Goodbye Mr. Reagan

Watching the Reagan services has been a really sad thing for me. Beautiful and moving ceremonies. Most of my feelings about Reagan are wrapped up in my childhood... I'm able to remember the wall coming down, and those images are all in there, but the biggest memory is of the Challenger tragedy.

It happened in winter, and I was about 7 years old, and remember just coming in from playing out in a big snow bank with my friends when it was on tv. We had one of those big console televisions that sat on the floor, and I have this large pixelated image of Challenger exploding in my mind because I was kneeling so close to the TV with my hand on the screen. As a child it was up there with when my parents got divorced, or some other things happened. It just wasn't supposed to happen, your view of the world had just changed, and there was this profound feeling of confusion.

It was a really personal thing to kids at the time, although I may have been unusual. You have to remember that this was the first time a schoolteacher was going into space, and pretty much every kid new about it because the schools were hyping it. There were posters of her in the hallways and she'd been talked about in detail in class. We knew about her family. I can still see those posters of her with the crew and pictures of her with her family in my head.

That night Reagan was on TV and we were called in to watch, and he gave a short address to the nation. This was the part that really got me as a kid:

"And I want to say something to the schoolchildren of America who were watching the live coverage of the shuttle's take-off. I know it's hard to understand, but sometimes painful things like this happen. It's all part of the process of exploration and discovery. It's all part of taking a chance and expanding man's horizons. The future doesn't belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave. The Challenger crew was pulling us into the future, and we'll continue to follow them."

Because he was speaking from his desk, as a child you really got a sense that he was taking time out from everything to specifically take you into consideration and try to explain what was going on. It put things into a context to where it made sense, and the way it was delivered... after hearing it, you just kind of knew it was a sad day, but that it was going to be ok.

He made things make a semblance of sense that day to a kid who was confused and didn't really understand what was going on, and for that I'm very thankful. I just felt like he'd made this very personal connection to me as a kid, to the point where I ended up spending weeks drawing a picture and sending it off to him saying thank you.

Awhile later I recieved in the mail a signed picture of him riding a horse along with a short note with kind words saying he was glad he helped. Now that I'm older I'm sure it was some aide or staff member who actually wrote out the note and threw the picture in the mail, but as a kid I just couldn't believe the president had taken time out of his day. Looking back I have to laugh, as I think in my head he was sort of a family friend at that point. There was an approachableness to him that was just appealing.

To those 'protesting'... do you really, really feel the need to protest at this man's funeral? There will be plenty of time in the weeks, years and decades ahead to debate supply-side economics and his place in history. That isn't what today is about.

If you aren't able to wrap your head around that, try to remember that this is someones father, grandfather, friend, and husband, and let the hate go for a day. In the years to come when you're going over your deeds you'll wish you had.

yummy alcohol posted button Posted by drunkenbatman
    June 11, 2004, at 03:45 PM


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