This was indeed momentous news. The most influential president since Franklin Roosevelt has passed away, and an era in of our times is over. He now belongs to history. My condolences are of course with his family.
Ronald Reagan was said to have rejuvenated America with a promise of a better nation at home and a renewed respect abroad. But to me, his presidency was one of dreams deferred and promises unfulfilled. For those in America who were well off, those years were indeed wonderful ones. But for those who were weak, who were vulnerable, they were painful ones that simply had to be endured, as their already tenuous existence became an even more precarious balancing act during the second coming of laissez-faire.
Ronald Reagan's foreign policy alienated the outside world. He supported the Nicaraguan Contras, even at the expense of opposing the popularly supported government. He intervened in Libya and Grenada, which merely caused civilian deaths and perpetuated a cycle of violence. He backed the Strategic Defense Initiative, which broughts us one step closer to the nightmare of nuclear holocaust. And that is to say nothing of Iran-Contra.
The tumultuous present now becomes the august past, and time at last has come for the muse of history to sound her judgment. We begin the process of remembering what has happened, but our perspective is still alive with the distinctly palpable memories of Ronald Reagan.
Migrendel, that was utterly insulting and a very inappropriate post to make here.
