[DollyCali]

Welcome to the Singles Weekend Thread where this weekend we will remember Ronald Reagan who died a little over 2 years ago, June 5, 2004. (our mystery thread did not “come through” so this thread was a mystery to me also for a bit!!!!)

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[DollyCali]

Remembering Ronald Reagan
2 years since he died




And everyone.. a personal request of prayer for dear FReeper Lady-X. Maggie, a former marine has had a leg amputation & is NOT doing well.. here is here prayer thread & the latest update is post number 1168.

Lady X Thread Maggie is a lady with class & a joyful presence on Free Repubic.

[proud_yank]

The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'

Bears Repeating!

But my all time Reagan quote:

"How do you tell a communist? Well, it's someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It's someone who understands Marx and Lenin."

—Ronald Reagan Remarks in Arlington, Virginia, September 25, 1987

[Paddlefish]

And it is also the anniversary of the 1972 flood in Rapid City, SD, that killed 250+ people. See Rapid City Flood>

I survived, but so many of my neighbors did not. Don't want to provide a downer, but the heroic actions of so many that night are worth noting.

[AFPhys]

*~*

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.

~*~

Thank you, Dolly, for this memoriam.

The quotations are wonderful - the humorous as well as the serious - and the pictures are great. He was a darned handsome man.

I count him as one of the five most important mentors of my life. I proudly served my last years in the Air Force with Reagan as my Commander-in-Chief, and I salute him still.

[WFTR]

Dolly,

Thanks for posting this topic tonight. I had largely forgotten that this week marked the anniversary of President Reagan's death. I'd like to post something that I wrote for my own website two years ago (when I still had a website). As it turns out, this was my last commentary before Yahoo killed my website.

One More Tribute to President Ronald Reagan
This week will be filled with tributes to Ronald Reagan and rightly so. Understanding his place in our past will help us find the best path to our future. I'm part of that forgotten group between the "Baby Boomers" and the "Gen-X'ers," and I often feel that younger people don't understand how my generation feels about President Reagan. Others will give better reviews of his life and his presidency, but I'd like to explain why pictures of President Reagan and recordings of his words put a lump in my throat.

My earliest political memories were of Watergate and Vietnam. I barely remember the '72 election. I remember my parents saying that most politicians engaged in dirty tactics and that Nixon differed only in that he had been caught. The country had overwhelmingly rejected McGovern's liberalism, but the country was now acting as if it regretted that choice. I didn't understand many details, but that regret seemed misplaced. I understood even less about Vietnam, but the sense of having suffered a shameful loss was prevalent.

The election of Jimmy Carter in 1976 was the embrace of what he would later call "malaise." I occasionally read the history books in my junior high library, and I sensed the strength and pride that America felt after World War II. The attitude of the late 70's seemed to be that those feelings would be gone forever. The attitude seemed to be that communists were just too strong for us; we'd just have to learn to live with being subordinate to them; and maybe they were right anyway.

The communists were strong, dangerous, and wrong. I'm always amazed to hear otherwise intelligent people suggest that communism wasn't a big threat. These people talk about how communist governments have never been able to meet the needs of their own citizens as if that failure were relevant to the communists controlling the West. No communist government has ever cared whether it could meet the needs of its people. When demand rises above what communism can supply, communist governments kill their subjects until supply and demand are balanced again. Anyone who complains about either the unmet needs or the killings is killed also. In the last century, communist governments killed about 50 to 70 million of their own people. Communism is a bloodthirsty ideology. Through the late 70's, communism was expanding, and the only answer offered by the Carter administration was to boycott the 1980 Summer Olympic Games.

The Iranian hostage crisis defined the Jimmy Carter presidency and the direction that he represented. We had allowed our embassy to be taken without firing a shot. Our soldiers and citizens were bound and blindfolded in the face of our enemies. Our one attempt to rescue the hostages ended in disaster in the desert. Rescue missions are always risky, and the failure "could have happened to anyone."

Ronald Reagan was special because he reminded us that we could rise above what "could happen to anyone." He told us that we could defeat communism abroad and "malaise" at home. He told us that we didn't have to listen to those who advocate surrender and appeasement. Advocates of surrender and appeasement have never forgiven him either for being right or for telling us that we didn't have to listen to them.

President Reagan was never a certain pick for the Republican nomination or for the presidency. If George Bush had won another primary or two, he would have been the nominee. In the general election, Mr. Reagan not only faced Jimmy Carter but also faced a third-party run by John Anderson, a former Republican who was expected to take many Republican votes. A week before the 1980 election, people expected Jimmy Carter to win.

To be honest, I don't remember many details of the Reagan presidency. Eight months after the inauguration, I went to college and buried myself in books for the next seven years. My main goal was to be the best engineer that I could be, and striving to be my best fit the new attitude that most of us felt. I followed a few events, and they generally confirmed my trust in President Reagan.

I remember hearing of the Grenada invasion on a radio newscast while I was having breakfast in the dining hall. I had rejected an opportunity to join NROTC, but I halfway expected to be drafted someday. I hoped to finish college first to avoid having to start over later, but I thought my time had come. A friend and I watched the morning news in the student union building, and we were relieved to know that "the war" was already won without us.

I remember that tax cuts really did help the economy, but unfortunately, I don't remember "tear down this wall" when it was first spoken. I was vaguely aware of Iran-Contra, but even in hindsight it seems to be a great deal of prattle about very little substance. I wish that President Reagan had been able to reduce the size, scope, and cost of government as he wanted. If he had done so, we would be better off today. As it was, he did well with the situation that he had and won the Cold War.

Mostly, I remember that a future that once had often seemed dark was much brighter. I no longer feared that we just had to accept being less than the best. Certainly, we have problems that continued through the Reagan administration, but President Reagan really did move the country towards his vision of a shining city on a hill. For younger people who don't understand why some of us revere President Reagan so much, you have to know the difference between how we felt in the late 70's and how those feelings had changed by the late 80's.

God Bless you Ronald Reagan.


June 7, 2004

Copyright 2004 by William K. Kelly

[Theresawithanh]

Hi, Dolly, GREAT tribute to a GREAT President! I enjoyed reading the quotes from him, some I knew, but not all of them.

So, how's everybody doing tonight?

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

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