Former President Reagan Rarely Awake - Report

Yahoo News ^ | December 5, 2003

[RWR8189]

Former President Ronald Reagan, is now confined to a bed, rarely awake and unable to walk or talk, People magazine said in a report issued on Thursday. In an essay accompanying the article about the former president's condition, daughter Patti Davis said people may still think Reagan, 92, is somewhat mobile and active, despite his well-publicized illness, because his family has guarded his privacy so zealously.

"But it would be a disservice to every family who has an Alzheimer's victim in their embrace to say any of that is true, and I don't believe my father would want us to lie," she wrote.

The magazine said Reagan spends his days either in a bed or occasionally in a wheelchair, in a small room at his home in the exclusive Bel Air section of Los Angeles, where he is kept out of the sight of all but his closest family and helpers.

His condition has been in the spotlight again of late after CBS shelved plans to air a mini-series on his presidency that conservative groups said was biased and an unfair attack on someone who was no longer able to defend himself.

The miniseries was eventually edited into a single movie and shown on CBS's sister cable network, Showtime.

Davis, once estranged from her family, said her family's life is now arranged around Reagan's bedside, where he spends his sedentary days.

"When he is awake, which is not that often, he can gaze at the trees outside the window," Davis said.

[LisaFab]

I've read in the past that Mrs. Reagan does not want Clinton to attend.

I've also heard that. The main reason is that the i42 hired Greg Craig to defend him during the impeachment proceedings. Craig originally defended John Hinckley after he shot President Reagan.

[hapc]

[Inspectorette]

Actually, he will be buried at the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley.

We're only about an hour and a half away from there. We're already planning to be there when the sad day comes - don't care how far away we have to stand: I think we'll be among thousands of everday ordinary Americans who love President Reagan coming to pay their last respects.

[pgkdan]

I'm with you here. I don't put anyone in contemporary American history on the same list with Ronald Reagan. I think he and Maggie Thatcher should stand alone as leaders of their respective countries.

I think it's hard for people who weren't around through the Ford and Carter years to realize just how great a man Ronald Reagan was. Alot of people my age never expected to land a decent job or buy a new home. We had, inflation, stagflation, the misery index, massive, double digit unemployment. I have to laugh when I hear 'rats fret about 6% unemployment now! It seemed that the country had run it's course and we were on our way out. Ronald Reagan was a burst of sunshine...a prophet of American goodness and the REAL eternal optimistt. I believe he saved this country and I'll always love and honor him for that!

[tracer]

It ain't over until the fat Senatress sings.

That said, many no doubt would agree that the only downside to a Clinton "event" are the effects it could have on some loyal and decent USSS agents and their families........

[marshmallow]

Don't despair.

That the just must suffer is as sure as the sun rises in the east.

Be still my soul
Your best, your heavenly Friend,
through thorny ways,
leads to a joyful end.

[ChemistCat]

It's sad to hear that Mrs. Thatcher isn't doing so well either. She's so lonely since her husband died, and extremely depressed and isolated. I understand she's almost completely withdrawn from her friends and family. Not a good thing. :-(

[ChemistCat]

That second photo is my new wallpaper.

[tracer]

"When will the Hollywood elite throw a HATE REAGAN bash? Perhaps the day of his funeral?"

Their currently-run vile "docu-drama" could well blow up in their pimply, scaly faces. Timing is everything......

[princess leah]

I for one plan on praying that Clinton is "too sick to attend" A headcold, appenticitis, cancer, whatever it takes to keep that @#$ from attending such a somber event!

[ILBBACH]

I believe EVERY president is eligible for burial in Arlington - being the Commander-in-Chief and all...

[tracer]

Please explain to one who is ignorant the deeds of the Pope that surpassed the impact of President Reagan's.

And, please, don't tell me that the the Pope, good and devout man that he is, was responsible for the demise of the Evil Empire...

[Skooz]

I love that man. I truly love that man.

God bless his family and may his passing be peaceful and painless.

[Lady Jag]

Reagan has led a long and enviable life. I wouldn't mind switching places with him.

It is his family I feel bad for. They've lived with the legend. They are going to miss him worse than we will. God bless and keep them all.

[AnAmericanMother]

The Eagle That Is Forgotten

By Nicholas Vachel Lindsay

SLEEP softly … eagle forgotten … under the stone.
Time has its way with you there, and the clay has its own.
“We have buried him now,” thought your foes, and in secret rejoiced.
They made a brave show of their mourning, their hatred unvoiced.
They had snarled at you, barked at you, foamed at you, day after day.
Now you were ended. They praised you … and laid you away.

The others, that mourned you in silence and terror and truth,
The widow bereft of her crust, and the boy without youth,
The mocked and the scorned and the wounded, the lame and the poor,
That should have remembered forever,… remember no more.

Where are those lovers of yours, on what name do they call,
The lost, that in armies wept over your funeral pall?
They call on the names of a hundred high-valiant ones,
A hundred white eagles have risen, the sons of your sons.
The zeal in their wings is a zeal that your dreaming began,
The valor that wore out your soul in the service of man.

Sleep softly … eagle forgotten … under the stone.
Time has its way with you there, and the clay has its own.
Sleep on, O brave-hearted, O wise man that kindled the flame—
To live in mankind is far more than to live in a name,
To live in mankind, far, far more than to live in a name!—

[Graymatter]

Hardly anyone dies in a manner that becomes them. Some get a better death than they deserve, some a worse one.
I'd rather be remembered for dying "down" rather than dying "up."
He was a great man, and we were blessed by his long life. It must be hard on the family, his illness, but I am rather glad he is watching trees rather than a certain movie on tv.

[tracer]

You are correct.

But that also means that the Klingons someday can be buried there as well.

Now, there's a powerful incentive for all good Americans to maximize their lifespans through exercise, optimal diet, sufficient sleep, and avoiding diease and stress to the maximum extent possible.....

[ChemistCat]

I have been thinking about it.

President Clinton attending is (sad to say) not inappropriate. I actually think he could behave himself for a couple of hours. I think he'd shut up and look somber and not say anything destructive, which is the best anyone could expect of the likes of him. He has some sense of the moment. He has a little bit of the social grace that allows even a venal slug like him to stand aside for a moment and let something more important than he is take center stage. I think he's so dissolute that not a bit of it would be authentic, but still I think he'd behave. I wouldn't like to see the camera focus again and again on him at a time like that but it wouldn't make me angry. Sad as the fact is, he will belong there, doing honor, if only token honor, to the truly great man whose office he literally soiled. He owes President Reagan that. Maybe he'd have the grace to be silent, or say only honorable things, and outwardly reverent.

His wife, however, could not be trusted to behave herself. She has absolutely no capacity to respect anything other than her own ambitions. If she attended this sad event, whenever it happens, she'll be unable to resist the temptation to say or do something ghoulishly inappropriate. She is the incarnate spirit of the Wellstone funeral.

[sushiman]

Let's all pray that God takes him to his just reward soon ...

[pau1f0rd]

My only regret was that both times I was a stupid brainwashed young liberal and did not fully appreciate him

I was a teenage British anarchist when he was in power. I'm ashamed to say I looked on him as evil. May God protect him now.