I was never a Reagan supporter. I did not vote for him in the one election he ran in during my adulthood. I never felt that I was someone, as a liberal, whom Reagan would have embraced despite the fact that I, too, was born in the same United States as he. I found he skated out of harm's way over Iran-contra far too easily, and I felt in far more fear of nuclear proliferation than in any time up until the election of George W. Bush.
Nonetheless, I am saddened at his passing. Despite our undeniable differences of opinion, Reagan was a great American, and in these immediate days following his death, I mourn his loss. I misted up at images of Nancy, clearly devastated at his death, and as one who has known death too, I understand her grief and the sense of loss that appears to permeate her. Reagan was cut from a cloth similar to that of my late father-in-law. Both worked for their country, my father in law as a soldier in WWII and Reagan as 40th US President. Both are gone and represent aspects of era we will likely not see again during our lifetimes. In some ways, that's a good thing, as both men probably held beliefs whose times had come and gone. But the time for that discussion is another day.
I wish the Reagan family well.
Last edited by Jim Jackson; 2004-06-07 6:45 PM.
