karl Marx was right.

We are witnessing today a great revolutionary crisis. But the crisis is happening not in the free, non-Marxist West, but in the home of Marxism-Leninism, the Soviet Union.”

Reagan added that “it is the Soviet Union that runs against the tide of history by denying freedom and human dignity to its citizens” and he predicted that if the Western alliance remained strong it would produce a “march of freedom and democracy which will leave Marxism-Leninism on the ash-heap of history.”

In l987 Reagan spoke at the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin. “In the Communist world,” he said, “we see failure, technological backwardness, declining standards¼Even today, the Soviet Union cannot feed itself.”

Thus the “inescapable conclusion” in his view was that “freedom is the victor.” Then Reagan said, “General Secretary Gorbachev. Come here to this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.”

Not long after this, the wall did come tumbling down, and Reagan’s prophecies all came true. These were not just results Reagan predicted. He intended the outcome. He implemented policies that were designed to achieve it.

He was harshly denounced for those policies. Yet Reagan turned out to be right, and in the end his objective—the complete triumph of Western freedom over Soviet totalitarianism—was achieved.

posted June 10, 2004 09:49 PM            

Liberals treat Bush with the same venomous hate they lavished on Reagan. Their problem is that they are proven wrong at every turn and while they are in the Kerry camp, in fact an extension of the democrat national committee, they are actually hurting Kerry.

Facts are facts and events are unfolding pretty much along the lines Bush said they would. In a few days, Iraq will have a functioning sovereign government, Saddam is gone, the Taliban are gone, 50 million people are free that wouldn't be if Bush had listened to the liberals and terrorists all over the world are being captured or killed. Soon, there will be no place for them to hide out as the President puts ever increasing pressure on terrorist governments to cease giving them shelter and assistance.

Those governments have had a clear picture of what the consequences are for using terrorist proxies to fight their battles anonymously.

Tax cuts have produced an economy that is roaring along just like the Reagan economy of the early to mid 80's, jobs are being produced in that economy and really, Kerry is stuck in defining our economy as a depression. That isn't playing, nor is Kerry's pessimism or his constant refrain of turning America's security interests over to foreign governments for review or the corrupt UN.

The Bush vision is free people all over the world with representative governments in place and that's the same vision Reagan had when he confronted and defeated the Soviet Union. Different methods, same vision. Who would have thought liberals would object to freedom, considering all the so called compassion that drips off them like sweat?

posted June 11, 2004 08:36 AM            

America's greatest president has gone home. God worked through Ronald Reagan on Earth and now He's taken him back. Reagan is survived by his wife, three children, and the hundreds of millions of people he saved by winning the Cold War. Thanks to him, the United States of America never ceased to be, as Reagan said, "a place to escape to" -- the last stand on Earth.

No thanks to liberals, I might add. More enraging than their revisionist history of Reagan, is liberals' revisionist history about themselves. Now liberals claim they liked Reagan at the time. This is extremely believable -- aren't we all fond of someone who regularly exposes us as liars, cowards and hypocrites? It's just human nature.

In fact and of course, liberals loathed Reagan. Their European friends loathed Reagan -- the protests against our current president are positively anemic compared to the massive protests against President Reagan when he went to visit our dear "allies," whose sorry as*ses we spent billions of dollars defending against the Soviets for 50 years. Even the moderate Republicans currently trying to insinuate themselves onto Reagan's legacy weren't especially fond of Reagan at the time -- especially when attacking him publicly would get them invites to the tonier Georgetown cocktail parties. Only authentic Americans loved Reagan.

From the descriptions in the media, you would think the reason Reagan was beloved by Americans was that he was an affable fellow who could tell a good joke. That's a description of Bob Dole, not Ronald Reagan.

Reagan was a March hare right-winger. He had enough faith in the American people to know that as long as the facts were clear, they would rise to the occasion and be March hare right-wingers, too. As Reagan himself said, back in 1964: "Our Democratic opponents seem unwilling to debate these issues. They want to make you and me believe that this is a contest between two men ... that we are to choose just between two personalities."

Reagan forced Americans to confront the real ideological divide between conservatives and, as he said, "our liberal friends." But now liberals are trying to muddy the political waters by passing off Reagan's popularity as a result of his personal magnetism. I note that liberals were strangely immune to that magnetism at the time. Only now do they talk about Reagan's outsized personality as if he worked some sort of beguiling magic over the electorate and tricked them into supporting policies they never quite understood.

While Reagan had undeniable magnetism, what set him apart was that he had the courage to speak the truth and trust the American people. In the 1964 speech that launched his political career, "A Time for Choosing," Reagan never smiled. He told no jokes -- though he did say some amusing things inasmuch as he was talking about "our liberal friends."

In the throes of the Cold War -- still hot in Vietnam -- Reagan forthrightly said liberals refused to acknowledge that the choice was not between "peace and war, only between fight and surrender." In words that would have come in pretty handy in Spain just a few months ago, he said liberals tell us "if we only avoid any direct confrontation with the enemy, he will forget his evil ways and learn to love us." All who disagree with the "peace" crowd, he said, "are indicted as warmongers." To this, Reagan said: "Let's set the record straight. There is no argument over the choice between peace and war, but there is only one guaranteed way you can have peace -- and you can have it in the next second -- surrender."

This wasn't sunny old grandpa carrying candy around in his pocket for children. After watching Walter Cronkite's coverage of the Vietnam War in December 1972, Reagan told President Richard Nixon, "under World War II circumstances, the network (CBS) would have been charged with treason."

Reagan quoted "Mr. Democrat himself," Al Smith, for the proposition that the Democratic Party was no longer the party of Jefferson, Jackson and Cleveland, but was now the party of Marx, Lenin and Stalin. (And that was 30 years before they tried to push Hillarycare on us.)

Reagan was a bulldog, completely, implacably right-wing on every issue. He was the right-wing Energizer Bunny. He never quit and he kept beating liberals. He cut taxes 25 percent across the board his first year in office; he walked away from Gorbachev at Reykjavik; he fired all those air traffic controllers -- and wouldn't let them come back even when they wanted to; he gave speeches about "welfare queens" and polluting trees; he nominated Antonin Scalia and Robert Bork to the Supreme Court; and he enraged grim liberals when he warmed up his radio mike by saying, "My fellow Americans, I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes."

But now they're telling us Reagan was a "pragmatist." Well, not according to him. As he was wrapping up the Republican primaries in 1980 and moderate weenies in the Republican Party were trying to move him to the "center," Reagan said: "No, I'm not moving my positions any. ... I believe the same things that I've been speaking on for years, and I don't see any reason to change."

Thank God he didn't. Because Reagan lived, the world is a better place.

posted June 12, 2004 02:02 PM            

Yes, it was Gorbachev who paid the price for being what RR saw and said was the "Evil Empire" and the Soviet Union paid the price too. But let's keep it all in perspective.

Had it not been for Ronald Reagan or someone very much like him, willing to stand up to the Soviet Union with most of the world against him, rearm America and speak clearly to what he saw as the evil of institutional slavery to the communist government of the Soviet Union, one day it might have been the Soviet leader telling an American President to surrender. I doubt Ronald Reagan ever told Gorbachev to surrender but I have absolutely no doubt if the situation had been reversed, that's exactly what a Soviet leader would have told an American President.

Let's not forget here that not only did RR win the cold war without firing a shot but unlike most wars, when the war is over both nations remain, still viable, still distinct governments. The Soviet Union ceased to exist!

This is what people from all over the world are saying about Ronald Reagan.

Filemon and Rosa Morales, North Las Vegas, Nevada:

I am from Nicaragua and today we say goodbye to our hero, our liberator. Because of his courage we, the Nicaraguan people are freed from a brutal tyranny and communist regime. Ronald Reagan put his life and his career on the line to give us freedom and dignity. He helped the contras win a war agaist the Sandinistas, a communist goverment, governed by Cuba and the Soviet Union. President Reagan will be remembered by all the Nicaraguan people as a hero. God bless him and his family for giving a whole nation hope, freedom and a bright future. Goodbye to a Hero!

Philip Spada, Glendale, California:

I was a waiter in New York, a Democrat, when I heard Ronald Reagan's "A Time for Choosing" speech. Though almost broke, I was so moved that I sent a $10 donation to "Goldwater for President" and re-registered as a Republican. Later, as a California Republican, I was invited to and attended Reagan's first Governor's Inauguration in Sacramento. God Bless Ronald Reagan!

Rick Orick, Tennessee Air National Guard, Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri:

In 1983 Ronald Reagan shook my hand at Langley AFB, Va. He shook my wife's hand too. She was pregnant with our son. I'll never forget the way he did a double-take at this 8-months-pregnant Korean immigrant who was literally jumping with joy at the opportunity to meet him. We've laughed at his wide-eyed expression and "so pleased to meet you" smile often. Thank you Ronnie! We will miss you. God bless your family and God bless America!

Rhonda Miles, New Smyrna Beach, Florida:

I had a baby boy, born on Sept. 11, 2001 and I named him Reagan, after President Reagan. He will be told of this great man and all the wonderful things he stood for when he is older.

Elias Santos, Inglewood, California:

President Reagan changed my life. My father is a sergeant in the Los Angeles Police Department. One day a family that lived in the neighborhood he patrolled was robbed of everything just before Christmas. My father and his partner purchased a tree and presents for the children with their own money. My father received a personal phone call from President Reagan thanking him for his humanity. My father also met with President George H.W. Bush after the Los Angeles riots. You see, I was a gang member and to be honest a terrible son. I stood for everything that my father fought against. But when I saw the respect and the humanity that my father both showed and received, when I realized that my father had something special in him that two U.S. presidents saw, I changed my ways. I now am a born-again conservative. I have my own family, a good job, and a great future. In a way I've always credited President Reagan with helping me turn my life around. I will miss him and everything he exemplifies.

Rebecca Rivera, Chatsworth, California:

Mrs. Reagan, I am of the generation of Americans who came of age during the "Me Generation" '80s who blindly accepted the demonization of your husband and all that he stood for. As a woman in her mid-forties, I have evolved into a person who now only feels great shame and embarrasment over that narrow-minded and intolerant view. I humbly ask you and your family to forgive me and accept my deepest condolences for your loss. Your husband embodied the moral clarity, strength, courage, maturity, and wisdom needed to lead a nation as great as ours and I am proud and grateful for having been born in this great country that your husband so proudly loved and protected.

Felix Yelin, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania:

I am a first-generation American, with my parents coming from the former Soviet Union. Although they came here before Reagan came to power, I believe that all immigrants from that former communist state owe President Reagan their greatest thank-yous for winning the Cold War and freeing a generation. My condolences to Nancy Reagan and family. God bless you all.

Sgt. Larry Oliver, Lake Mills, Wisconsin:

When I was a child, I used to write to President Reagan. It was important to me to know I had the ear of such an important man. What was even more nice was receiving letters back from him. I believe that in itself showed such class. I will miss him...

Tom D'Andrea, Punta Gorda, Florida:

My father (Tom D'Andrea) appeared opposite Ronald Reagan in a film titled "This Is the Army." Dad was under contract at Warner Brothers from 1946 until 1950. He always held Reagan the actor, the president and the man in the highest regard, and so do I.

Steven Hale, Hazel Green, Alabama:

Few people have influenced and moved me like President Reagan. I had been raised a Democrat and my parents were Roosevelt Democrats. President Reagan was interviewed by Barbara Walters on "20/20." His straightforward answers were not what she wanted to hear, yet they were spoken with conviction, clarity, and humility. His pro-life stance was so courageous, and you could tell it is what he really believed. I turned to my wife and said: "I'm voting for that man. He has character and courage." His eight years in the White House proved that statement to be absolutely correct.

Deborah Strole, Dewey, Arizona:

President Reagan's leadership epitomized the healing needed after a decade of self-contempt. The "blame America" 1960s idealism took a break while this incredibly uplifting man led us on a journey I will never forget. God bless President Reagan.

Erik Farley, Worthington, Ohio:

I once wished that I had lived in the time of great leaders like Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln. And now I know - I did.

Myron May, Arroyo Grande, California:

I first remember Ronald "Dutch" Reagan as a baseball announcer back in Iowa when I was a kid. All Iowa was happy for him when he got the chance at Hollywood. Later in life I had the privlege to vote for him for President. Our family loved "Dutch." Our country needs more men like him! God bless him!

Jean Hynes:

We will all miss such a fine man, with such beautiful tenderness. Take comfort in the words of Paul: "to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord." Ronald Reagan is more alive today than he has ever been!

Ed Williams, Liberty, Missouri:

I am a registered Democrat but I voted for Reagan twice. He was a man that still had America at heart. May he rest in peace.

Tesa Beem, Fort Myers, Florida:

Mrs. Reagan, when I was 12 years old, my older brother and I attended a speech your husband was giving at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. We were by far the youngest in the audience, and although we sat near the front and I listened very attentively, I really didn't understand a thing the Governor of California was saying. But I remember that I sat mesmerized by him. When it was over, my brother and I began walking to meet our parents several blocks from the SMU auditorium from which he spoke. We were off by ourselves, but a big black limousine passed slowly by. The back window unrolled and your husband stuck out his hand and waved at us. I think he must have recognized our small frames from the auditorium. The first vote I ever cast when I became eligible to vote was for your husband. I will always be so proud of that vote.

William Shankel, M.D., Kapaa, Hawaii:

President Reagan was always a true friend to the Vietnam-era ex-POWs. We will always remember him fondly as a great patriot.

Claude Croteau, France:

Mes plus sincères condoléances à madame Reagan et à toutes sa familles. Le Président Reagan est le seul président de l'histoire des États-Unies qui s'est tenu debout devant les syndicats (air traffic controllers). Je sympathise aussi avec madame Reagan pour toute la souffrance qu'elle a endurées durant les années durant lesquelles son mari souffrait de la maladie d'Alzheimer. J'en sais quelques chose, mon épouse étant atteint de cette dévastatrice maladie depuis 3 ans.

(My most sincere condolences to Mrs. Reagan and to all the family. President Reagan was the only president in the history of the United States who stood up to the unions (air traffic controllers). I sympathize also with Mrs. Reagan for all the suffering she endured during the years her husband suffered from Alzheimer's disease. I know because my spouse has been suffering from this devastating disease for three years.)

Tomas Regalado, San Salvador, El Salvador:

I offer my deepest and most sincere condolences to Mr. Reagan's family accompanying them with their grief. At the same time we should be proud of having had such a president, so charismatic, communicator, courageous and great a statesman as he was. Being a citizen of El Salvador and having lived in the U.S. for seventeen years, I feel that Mr. Reagan was my president, and I feel very proud!!! Long live Mr. Reagan in all our hearts!!!! Blessed be his soul!!!

Paul Minnick, Deland, Florida:

As a retired serviceman, I salute the president and say thank you and God bless your wonderful wife, Nancy. You truly will see a shining city awaiting you in our Father's arms. God bless America.

Zoltan Linzer, Rathdrum, Idaho:

The world is in the debt of Ronald Reagan forever.
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2004/6/8/164406.shtml

Joe Aguayo, Hanover, MD:

I had the great privilege to be one of the first 150 to pay my respects to President Reagan. I was in line for 9 hours, and I would do it again in a thousand lifetimes for this man. It was not unusual to hear people in the line say that they loved the Ronald Reagan. There were people from various countries from around the world who were standing in line along with us Americans. Thank You Mr. President, For making the world a safer place for my children. Shalom Alieka, (Peace be unto You) My friend.

Nadine Stratford, Florence, KY:

I want to express to you my great admiration for President Reagan. He gave hope to millions of people behind the iron curtain and around the world. I was born and grew up in France. I have been married 45 years to a wonderful American husband, and I want to apologize for Jacques Chiras's attitude. It is outrageous. I am ashamed of his behaviour. He is the exact opposite of President Reagan.

Leila Hayes, Homeland, CA:

Dear Nancy and Family, watching you on television Wednesday, when you layed your head on your dear husband's casket, I felt a sadness beyond words. I pray I can be as supportive and as devoted a wife and friend as you were to Mr. Reagan. He was a very blessed man to have you by his side. Ron will be with us all, always.

Craig Lykins, Rio Rancho, New Mexico:

As an actor, as a governor, as our greatest President...AND AS A MAN - RONALD REAGAN WAS A KINGLY MAN. ... Heaven will now be a better place.

Abha Rani Das, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India:

Dear Mrs. Reagan & Family, His death is the greatest loss to the world. Accept our deepest condolences. I was his craziest fan......so, it is an immense loss to me also..... Hope, God will give enough strength to you and your family to overcome such a difficult situation....

Barbara Ulery, Glendale, AZ:

He restored my faith in America...you both restored my faith in marriage. The world is a better place because he was here...thanks for sharing him with the rest of us - it was a great gift, and his legacy will continue.

Zaheer Ahmed Khan, Rawalpindi/Islamabad, Pakistan:

I have shocked, when I heard a news for President Reagan passes away from us, He was the great person, who tried his best to make peace for the world and his country, He was the person people like him as a good personality, the world have great loss a person who worked for the all people related with any country, our huge condolences and sympathy with the great person Mr. Reagan's family, he will alive in our hearts forever.

Robert Reed, Fremont, CA:

I was born October 22, 1962 and forced to live my childhood in the "duck and cover" reality of the communist threat. So when I turned eighteen I voted in my first election and was very proud to help the right man to become President. It was the next 8 years that he proved it, to me and to the world. Thanks to both of you my children never have to learn that terrible "duck and cover" we practiced in school. Thank you for being such a great partner to the greatest President in our History.

Hafeizh Putra Astian, Bandung, Jawa Barat, Indonesia:

To Mrs. Reagan, and family please accept my sympathy, I feel very sad because, he has leave us here, actually, I really want to met him if someday, but it's impossible now, I believe that he is the best president that US have had, whether I'm an Indonesian, Ronald Reagan always be my idol, and I promise you Mrs. reagan, Someday I'm gonna be Someone like Ronald Reagan, a man who can change the world, and a man who have great influence to the world, and the world respect him. Regards

Dr. and Mrs. Terry J. Moody, Dallas, Texas:

I cannot remember in my lifetime (I am 55) a President who inspired America more or who raised the national level of patriotism more than President Reagan. A quotation from Raymond Chandler says it best about President Reagan; "Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid... He is the hero, he is everything. He must be a complete man and a common man and yet an unusual man. He must be, to use a rather weathered phrase, a man of honor, by instinct, by inevitability, without thought of it, and certainly without saying it. He must be the best man in his world and a good enough man for any world."

Sharon Appier, Garden Grove, CA:

I am old enough to remember the astonishing disintegration of the Soviet Union and the removal of the Wall. I can never express the deep relief the flowed through my whole being! At the time I had two sons, one of whom was just married and had a pregnant wife. All of their growing years I remember feeling so tense whenever I thought of the constant threats of a nuclear holocost. Then suddenly, it was over. I know it took years of work on President Reagans part - and others as well. But I really don't think it would have happened if President Reagan hadn't been in office at that time!

John Newbold, Kirkland, Washington:

Ronald Reagan was the people's President. He spoke to the common dreams and hopes of all of us. I too was one of the "duck and cover" crowd who had to practice air raid drills once a month in school. We all knew hiding under a desk was not going to save your fanny from a nuclear bomb. Ronald Reagan knew it and saved a lot of our fannies....God Bless Ronald Reagan.

Captain Bob Lambert Lt. (ret) USNR, Mcurrysville, PA:

President Reagan was my Commander in Chief while I was winging around the Med and Persian Gulf in my trusty F-14 during the mid 80’s. No matter what your political persuasion or beliefs; if you are a person who truly loves this country you must stop and give tribute to this great man. He was indeed a bright beacon of hope when this nation and the world needed it…Thanks Dutch.

Anthony Harwood, Tampa, Florida:

I was a teenager when you first took office. I was deeply worried about our future with the Cold War, Iran, gas shortages, inflation, interest rates, etc. I had many sleepless nights scared of what looked like a dark future. Then you came along. Your speeches lifted me and game me hope. Your optimism filled my heart and inspired me to work hard and to never give up. I am now 37 married with two children; Zachary (5) and Reagan (2). Yes, I named my only daughter after you.

Barbara Link, Callaway, MD:

I can remember holding my first born child in 1981 and thanking God that she would grow up in a world with a man such as Ronald Reagan at the helm. He has left the world a dramatically better place. We are all grateful to you, Mrs. Reagan, for your love and support to a man who gave all for his country. With such an amazing woman to love him, it is no wonder he was able to accomplish the many great and noble things that he did.

Stanley Adyasa, Kota Bahru, Malaysia:

We condolence of Ronald Reagan and I very respect to his family. He is a great and famous USA Presidnt that I like him God bless him and also his family.

Tomasz Pompowski, Wroclaw, Inowroclawska 27/45:

As a Pole I am indebted greatly to Mr. President for disassambling communist system and liberating Poland. I will never forget his strong voice on Radio Free Europe. He appreciated the role of that radio bringing hope among closed behind Iron Curtain. His policy backing Solidarity movement and strenghtening opposition inside Poland should not be forgotten. Poland has many reasons to be greatful for Him. Let God bless America richly in everything!

Manuel Salazar Jr., Lamont, Ca.:

In the name of all Nicaraguan Americans who love freedom and democracy, we thank you Mr. President Ronald Reagan for your help and support to have an American continent free of the communist oppression., you will always live in our hearts and thoughts. To the Family our most sincere condolences and we have you in our prayers, Mrs. Nancy Reagan, we love you.

Roger D. Brown, San Jose, California:

My parents knew "Dutch" when they were all young. He never changed in their eyes or mine as a son of them. He represented the best in all of us Americans. I am proud to say I knew of him. No one can sum up a man's life, but I wish I could be as good a person and American as he.

Carol Sue Saunders, Yakima, Washington:

When I was first becoming aware of politics Ronald Reagan was there. In Spokane WA, a network local staion had just did a four part series about abortion. You guessed it, every single word was in support of abortion. Then Ronald Reagan was campaigning to be President of the United States and he said that he was adamantly against abortion. I thought he was the bravest person on the planet at that moment for I knew a lesser candidate would not have been so bold as to go against what was thought to be the popular opinion of the masses. My life is so much better for having had Ronald Wilson Reagan in it. I am very grateful for the ways in which his dear spirit influenced the world in which I live.

Shalla Young, Lincoln, NE:

I was lucky enough, along with 25 other young women to be a "Reaganette" in 1976 at the Republican Convention in Kansas City in 1976. We had such a wonderful experience and enjoyed meeting young Ron at the time. I lived in Washington D.C. for several years and worked on the President's 1980 and 1984 campaigns and the '80 and '84 Republican conventions. Those will always be the best years of our lives. I now live in my home state of Nebraska, and have my own family. I treasure my pictures of you and the President which decorate a few walls in my home. Our thoughts and prayers are with you.

Maria Medrano, Mohave Valley, Arizona:

I am 38 yrs old and President Reagan was my favorite President, he also passed away from the same disease as my grandmother and I can relate to the feelings and emotions. I would just like to share a little story about my grandmother, she was diagnosed 6 months before President announces that he had Alzhiemers, she would not take her medication, she happened to be watching TV that day, and she turned to us and said "You know, I have the same disease as President Reagan", from that day on she took her medication, she passed away 3 yrs ago. I commend you Nancy you are a prime example of true wife, woman and friend.

Donal MacInnes, CMSgt, USAF, Retired, Rio Rancho, NM:

I was serving in the U.S. Air Force in Europe before President Reagan was elected. At this time there was a force weakness due to lack of parts for our airplanes, the result was weakness in the morale of the military force. I was working the the USAF European Air Headquarters during the election and we were all elated whith the results of the election. Prior to the election we maintained a list of "Hangar Queens," aircraft with no repair parts and not ready for war. After the election of President Reagan all this changed as needed parts began to flow in, morale of the force soared and importantly the readiness of the force as a deterrent to the USSR was once again reassured. I thank God for the life and dedication of President Reagan and all he did to improve our country.

Jeffrey Dodd, Whiting, NJ:

When I was a boy, I saw Nixon, Ford, and Carter. I must be honest. I didn't really like them. Then came Reagan. I liked him. He seemed like a real person, in politics, not a politician. Just hearing him speak, made me proud to be an American. Thank God, I'm still Proud! Thank God for the right man, in the right job, at the right time.

Mark Kramer, Schaumburg, IL:

posted June 12, 2004 08:31 PM            

Liberals before and after Clinton better or worse? Wouldn't use the word worse, let's say different, very different but let's make that cutoff date earlier. Say Jackson, Stevenson, Humphrey, O'Neil, Moynihan v Kennedy, Levin, Stark, Kerry et al. of today. All liberals but very different kinds of liberals in my view.

Hmmm, if you ever had to make a choice between voting for Reagan or Dukakis, it must have been an election I missed

posted June 12, 2004 09:51 PM              

But yes, all very different sorts of Liberals. All different sorts of Conservatives out there too. I backed out of my first opportunity to vote. Both Bush and Dukakis made me want to vomit.

posted June 13, 2004 12:38 AM            

Jimmy Carter is the perfect example of a do gooder getting lots and lots of people killed and others enslaved---all with the best of intentions. Carter ushered in the era of and the spread of the radical Islamic clerics in the Middle East and was the one responsible for the mess in Central America that Reagan had to deal with. Now we have to deal with the mess he left by opening the door wide open to the radical clerics in Iran. It was Carter who brought the Ayatollah Khomeini to power in Iran, though I doubt it was his intention. I just wonder who he thought was going to fill the vacuum when he withdrew support for the Shaw of Iran?

Well, Bush senior was no Ronald Reagan. Still, he did a good job but he lost the support of conservatives when he broke his promise. Remember the phrase, "read my lips, no new taxes?" He still would have beaten Clinton in a landslide if Ross Perot hadn't siphoned off almost 18% of the vote, most of it Republican and Independents who would have held their noses and voted for Bush and no way in hell for Clinton.

I was a Kennedy Democrat believe it or not. Looking back and all things considered, I was in the right place for my political beliefs at the time. That was before I found out that Kennedy betrayed the Cubans who launched an attack on Cuba to overthrow Castro. The CIA and Eisenhower had promised them limited air support for their invasion which became known as the Bay of Pigs and at the last minute and after the invasion was already launched and they were in Cuba fighting for their lives, Kennedy gave the order preventing any air support, any at all. Some damned fine Cuban patriots lost their lives or were imprisoned in Castro's hellhole prisons because of John Kennedy not to mention the Communist beachhead on this continent from which Castro has attempted to foment communist revolutions in South and Central America for 40 years. I was too young to vote for Kennedy, so I'm giving myself a pass for that lapse of good judgement

I think it's safe to say that most people become more conservative as they get older. You still have a few good liberal years left TINK unless you're an exceptionally fast learner Winston Churchill said, "If you're not a liberal when you're 20, you have no heart; if you're not a conservative when you're 40, you have no brain."

posted June 13, 2004 04:21 AM            

I could while away the hours, conferrin' with the flowers
Consultin' with the rain.
And my head I'd be scratchin' while
my thoughts were busy hatchin'
If I only had a brain.
I'd unravel every riddle for any individ'l,
In trouble or in pain.
With the thoughts you'll be thinkin'
you could be another Lincoln
If you only had a brain.
Oh, I could tell you why the ocean's near the shore.
I could think of things I never thunk before.
And then I'd sit, and think some more.
I would not be just a nothin' my head all full of stuffin'
My heart all full of pain.
I would dance and be merry, life would be a ding-a-derry,
If I only had a brain.

posted June 14, 2004 12:20 AM            

When a man's an empty kettle, he should be on his mettle,
And yet I'm torn apart.
Just because I'm presumin' that I could be kind-a-human,
If I only had heart.
I'd be tender - I'd be gentle and awful sentimental
Regarding Love and Art.
I'd be friends with the sparrows ...
and the boys who shoots the arrows
If I only had a heart.
Picture me - a balcony. Above a voice sings low.
Wherefore art thou, Romeo? I hear a beat....
How sweet.
Just to register emotion, jealousy - devotion,
And really feel the part.
I could stay young and chipper,
and I'd lock it with a zipper,
If I only had a heart.

posted February 24, 2009 09:47 AM              

And all these years later i have no recollection of his words but of the feeling they induced...

These bits are particularly relevant even today as we debate Obama and the Left.

quote:

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Ronald Reagan was hated, and still is, in the feminist-establishment circles in which I grew up. That milieu subsists on enemies and hatred.

{{ Old saying - a good cause needs no negative comes to mind }}

I took my cues from the women around me, women I admired. They were strong and confident, and they knew. They knew who was out to get us. They knew who was determined to throw us back into the Dark Ages. They knew Reagan was evil.

I tell you this not as an excuse for my past actions but as a further illustration of what I’ve been discussing throughout this book – the way malignant narcissism is spread.

{{ Righto , liberalism and its brand of Socilialist feminism is nothing more than choosing to practice a 3 year old's Narcissism. A shrink would label it as a clinical mental disease that has no cure in psychiatry , liberals call it Feminism and Liberalism }}

You see, the seed of my politics, the politics I espouse now, were already manifested in my voting for President Reagan 10 years earlier. I liked him, and I believed he had the best interests of Americans in mind. During my involvement with NOW, however, what took over was my need to be accepted, the romanticization of my “victimhood,” and the power I could achieve by following the models of the women at the top.

{{ Ofcourse these hard left nutsiedaisies call themselves victims - voluntarily ,for no reason whatsoever - they have no other claim to righteousness , hell they have NO conception of what is Right and what is wrong.For them to be right they have to LIE about being victims loud enough so any other truth is unheard.}}

Those women were happy that Reagan was sick, so I would be, too.

The conditioning of the Left Elite works so well partly because the people attracted to that camp are looking for family, they are looking to belong; consequently people like that – people like me – are easy pickings. My emptiness compelled me to cheer when a decent man who followed his principles was struck down by an unforgiving assailant. Alzheimer’s had done what many feminist leaders fantasized about doing themselves, if only they could get away with it.

Today, I am still pro-choice, and I still support fetal tissue research. But I now realize that those who disagree with me also have good points. I hope they reflect on their position as often as I do on mine, because both camps are on the razor’s edge. I have made my commitment to women and reproductive freedom, while my compatriots on the other side of the fence, mostly because of their religious faith, have made a pact with what they call “the unborn.”

{{ Ahh.. for that exception to the rule - we could do with them here at GU}}

Mrs. Reagan’s humanity illustrated by counterpoint the soullessness of the Left. We, the Feminist and Gay Elites, inflicted on society narcissists’ biggest crime of all: We couldn’t see beyond our own interests and desires. We became indecent in defending our principles

{{ aahh, i bet they must have torn her apart over this...the commie homos hate the right way lesser than they hate those who awake to sense }}

While I don’t hold out any hope for the damaged Left Elite I’ve exposed for you in this book, I know that we as individuals can overcome and reject what the Left demands of us – the abandonment of right and wrong, the banishment of decency and integrity, the rejection of what the Reagans, both of them, represent.

{{ woah...A LEFTIST, FEMINIST ,NATIONAL COMMISSION FOR WOMEN lady actually ADMITS the Left is damaged and that they have NO SENSE of RIGHT , i bet her book got trashed by the libbies }}

---

Must buy ther book and scan for the damaged goods on GU