Reagan Tributes Worth Reading

Being American in T.O. covers the Canadian perspective quite well.

A Little More to the Right posts the entire text of Reagan's farewell address, while American RealPolitik chose to post his Berlin Wall speech.

Maroon Blog has a number of excellent entries from a Historian's point of view.

Spot On offers a personal perspective:

My parents were from two different areas of the Soviet Union. My mother was from Kuybyshev, now called Samara. My father was from Lvov, now called Lviv, in the Ukraine. My mother became a teacher and my father a doctor. ...They got to America in the late 70's. Carter was president. It was gas lines, inflation, weakness on the international front. And still, they were overjoyed to be here.

Then, in 1980, Ronald Reagan gripped their imaginations and hearts. He was energizing, tough and most important to them: he saw the Soviet Union for the evil place that it was. I can't say it enough, to those who never experienced Communism, it might be this flawed system that was further corrupted by bad leadership.

Loved and hated, Reagan led the country and the world from a period of malaise and discontent to one of hope and opportunity.

Reagan was like a bigger than life hero from one his movies. He showed up when America and yes, even the rest of the world, needed him most, saved the day, and then rode off into the sunset, leaving all of us with a "debt of gratitude" that we could never fully repay.

Bastardsword gives a fascinating account of how Reagan faced down the Soviets, and his appointment of Casey to head up the CIA:

Some of what Reagan did was simple, yet masterful, such as playing up that cowboy image. The reason he did is because when he was first campaigning our people in Moscow found out he terrified the Russian generals, with all of his cowboy talk and SDI, so Reagan always played to that image. Many Democrats still derisively refer to him as "the cowboy" without realizing he had a reason and a purpose for it. We wanted their generals shaking in their boots.

His policies, however, were not what endeared him to the American people. It was his personal warmth and sense of humor, which he kept even in the worst circumstances. When he was shot by would-be assassin John Hinckley Jr. in 1981 and was rushed to the hospital, he looked around at the surgeons and joked, "I hope you're all Republicans." When he awoke to find his wife Nancy at his side, he told her, "Sorry, I forgot to duck."

His handshake was firm. His eyes sparkled as his eyes made contact with mine - and his smile, genuine and warm as he thanked me for all the hard work of making his visit possible.

He showed us that we were better than everybody else, and we shouldn’t be ashamed to think so. Ronald Reagan instilled a sense of pride and duty in me that will stay with me for the rest of my life.

I knew it was coming. But I don't know that I was quite ready to say goodbye. That is how I feel right now as I learn that Ronald Wilson Reagan, the greatest president of my lifetime, has passed away.

The more I witnessed up close the finger-in-the-air approach to policy that most politicians practice, the more I came to appreciate that Reagan actually had some beliefs about which he would not compromise. I also came to appreciate his ability to know when there was no more negotiating room and the exact time to compromise, and then, with artful savvy, declare victory.

I became a fan.

Ronald Reagan was the political antidote to this shrunken view of America. He reminded us that we stood for something great, that we were made of sterner stuff than the nay-sayers implied. He not only made the right arguments and proposed sound policies, but his very person, his character, was such as to make it entirely believable. This was an entirely American man.

Bane Rants has an honest and mixed look at Reagan:

I was in the military when RR was sworn in, and his policies began to take effect. The comparison between RR's and Carter's regime was like night turning into day. We went from grey, faceless drones, bent-backed under the weight of communism, to Red White and Blue Patriots quite literally overnight. It swept all of society, not just the military.

Of course, Reagan's legacy should not end by just being measured by its Cold War accomplishments (though those accomplishments are surely the defining feature of the Reagan legacy). After three failed Presidencies and one caretaker government--that of Gerald Ford's--Reagan proved to a doubting public that the Presidency could be made to work again.

Up for Anything:

He ended the Cold War. He governed over one of the most prosperous times in American history. He made America believe it was great again. He pulled us from the depths of one of the darkest times in our history and made us proud to be an American.

I have never been more comfortable than I am here in Reagan's World, where pride in your country is a good thing, where hope always remains, where the future is something to look forward to and not fear.

I voted against Ronald Reagan in my first vote for President in 1984.

In retrospect, I was a fool.

The man who won Cold War died today. He couldn't take it with him, but left his legacy to billions of human beings. He was characterized as an idiot, an automaton and charlatan by many of his critics. Yet none of his detractors, however polished and poised, have changed the world so profoundly as this one man.

Reagan changed America. No longer was the word American an ugly word. We began displaying Old Glory with pride. We were proud to admit we were Americans.

Ronald Wilson Reagan now belongs to the ages, but the world still belongs to us, the living. I don't think that I would be out of line to say that President Reagan would not want us to spend to much time or energy praising him, for he considered himself just a simple man doing what he thought was right.

Pundits at the time, and worse yet since, have branded Reagan as a simple man (or a simpleton) who won by huckstering the US into thinking happy thoughts, but optimism was a key component of Ronald Reagan -- and people knew it.

Coupled with a strong belief in individualism and personal liberty, Reagan literally changed the nature of American politics in a single election cycle.

No reading of a listing of the positive changes attributible to President Reagan (Martin Luther King Day) can fully explain the effect of this man. His wit, his generous nature, his style, his vision, his consistency and a thousand other descriptive words can highlight aspects of his character, but only fail to capture the entire man, he was an original and we don't have a word that fully appraises his value. He was Reaganesque, a new word that fits only him, the defintion of which is lengthy and complex, yet as simple as, sincere.

Reagan also deserves great credit for standing up to the air traffic controllers thereby sending a strong signal that the country would not be taken hostage by the labor unions as had happened and continues to happen in much of Europe.

We who are lucky enough to live in the Free World have an obligation to see Ronald Reagan's vision through to the end. President Bush may have inherited the leadership, but the task belongs to all of us.

Ronald Reagan died on Saturday. He has now "slipped the surly bonds of earth"; and we pray, "touched the face of God."

We believe in our hearts and in our souls that God, feeling Ronald Reagan's touch, turned toward him, smiled, and said, "Welcome."

There will be a lot of historical revision in the next few weeks. The collapse of the Soviet Union will be told as "inevitable," as if it were the natural course of history instead of because of Reagan's hard-line towards them.

So much to say about this fine man but I’d rather keep my thoughts to myself. What I will say is that he brought a bright ray of hope to a very young girl who thought that there just may be no future for us. I will always be grateful to former President Ronald Reagan.

Insults Unpunished remembers:

Perhaps the moment that cemented my affection for him was the Challenger disaster. I would be graduating from high school in a few months and knew full well what was going on in the world. Again, in a moment of crisis, he was able to talk to the American people in a way that acknowledged the tragedy but allowed us to keep moving forward.

Hawken Blog covers the New York Times' shameful coverage.

Blog post #2961 in category Transient Causes

Truly superior bloggers that reference Reagan Tributes Worth Reading:

» Reagan Roundup from HobbsOnline:

I was planning to put together an extensive round-up of Ronald Reagan tributes and commentaries from around the blogosphere. But I don't have to do it. AlphaPatriot did it. Happy reading.... [Read More]

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» Reagan remembered in Canada II from Being American in T.O.:

June 7 - Words are not coming easily for me this day. As Californians pay their respects to the former governor and president, I again feel that frustration at being here instead of there. President Reagan's casket was carried into... [Read More]

Tracked on June 7, 2004 7:42 PM