Posted on 06/06/2004 12:24:33 AM PDT by UlsterDavy
As I write this I am still having trouble grasping the fact that my great protector Ronald Reagan is gone. I was born in 1975 so President Reagan is the first President that I can remember as a young girl.
If you asked me to cite you specific Reagan policies from that time, there is no way I could do it. My memory did not capture details of tax cuts and supply-side economics. I can tell you though how clearly I remember the talk about “Russia and the bomb” and “nuclear fallout” that seemed to haunt my dreams when I was a young girl in the early 80s.
I remember the times when I sat with my father and watched the nightly news, which frequently showed President Reagan expounding on freedom and peace and protection of our blessed America. I trusted him and loved him. I would tell myself “President Reagan will not let the Russians get us.”
It amazes me now to think that a young girl could grasp something like that with such lion- hearted conviction. We were safe because President Reagan was on the job and you could not tell me otherwise without a fight! That is why I will always remember him as my “Great Protector.”
I came to terms with the fate of President Reagan years ago when I was a college student in 1994. After his Alzheimer’s announcement I knew I would never again see the man of the 1980s who crushed our enemies. For some reason though I was still at peace just knowing he was alive and breathing far away in California. I still felt that security just like I did as a little girl.
Today, while with my beloved conservative friends, I was shattered to hear of Ronald Reagan’s death. The child in me had lost her great protector and that was a feeling for which I never could have prepared.
The adult in me knows President Ronald Reagan is in a better place. He is free from pain and his loved ones are free from the daily constant heartache of seeing their husband and father deteriorate day after day. As an adult, I will take comfort in the thought that President Ronald Reagan is now sitting among the angels and watching his beloved America from above. But unfortunately, the 5 year old in my heart cannot accept that her noble hero is gone.
If I had one minute with that great man I would have told him that his presence (along with my father’s) in my childhood made me into the die-hard conservative that I am today. He made me believe in the free-enterprise system and the great strength of America and her people. I will be forever grateful for his leadership and vision. I told myself tonight to never give up on the Conservative cause, never fail it, and never let it down. Stand proud, fight hard for American principles, and take nothing for granted. That is what President Reagan would want from all of us.
God Bless you on your journey home Mr. President.
May God bless President Reagan. He is in a better place now.
Bump. I am old enough to remember his predecessor, and the despair that filled the country. Reagan came in and everything changed for the better. President Reagan, and his devoted wife Nancy, were the best. God bless him and his family.
Nice thread. Thanks to every1 for your thoughts.
I myself was just starting middle school when Reagan was elected. And yes, esp. in my area (ever the liberal bastion), there were jibes at me for ~defiantly~ having little "Reagan for President" sketches. (Not big words or stickers, mind you, just little doodles!)
I don't need to add much about what Reagan did for us, as it's been stated. For 1, I'll mention when I was entering college and Bush was the next candidate, even my Democrat best friend was lamenting having to let go of Reagan. "He made me feel proud being American." What better can you get?
I've been thinking how Reagan really fit w/"my era". How did the old man who dressed and coiffed so "conservatively" fit in w/our spiked purple hair and metal accoutrements and neon outfits?
I think it's the overall attitude: cheery, spunky, fun-loving.
Reagan, like my friend said, made alot of us feel good about ourselves again. Even those of us on the young side were aware there was apparently some shame in being American, for example. Now I had conservative parents who successfully instilled "extreme" pride in me from the get-go, but alot didn't. It just seemed alot of people were brighter, cheerier than earlier. We dressed happy and care-free and sharp and acted more energetic and that's how Reagan made alot of us feel. I think, anyway. Seemed ironically pretty sympatico w/the whole decade.
So if Reagan wasn't your president, I trust that you too are a foreign national like myself (although I now live in the US).
It is heart warming that there were others in other countries (at the time of him being president) that were touched by Ronald Reagan.
Growing up in British Northern Ireland, I remember growing up watching the conservative duo of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan. He had the utmost respect for Thatcher and she for him.
The world thanks you Ronald Reagan.
I love Margaret Thatcher, too. What a duo!
Any word from her lately?
Margaret Thatcher is back! She recently moved her office closer to the political hotbed to be more involved in British government and she is speaking at the Conservative party convention. She is also doing a US tour this year - I don't have any info on it but it may be on FR. British Conservatives are itching for a strong true conservative leader and hopefully Maggie can groom someone that is close to her.
Obviously Maggie will speak at her dear friend Ronald Reagan's funeral this week.
This is the only thing I could find:
http://www.thisislondon.com/til/jsp/modules/Article/print.jsp?itemId=10584417
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