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One day people will ask, “Where were you when
President Ronald Reagan died?” For a while you will remember the exact moment
you heard the news. Then
later you will have to stop and think.
As time passes, you may forget. We tend to relate our own place in time when a
major event occurs. The
death of a president, especially unexpectedly, is a mile stone in our
lives. Ronald Reagan lived
a long life, to the age of 93, and suffered the tragedy of Alzheimer’s
in his final years. It’s
hard to say death may sometimes be a blessing.
But at least he doesn’t suffer any more. He was our “feel good president.”
His infectious smile and next door neighbor friendliness brought
good will from everyone. People
overlooked the Iran Contra scandal, the bombing slaughter of Marines in
Lebanon. It was different from the two presidencies that
followed. Bill Clinton
earned the bitter hatred of Republicans who tried unsuccessfully to
unseat him. George W. Bush
isn’t popular with many Democrats and some in his own party. Some presidents stand out in our lives more than
others. Jack Kennedy was
one. He had that same
charisma that Reagan had, charming us into optimism.
We will never know what his legacy would have been had he been
able to fulfill his term cut short by an assassin. A friend named Bill Henry was in the navy during
the Pearl Harbor attack. He
was at sea and saw ships still smoking at the bottom of the harbor when
he returned to port. One day he came late onto a conversation about
Kennedy and the “where were you” question. He remembered his ship was coming through the
Panama Canal. Someone
questioned him, “You weren’t still in the navy when Kennedy was
shot.” “I thought you were talking about President
Roosevelt,” he replied. Franklin D. Roosevelt was our president during
the frightening days of World War II, a time when we needed courage to
face the possibility we could lose.
He gave it to us, but died before we saw a final victory.
Those of us old enough remember his death at his retreat in
Georgia. Southern Railway
had tracks going through our farm and the train carrying his body passed
through there. Grown men
cried openly. There was
talk of erecting a monument to him, possibly equal to the one honoring
George Washington. Time faded the ardor and his likeness was placed
on a coin. Harry Truman took over the task of ending the
war and had the guts to use the atomic bomb.
He blocked Soviet expansion in Europe and during the war in
Korea. For all this, few
remember he died in Kansas City, Mo., on the day after Christmas in
1972. As much as I admired
him, I had to look that up. When Jack Kennedy died, I was in a restaurant
with a friend. He didn’t
like Kennedy and said he was glad.
I became angry and told him, whether you liked him or not, he was
our president. I never
cared much for that fellow again. National mourning went on for weeks for Kennedy.
TV showed the events over and over again.
Lee Harvey Oswald’s painful face was burned into the TV screen
and our memories, showing him the minute Jack Ruby shot him.
Enthusiasm to honor the fallen president brought a name change to
Idlewild Airport to John F. Kennedy Airport.
The space site at Cape Canaveral was given his name also. The exuberant memories many have of Ronald
Reagan have no limits. He
is exalted beyond recognition by some.
His admirers want his likeness chiseled into Mount Rushmore along
with the likeliness of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham
Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt. They
want either Alexander Hamilton or Andrew Jackson removed from American
currency and Reagan’s face to replace one of them. Often we say history will decide the merits of a
time or an individual. Problem
with history is it’s interpreted and written by people who has their
own prejudices. It is not a
cut and dry science. Not too much to criticize in George Washington.
He was a slave owner, as were most in his day, regardless of how
everyone had to realize the cruelty of the institution.
Andrew Jackson hated Indians and showed his
cruelty to a defenseless race. People
forget the Roosevelt fortune was made in the opium trade from the Orient
and the Kennedy wealth came from bootlegging. Despite his talk of economic frugality, Reagan
brought the national deficit to over $3-trillion dollars. Of course, that’s a pittance compared to the present day
national debt of $7-trillion and growing. History will be kind to Ronald Reagan.
He doesn’t need monuments, streets named after him or his
likeliness on currency and coins. We will remember we liked him.
We will remember he made us feel good, long after we forget where
we were when he died.
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