Posted on 06/05/2004 8:29:41 PM PDT by Piranha
The current uproar about the canceled Reagan miniseries reminded me of the last time I met the president. I had first met him when he ran for president and I supported him as a member of Democrats for Reagan (Yes, believe it or not, I used to be a Democrat. I didn’t change; the Party did and I said goodbye when it left me. But that’s another story).
Zaslavaky and Frumkin in Reagan’s Century City office. I met him again a few years later when I was invited to have dinner at the White House. It was an event honoring one of the African presidents (I don’t remember who it was) but I do remember that my wife decided to change her hairdo just before we left the hotel and we were late getting to the White House, something that apparently happens very seldom. It caused a flurry of phone calls from Washington to my office in Los Angeles with the Secret Service wanting to know where we were and why weren’t we at the dinner.
In the end it all turned out just fine; we enjoyed the dinner, my wife danced with the president who complimented her on her hairdo, and we chatted about the beautiful white horse he had just been given by the president of Mexico. Reagan insisted that the horse wasn’t a gift. “That would be illegal,” he chuckled, “it was a loan, just a loan until I give it back.”
The last time I met Reagan was after he had left office, in the early ’90s. I got a call from someone in Washington who told me that a member of the Russian Duma was coming to Los Angeles to see President Reagan and would I be willing to interpret during the visit, just in case the Russian didn’t speak any English.
As it turned out, my services were not really needed. Ilya Zaslavsky, the young Russian parliamentarian, was quite fluent in English. We met in the lobby of the Century City office building where Reagan’s office was on the top floor. Secret Service accompanied us into the elevator that didn’t even have the top floor marked on its control panel. Our escort used a special key to go up and President Reagan came out. smiling, to greet us.
Our meeting lasted less than twenty minutes. Mr. Zaslavsky, who is handicapped and uses crutches to walk, had been elected to the Duma in 1989 on a disabled rights platform. In 1990, still in his early 30s, he was elected to head the Oktyabrsky district in Moscow, a ward of 230,000 people. (I got this information off the Internet. Mr. Zaslavsky never mentioned how important or clever or powerful he was; he just sat there, awed, listening to Reagan).
He and the president complimented one another, Mr. Reagan told a few jokes and we had our pictures taken. Eventually the ex- president presented Mr. Zaslavsky with an autographed copy of his book, we all smiled, shook hands and the visit was over.
We took the elevator down and when we walked into the Century City sunshine I had a brief farewell conversation with Mr. Zaslavsky. I then understood much that hadn’t been clear to me before....
I asked Zaslavsky what his plans were for Los Angeles and offered to drive him around and show him the city.
He seemed surprised. “I am not staying in L.A.,” he said. “I am on my way to the airport. I am catching a plane back to Washington.”
“Oh?” I said smiling. “It doesn’t seem that it was worth a trip from D.C. to L.A. and back again just for twenty minutes with Reagan. Was it?”
He looked at me in honest amazement. I had a distinct feeling that he thought me surprisingly stupid.
“Not worth it?” he said in disbelief. “What are you talking about? This is a man who saved our country. He saved Europe. He probably saved the world Ð and America as well. Are you kidding? I would travel a week, a month, just to shake his hand.”
He slowly turned and limped away. I stood there, embarrassed. Zaslavsky’s contempt for my ignorance was well deserved.
He was right. Ronald Reagan did win the most important battle of the 20th century. He recognized the Evil Empire for the evil that it was, he took it on, and he won. He — and some of his successors, including the current president — recognized and believed that America’s destiny and America’s duty is to fight evil. If it weren’t for President Reagan the Soviet Union might still be a superpower and the U.S. might be isolated, alone, and facing a hostile Soviet-dominated world. Th[ose] who denigrate his accomplishments will be forgotten but the generations of those who will live in freedom, as free men and women, will honor his name.
-------------------------------------------------------- Published biweekly, Graffiti for Intellectuals is available without charge. Write Mr. Frumkin at esfrumkin@adelphia.net or Southern California Council for Soviet Jews, P.O. Box 1542, Studio City, CA 91614.
(Excerpt) Read more at cppf.us ...
It will still be relevant in several years, several decades, even several centuries.
In 1976, my Dad, a WW2 and Korea Vet, taught me about the purpose of government and politics. He encouraged me to work a phone bank, calling registered voters in Fort Lauderdale, to let them know that Ronald Reagan would be speaking at the Armory.
Later, there was a breakfast for volunteers and supporters, but that's not what I remember. I remember sitting in the Armory with a thousand other people, hearing a story about a man who stole a smoked ham from his employer, sold it to a market, bought food stamps and then bought back the ham and replaced it on the shelf..."Who was harmed?" Reagan asked.
What Reagan said made what Newt Gingrich later said make sense...everything I read and hear in politics today, I understand through that story.
His legacy started the day the hostages were released. I will never forget the split screen of Reagan taking his oath of office and the planes taking off in Iran...
Piranha,
"Th[ose] who denigrate his accomplishments will be forgotten but the generations of those who will live in freedom, as free men and women, will honor his name" .........until the 'history revision police' get ahold of it!!
God bless a great President and Patriot, Ronald Reagan.
I remember one of the earlier evil empires that Governor Reagan skewered promptly after swearing into office in California.
I was too young to follow on the details, but I recall the grin on my father's face, the puff of a "seegar," and a brief explanation on how the fiefdoms of the plump academics in the "university system" of the State of California, had been handed their hats on various matters.
Dutchgirl I am puzzeled by your parable? Maybe it's late but can you explain it to me? Was Reagans comment, "Who was harmed" a statement, or as I hope, a question.
He doesn't remember who he was invited to the White House to honor? Anybody that jaded is hard to take seriously.
It was a question meant to make the audience think about OUR government...and how it was currently operating. The waste, the fraud, the entitlement attitude and how very far it had strayed from it's original purpose.
Today I got in the mail an envelope from the Reagan Library. They were asking for donations, but it contained an 8x11 of Reagan in the oval office. Kind of weird to get it today.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.