Posted on 06/09/2004 10:48:47 AM PDT by Neenah
There is a house with a huge front porch. The American Flag is flying out on the lawn. It is a sunny day with big puffy clouds in the sky.
Birds are singing in the huge Oak trees that surround the house.
Sitting on the Wicker furniture is a little girl with her doll...her brother gets ready to ride his blue Schwinn bike on his paper route.
Mom brings a pitcher of lemonade out onto the porch and sets it down, looks around and smells the sweet air and scent coming from the Lilac bush in front of the porch. They are all excited because today they will go to the park for the 4th of July picnic and stay for the fireworks.
You can smell the fresh cut grass as Dad comes around the corner mowing the green lawn.
IT'S MORNING IN AMERICA
These are scenes painted by the mind of President Reagan, and put out on t.v. Scenes of America, a Norman Rockwell feel, beconning our better selves. That America is still here..........but had been hidden for awhile, by a Garbage Truck from the mid 90's. That truck dumped manure over the lawn. The smell of fresh cut grass was hard to smell and the flag was frayed on the end, and kept fraying as it struggled against the stagnant breeze that blew past America , across oceans and to other countries.
Today, with the Pall that is hanging over our country that is in mourning, for her past President, there is a renewal happening in our hearts as we take this week to say "goodbye" to him.
The little girl is a little older now. Her brother is graduating High School. A new morning is dawning.
Rememberance is an amazing thing. Too late we finally "SEE" what it was all about. We can look back now and really HEAR what President Reagan was telling us in those wonderful Americana commercials ! We begin to want to maintain what was familiar to us. That confidence we once had and seemed to have lost along the way.
There is comfort today to witness this familiar "togetherness" as we mourn the passing of President Reagan. Together, along streets, overpasses, highways, and the capitol...young, old, rich, poor, black, brown, yellow, white, Republican, Democrat, Independent's line up in silence with tears in our eyes as he passes by. We watch our t.v.'s or in our car listen to the radio and watch the end of this life. We watch an endless stream of people file past a flag draped coffin at his Library. They stood for hours to just walk past and say goodbye. Through the night they came..not stopping. This coffin bears the man who instilled in us his vision, and carried it out to the best of his ability. Who showed us through patience what we could do together. And just by being "himself", showed us a genuine spirit and real patriot, who befriended all persuasions, domestic and foreign. It was a gift and we recognise it as we walk back in our memories and "remember".
He not only painted with his words "Morning in America", but showed us the difference between a tree lined street, children playing, fireworks and lemonade........and the smell of garbage and a frayed flag .
Soon this rememberence will fade. The politicians and media will hire more garbage men to try to stain the memory...but hopefully, that little girl with her doll on the font porch, and the little boy riding his bike with a paper bag filled with the News of the day, will one day "remember" what it was like, and fight against the ones that try to take from them the American dream. A dream where Almighty God is still called upon.
Yes. Somehow I think this will happen and the children today will regale stories from US about how blessed we werre as a nation to have had a man chosen for this time. A man who by his words and actions showed us there will still be Morning in America where flags fly in the breeze on a warm summer morning. Where lemonade is drunk, and children play----FREE.
..........and for a brief moment of time...America was given an example of what we all should be and what we can be again. May we never forget the lessons we have been taught, and never get ahead of the fact that our children deserve what vision President Reagan started. If we continue that spirit just in our little homes...we will keep that spirit alive in our children, our schools, and help them lead this country one day.
Just like a little Mother named "Nell" inspired her little son Ronald.
It is now MOURNING in America...but ahead...it will continue MORNING in America.
BTTT! - for your reminder of Ronald Reagan's unwavering optimism. His vision of strength through unity, the true American spirit, not the division of society into groups with hypenated identities seeking their own individual advancement. I hope his passing can bring about a renewal of those traditional values which he embraced. He brought out the best in us.
Thanks Eagle
Godspeed, Mr. President. You will always be with us.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if some of the civility and grace from the Reagan era, and the feeling among many of unity at Reagan's passing, could return to politics? Maybe someday!
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