Bulletin:
Former President Ronald Reagan, the 40th president of the United States, has died at age 93. Reagan had been suffering for years with Alzheimer's disease. He died surrounded by his children.
The tipoff that the end was near for the former actor was a short news bulletin this morning about the deterioration of his health. He was known in office as The Great Communicator because of his uncanny ability to connect with the people and project an optimistic view of the United States and the country's future.
We'll be posting links to news stories on Reagan such as this one here. And we'll add additional links throughout the even for you.
The death of a president is always a time for reflection (and renewal. So do leave your thoughts and comments in the comment box.
In a little bit we'll also do a short post that gives you a personal anecdote about Reagan -- a gimpse I got of him right after he left office.
STORY LINKS:
--Text of Reagan's famous 1994 letter informing citizens of the United States that he had Alheimzers disease and was going to withdraw from public life
--Reagan: Champion of Conservative Politics (AP)
--An optimist who left office as the most popular president in U.S. history. MSNBC.
--From actor to politician/president with sunny outlook. ABC News.
--On his genuine optimism and patriotism. AP
--As a strong, controversial world statesman. Reuters.
--Chronology of Reagan's life. AP
--A more critical look at Reagan's goals versus his policies in "Ronald Reagan: Party Animal." Slate.
--The Reagan/Thatcher political relationship. AP
Dean Esmay's personal staement: I hated him when he was President.
Now I'm a 38 year-old man who can't stop crying.
And that's the truth.
(Boots image via Ara.)
I was proud to have been among the multimillions who voted him into the US presidency and kept him there through two terms. I am equally proud that I lived during his great lifetime.
The mood of this country in the throughout the 1970s was as dismal as it could possibly be, and the combination of unemployment and inflation (the famous misery index) had reached astounding heights amidst the floundering "malaise" laden presidency of the discredited James Earl Carter.
Not long after he took office, he immediately moved to implement a program that turned around the national economy and began the long-overdue privatization of numerous federally-funded programs and activities. By early into his second term, it became obvious that the cold war was coming to a close, with America victorious. The fact that we all were able to witness the destruction of the Berlin wall and the coming of freedom to the peoples of eastern Europe -- all that was the work and the victory of president Ronald Reagan; one-time radio announcer, feature film actor, conservative theoretician and spokesman, governor of California, leader of the free world.
I salute his memory.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
Wow. Just wow.
Ronald Reagan was a great man. My sincere condolences to Nancy and his kids.
I'm heartbroken and in tears myself; its like a link with my youth is broken, never to return.
I'm listening to George Schultz on the TV as I type this, and I can hear his voice breaking as he talks of President Reagan - why should anyone be so saddened at this long expected passing? I don't know - perhaps its just that when Reagan was President, things seemed so much better...better than what came after in all respects.
Fittingly, he left office with the highest popularity the polls had ever shown, and he lived the longest of any U.S. President. Goodbye, Gipper.
I voted for Ronald Reagan in two Presidential elections. We live today in a far different (and better) world, due in no small part to his accomplishments as President.
When I got home this evening, I found an e-mail message from my brother:
You'll have to pardon me, I'm typing this through a haze of tears...
His legacy lives on.
I voted for him and I loved him. What a wonderful man he was.
How I laughed so hard when he would turn to a critic and say, "Now there you go again." That incredible infectious smile! He was so optimist. Even when he was shot!
I too have been crying today. My daddy has been on my heart so strong lately and Memorial Day I was extremely depressed. My daddy had been in a war and I have felt so lonely in my heart for several years now. I can't pick up the phone to hear his optimist voice anymore always telling me how great I was.
This news tears me up. How my daddy loved President Regan. My daddy would call me all the time over President Regan and his accomplishments. "Janell-o, turn on the television quick, Regan ordered the Berlin wall to come down and it is going to happen!" Tears rolled down my cheeks and sheer JOY as I watched it happen.
Mark, things were better, we were all lifted up by his great spirit.
One for the Gipper...WOW, is right Max and Arnold thank you for posting what you did and you as well Ara.
I feel so sad and I will pray for Nancy, his prayer was for her for when he went home to God.
President Reagan of course, I left out the a in his name. Well, A for Awesome and that he was.
I did not like Reagan when he was President. I changed my mind about him though and now, like Arnold, I salute him. A great man has passed on. He did so much for this country. I'm only sorry that I wasn't wise enough to see it when he was actually leading us. May God rest his soul and bring his family comfort.
"You and I are told increasingly that we have to choose between a left or a right. There is only an up or down : up to man's age-old dream -- the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order -- or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism. And regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would trade our freedom for security have embarked on this downward course."
-Ronald Reagan, Republican National Convention, 1964
Thank you, President Reagan. Opponent of totalitarianism. Defender of freedom. A good, good man. We will miss you. Heaven/Valhalla awaits you.
Like Dean and Jane M, I had strong feelings against President Reagan by the end of his second term, despite having cast the two first presidential votes of my life for him. I was young and in college. What can I say?
Luckily, life gives one the opportunity -- if not to make up for -- to at least move beyond previous stupidities, and to make up for ignorance.
I'd vote for him again now in a NY minute.
Thank you, Mr. Reagan. Thank you.
I think one of the best, if over the top, statements on Reagans presidency came from HBO's Not Necessarily The News. During the 1984 elections, they ran a bit showing all of Reagan's accomplishments in his first term. They then finished it up with:
"Vote Walter Mondale President. Make Reagan King."
http://www.epenthesis.org/archives/003383.php
He is the cause of my heart transplant: from "bleeding heart" liberal to "cold hearted" conservative. He has been one of my heroes in many aspects. While I am saddened by the death of a President; saddened by the death of a personal hero; saddened by the death of a great person...I am relieved because of his ailness.
Two things that I look forward to is a coin that bears Reagan's likeness and visiting my hometown of Simi Valley, CA and pay my respects to President Reagan's final resting spot.
Dixon, Illinois is my home town. In my youth, I stepped where Ronald Reagan had stepped... I swam in the Rock River, from which Mr. Reagan is reported to have saved 77 lives by dragging them from the dangerous, fast-moving waters back to the secure banks of Lowell Park. He did that to me too, figuratively, back in the 1980's.
I attended Dixon High School at the time Ronald Reagan came into office and I was a quasi liberal democrat back then - very immature. I hated the man... I played drums in the high school band and I almost refused to participate when the band was asked to play for a Reagan rally held in our gymnasium.
I was supporting John B. Anderson then, the independent candidate - I thought for sure that if Reagan were elected, we would enter an era of Nazi-like politics and Reagan would start World War III with the Russians. I even went so far as to put a large picture of Mr. Reagan in my parents' window... I had drawn a swastika on his shirt lapel in "defiance" of 90 percent of Dixon's population.
Mr. Reagan went on to win a landslide election.
Then something funny happened... I went off to college and I grew up. I soon found out that Ronald Reagan was not the "evil Nazi" I (and others) had made him out to be. I found myself listening to his speeches and political arguments. I found myself turning into... a REPUBLICAN!
I have Ronald Reagan to thank for turning me around from an immature seemingly "idealist" liberal, into a mature, logical, wiser, caring right-wing conservative.
A tear came to my eye as I learned about Mr. Reagan's passing. Seldom do we have such character and dignity in politics. Mr. Reagan embodied grace and thoughtfulness, while never compromising his deeply-held, core conservative beliefs. His cheerful, optimistic Americanism was a breath of fresh air to a country who needed it badly.
Goodbye, Ronald Reagan. Americans will miss you sorely.