Posted on 06/10/2004 3:02:54 PM PDT by ZGuy
Frankly, it seems like Michael was the only child who was comfortable in his father's shadow. But that's just gossip on my part.
It has been upsetting to see this family drama played out like this. It is obvious to everyone that Michael is being shut out of the family.
Michael and the late Maureen were always more normal than than Patti and Ron Jr.! Michael is truly a class act. Patti never had all of her oars in the water, and Ron Jr. might as well be from a different planet.
I think Michael has two children. Not sure if Ron Jr. has any. Ron Jr. knows he can never be the equal of his dad....perhaps that explains his contrary attitude and "political leanings?"
Much will be explained as more time goes on, I am sure. God bless Michael for the love and respect he has for his dad and for what he has obviously always had to endure.
I am sorry to have to say this, but the greatest of men (or women) don't always enjoy the greatest of families. Very few do.
Merv Griffin, the Hollywood powerhouse, was a staunch supporter and pallbearer but is not family. He was seated where he should have been.
Michael does. I am sure that this fact pains Nancy as well.
I have been extremely bothered by the apparent discourteous, and certainly ill advised, treatment of Michael Reagan by Nancy Reagan, Ron Reagan, and Patti Reagan. I noticed at the beginning of the public mourning in Calif, that Michael was not standing with Patti and Ron and altho Michael and his family boarded the plane to DC with the other Reagans, he was not seated with them in the capitol. I have absolutely no use for Ron jr. IMO, Patti came very late to the realization that her parents deserved her respect if not her gratitude. Considering just how messed up her life was when Patti returned to the fold, there is the suspicion that her new found fealty was mercenary. I know too many adoptees not to be greatly offended at the shunting aside of an adopted child. Especially when Michael was the only one of President Reagan's children to support his views and love him in a public manner.This situation needs to be explained. It will be remarked on soon enough in the unfriendly anti-Reagan media. Brit Hume and guest touched on it tonite and neither had an explanation. Perhaps this was Michael's choice but from the look on his face during the ceremony, I think not.
Michael was adopted by Jane Wyman and Ronald Reagan. I think Nancy always resented him.
She also said she now realizes she was wrong in her approach, and that she has grown beyond that. She took responsibility for the rift. Highly interesting.
She also said she was angry with the press for describing him as intellectually incurious. She found him to be a thinker, but one who was influenced by deep faith.
There is definitely a problem with both Ron Jr. and Patti.
I wonder what President Reagan thought about them in his heart of hearts?
I think he had a great relationship with Maureen....she was a delight and probably gave him great joy as a little girl and as a grown woman. I believe that he and Michael had a good relationship in spite of what may have been going on with Jane, Nancy and her two kids. Patti always had problems and Ron was not the type of son one would imagine that Pres. Reagan would spawn.
Nature or nurture?
Seems to me that Patti and Ron were jealous of their parents in that they felt shut out while Michael and Maureen tried to win the love of their parents by emulating them.
Interesting that Michael seems the most good hearted and the one doing his best to follow in the footsteps even though he would be considered the red-headed step child of the group.
I think you are right, but it seems the Mother Hen only wants her own chicks when the Rooster departs.
I'd sure hate to think that is true about Nancy. She doesn't seem the type to shun anyone.
Way I see it, Michael is from Ron's first family & should be UPFRONT in everything at this funeral.
In divorces cases, a first family is always put in front of the second family, when it comes to child support payments. First family comes first.
Wouldn't you (in Nancy's place) want to, for appearances sake make sure Michael was with the rest of them? I sure would!
Even worse than wondering about Ron Jr's heredity is this little notice about Ron wanting to do a liberal left talk show.
http://www.observer.com/pages/story.asp?ID=7706
Lubbock Christian Article 4/04
Michael certainly has more character than the younger two.
Being from a divorced family, I pick up on this stuff instinctively.
Even at the Funeral home in Cal., you saw Nancy walking with Patty Davis and RonJr..., Michael made a nice overture to come up and hug Nancy...and in about 3.8 seconds - Patty was grabbing Nancy and diverting her attention away from Michael.
It looked very petty and you could see the childlike jealously radiating - especially from Patty.
Maybe too much is being read into where Michael sat yesterday. Naturally, Ron and Patti sat close to their mother. In the second row were Maureen's former husband and his fiance and some kids and Michael and his family were in the row behind. How do you decide whether Michael sits directly behind Nancy and Maureen's, in essence, representative sits in the back row? Does it really matter? There are only so many seats in a row.
Not everyone could fit into the family limo which follows the hearse. Naturally, Patti and Ron would be deferred to in this case because it is their mother who is the widow.
Cripes, there's enough in life to surmise about, why take up an offense when you don't know there even is one?
God bless Michael Reagan.
I too have some thoughts and observations on this issue, but out of respect lets wait to discuss it until after tomorrow.
God bless Michael Reagan.
"Former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, speaking through a translator, said he "told her I felt very privileged to have an opportunity to work with one of the greatest American presidents."
"He said he reminisced with Mrs. Reagan about a visit many years ago to the Reagan presidential library in California and a tour of the grounds conducted by the former president. At one point, Reagan stopped and pointed."
"He told me that would be the spot he would be buried and right next to him would be buried Mrs. Reagan," Nakasone recalled. He asked Mrs. Reagan if that still was the plan and she said it was."
The fact that President Reagan was able to connect with Japanese Prime Minister Nakasone was responsible, according to current Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, for the solid support that Japan has given the US in our present war on terror crisis. The Japanese have proven themselves to be our most trusted and valuable allies, next to the British. The great work that Reagan accomplished transcends the generations and continues to bear fruit even after his death.
The mystery to me is why the Germans, who owed Reagan and the US a great debt of gratitude for ending the Cold War and making their reunification possible, have shown themselves to be unbelievably despicable with their duplicity and treachery.
I will never buy anything from Germany, France, or Russia ever again for as long as I live. I will now buy only Japanese products to repay their steadfastness. These people have to be made to understand that their perfidy has consequences, as well as their graciousness.
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