Ronald Reagan Dies at 93

[Cold Heat]

Well, I am going to retire for the evening.

As part of my nightly prayer, I will add that should I fail to wake from this nights sleep, I hope it is Ronald Reagan's smiling face I see when I arise, and that we have a great day.

Amen

[Victoria Delsoul]

There's one guy on a New York station who is a lifelong Democrat, and his show tonight was magnificent.

Well, that's news. ;-) I wonder what Kerry is going to say.

Actually, I'm glad when Democrats and Liberals pay their respect to a great man.

[BigSkyFreeper]

Ronald Wilson Reagan: 1911-2004

I say to President Ronald Wilson Reagan:

We will never forget you, nor the last time we saw you, that day in 1994, as you prepared us as a nation in your most reassuring and inspiration words, for your journey into the sunset, and waved good-bye to us and "slipped the surly bonds of earth" to "touch the face of God." Your work here is complete, you will never be forgotten, Godspeed toward that bright shining city.

Look down on Earth every once in a while, smile as we remember you and continue toward that goal toward a safer peaceful world. It is not a lofty goal Mr. President, but a worthy goal that must be achieved, we shall succeed onward toward that goal with your inspired optimism, from this day forward. Mr. President, know now that we always have and still do love you.

BSF

[WVNan]

Reagan repaired that damage for me and many other vets. I will love him and honor him until I breath my last.

I made it through the day without breaking up but your story did it wirestripper. I've been reading this thread just trying to catch up and I believe that your tribute is the most touching one I've seen. God bless you and God bless President Ronald Reagan.

[Dont Mention the War]

aren't you touched by the outpouring of brotherhood and affection by left?

Did you report the threat to the current president to the Secret Service?

[Barnacle]

This day had to come. And now, it is here. He is dead. Yet he lives.

There is nothing I can say, but that I am sad and grateful for having him as our president.

He was a giant on the order of Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson and Teddy Roosevelt. If ever a face is added to Mt. Rushmore, it should be his.

[BigSkyFreeper]

Great picture Tamsey. TIME magazine is using that picture on their commemorative issue that hits newsstands on Sunday.

[Thumper1960]

WE mourn the loss of a great American patriot. A servant of the people.

Godspeed and God bless you, President Ronald W. Reagan.

[texasbluebell]

My daughter's college history book managed to describe the ending of the Cold War with no mention AT ALL of President Reagan.

???

I'd be banned for saying what I'm thinking right now.

[Barnacle]

My daughter's college history book managed to describe the ending of the Cold War with no mention AT ALL of President Reagan. My prayer is the textbook authors and the professors will have their eyes opened this week.

Prayer is fine... But first, rescue your daughter from that mind warping concentration camp.

[Yaelle]

Of all the presidents there have been in my lifetime, happily it was President Reagan who crossed my path twice.

I may have been too immature to understand the impact of this great man at the time, but hindsight has me feeling very, very lucky.

When Carter conceded his loss to Reagan, I was a college student working as a proofreader in a law firm in Century City (the part of L.A. where Reagan had his offices). I had not yet gone to vote, and now I wouldn't get to! Walking out of the building, I said to a fellow student, a stranger, "Looks like we have a new President!" He replied that he was crossing the street to go see him speak, and would I like to come with him? Well, why the heck not?

We jeans-wearing kids went into the hallway of the hotel, where everyone seemed to be in suits, and headed for the doorway to the grand ballroom. Alas, those going in all seemed to have tickets for the event. My companion quickly folded up two sheets of paper to look like tickets, and put them in his pocket. A quick flash of his pocket and we were in the hall.

Security was different in those days. We both had backpacks full of books, and yet were not checked and did not APPEAR to go through any metal detectors. That even bothered me at the time.

We went and stood right next to the stage, front and center. I believe we were standing there a couple of hours, at least, as the crowd filled. There were a few acts and speeches before the President-elect came on stage. I only remember one female singer crooning "He's leaving... on that midnight train to Georgia..."

The only thing I remember about that speech was the excitement of the crowd, and being stunned that little me was just FEET away from our new President.

My second encounter with President Reagan was a few years later. Serendipitously I was working in the kitchen of the most elegant restaurant in that same hotel (the Century Plaza). The President was in the suite of the new tower section, a suite built for top security for him, and he was going to have lunch in our restaurant with someone.

The dogs came through and the Secret Service stood behind me as I prepared, with scissors and my own bare hands, a salad for my President to eat. I was thrilled, nervous, and as honored as could be. It was a mache salad and I hope he enjoyed it.

Rest in peace, Mr. President. Thank you for our freedom and prosperity, and may we ever guard and extend it in your honor following your great example. Thank you for setting the character bar so high that those who would rather play limbo with it have not managed to tarnish you or us.

[onyx]

NO mention of RWR!
Outrageous and unconscionable.
Someday, and I hope it's soon,
all the revisionism ought to
backfire on the democrats and
left-wing folks who author such
revisions and omissions.

[MattGarrett]

I probably should. I'm just so steamed at how mean spirited some people are in their politics. They can't even lay it down for a single day to honor the life of a man who suffered some much in his last years.

As I stated in a previous post, Ronald Reagan personally touched me in an encounter I will forever remember. And I truly wish I hadn't read the posts I had.

[texasbluebell]

For this man of Irish heritage, here's a lovely Irish blessing that comes from an ancient Gaelic prayer:

An Irish Blessing

May the blessing of Light be on you, light without and light within.

May the blessed sunlight shine upon you and warm your heart 'till it glows like a great peat fire, so that the stranger may come and warm himself at it, and also a friend.

And may the light shine out of the two eyes of you like a candle set in two windows of a house, bidding the wanderer to come in out of the storm.

And may the blessing of the rain be on you -- the soft sweet rain.

May it fall upon your spirit so that all the little flowers may spring up and shed their sweetness on the air.

And may the blessing of the Great Rains be on you.

May they beat upon your spirit and wash it fair and clean, and leave there many a shining pool where the blue of heaven shines reflected -- and sometimes a star.

And may the blessing of the Earth be on you -- the great round earth.

May the earth be soft under you when you lay upon it, tired at the end of the day, and may it rest easy over you when at last you lay out under it.

May it rest so lightly over you that your soul may be quickly through it, and up, and off, and on its way to God.

[saltlick]

Thank you, President Reagan, for making a stand against communism, and may your hard work never go unforgotten nor for naught.

[Cindy]

http://www.assistnews.net/Stories/s04060028.htm

ASSIST News Service (ANS) - PO Box 2126, Garden Grove, CA 92842-2126 USA
E-mail: danjuma1@aol.com, Web Site: www.assistnews.net

Saturday, June 5, 2004

FORMER PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN: "I AM BORN AGAIN AND I AM A BIBLE BELIEVER."

By Jeremy Reynalds
Special Correspondent for ASSIST News Service

LOS ANGELES, CA  (ANS) -- Former President Ronald Reagan died Saturday after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease. He was 93.

When he took office at age 69, Reagan had already lived a career outside Washington, one that included work as a radio sports announcer, an actor, a television performer, a spokesman for the General Electric Co., and a two-term governor of California.

He died at his home in California, according to a family friend, who initially disclosed the death on condition of anonymity. The friend said the family is making funeral arrangements, the Associated Press (AP) reported.

In Paris, White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan said President Bush was notified of Reagan's death in Paris at about 4:10 p.m., EDT, by White House chief of staff Andy Card.

Card learned of the death from Fred Ryan, Reagan's former California chief of staff, Buchan told the AP.

The White House was told his health had taken a turn for the worse in the last several days.

Five years after leaving office, the nation's 40th president told the world in November 1994 that he had been diagnosed with the early stages of Alzheimer's, an incurable illness that destroys brain cells. He said he had begun “the journey that will lead me into the sunset of my life,” the AP reported.

Reuters reported that at 6 p.m. EDT Saturday a wreath of red and white flowers was placed on Reagan's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, but only a couple of people were around to watch on a bright day that had attracted most people to the beach.

REAGAN ARTICULATES CLEAR STATEMENT OF FAITH AND WELCOMES EVANGELICALS

Former National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) Executive Director Dr. Ben Armstrong met with Reagan on a number of occasions – both as president and also when he was a candidate for the office.

In the summer of 1980 Armstrong had the opportunity to ask then presidential candidate Reagan what it would take for him to get into heaven. According to Armstrong, Reagan said “‘I think I would say what my grandmother taught me.’ He then repeated John 3:16 word for word – perfectly. I told him he couldn’t answer it better,” Armstrong said. “He (Reagan) said, ‘I am born again and I am a Bible believer.’” (Pictured: Ben Armstrong).

Assessing the conversation Armstrong said that Reagan “was really interested in Christianity and classified as a born again evangelical. While his words (about his faith) were not as articulate as Jimmy Carter they seemed to be very real.”

Armstrong also discussed with Reagan the issue of prayer in the classroom. Armstrong told Reagan that while there was no prayer in the classroom there was increased violence. “I said, ‘you may be the person to do something about this.’”

Armstrong said that Reagan promised to take action and placed that plan into the category of moving back to traditional American values. “He incorporated the ideas we had on the evangelical message into what he had been talking about Americanism,” Armstrong said.

According to Armstrong he also talked to Reagan about the dangers of communism – that the philosophy was developing a whole generation of people who didn’t believe in God.

“It rang a bell with him,” Armstrong said. He was not only sympathetic and said he wanted to do something about it, but three years later at a meeting of the National Association of Evangelicals he referred to the ‘evil empire.’”

Armstrong said that Reagan always attended the annual NRB meetings and even when his handlers declined one year on his behalf without telling him, that still did not stop Reagan from attending.

Armstrong said, “He really wanted to come. He said, ‘I have found out they have canceled me but can I still come?’”

In an early meeting with Reagan, Armstrong discussed with him the need for religious broadcasters and evangelicals to get easier access to the White House.

“I said, ‘We don’t only need people to talk about their testimony but we need someone in charge whom we can talk to,” Armstrong said. “We had real big issues in Christian broadcasting.”

Reagan did not disappoint, appointing a liaison allowing evangelicals easier access to the White House. At that point, “the whole thing took on a different character,” Armstrong said.

Reagan’s legacy was huge, Armstrong said. “He upgraded the traditional standards of home, Bible, prayer and patriotism. He was the one who affected the average man in the street by his communication,” Armstrong said.

According to the AP, Reagan's body was expected to be taken to his presidential library and museum in Simi Valley, Calif., and then flown to Washington to lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda. His funeral was expected to be at the National Cathedral, an event expected to draw world leaders. The body was to be returned to California for a sunset burial at his library.

REAGAN’S LATER YEARS

Reagan lived longer than any U.S. president, spending his last decade in seclusion as a result of the Alzheimer’s Disease that wracked his body.

With his death, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton are the surviving ex-presidents.

Although very protective of Reagan's privacy, the former first lady let people know his mental condition had deteriorated badly. Last month the AP reported she said, “Ronnie's long journey has finally taken him to a distant place where I can no longer reach him.”

Reuters reported that Reagan's daughter, Patti Davis, wrote an essay in December 2003 expressing concern that some people might think Reagan was still mobile and active, despite his illness, because his family had guarded his privacy so carefully.

“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,” Reuters reported she wrote.

In the same month People magazine reported (according to Reuters) that Reagan spent his days either in bed or occasionally in a wheelchair at his home in the Bel Air section of Los Angeles.

Reagan, a film star turned politician, was U.S. president from 1981 to 1989. He was voted into office with a conservative revival that changed America's political and economic landscape for years, Reuters reported.

He became the first right-wing president in 50 years; the first in 30 years to serve two terms; and the first to spend a trillion dollars on peacetime defense and witness a doubling of the national debt.

He was plunged into crisis in November 1986 when it was learned that the United States had sold arms to Iran in 1985-86 and diverted proceeds to U.S.-backed Contra guerrillas in Nicaragua, Reuters reported.

Reagan said he was guilty of no more than poor judgment, Reuters reported. Congressional hearings in 1987 backed him on one central point: witnesses said he was never told about the Contra funds.

He left office two weeks before his 78th birthday, the oldest president the United States had ever had and more popular than any predecessor in history, Reuters reported.

Reagan survived a 1981 assassination attempt that put a bullet near his heart, a 1985 colon cancer operation and 1987 prostate and skin-cancer surgery, Reuters reported.

ALZHEIMER’S

When diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 1994, Reagan disclosed it in a “My fellow Americans” letter.

He wrote, “When the Lord calls me home ... I will leave with the greatest love for this country of ours and eternal optimism for its future ... I know that for America there will always be a bright dawn ahead.”



Jeremy Reynalds is a freelance writer and the founder and director of Joy Junction, New Mexico's largest emergency homeless shelter, http://www.joyjunction.org or http://www.christianity.com/joyjunction. He has a master's degree in communication from the University of New Mexico and is a candidate for the Ph.D. in intercultural education at Biola University in Los Angeles. He is married with five children and lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. For more information contact: Jeremy Reynalds at reynalds@joyjunction.org. Tel: (505) 877-6967 or (505) 400-7145. Note: A black and white JPEG picture of Jeremy Reynalds is available on request from Dan Wooding at assistcomm@cs.com.


** You may republish this story with proper attribution.

[Barnacle]

Good post.

[fox0566]

Shepard Smith is a liberal, just one of many at Fox. Their true colors are bound to come to light sooner or later.

[longtermmemmory]

Considering it seems that Kerry was personally responsible for some of that damage, it is very surprising he has any chance.

Look for Kerry to now become the stealth invissssssible candidate. His handlers will keep him out of sight.