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[NautiNurse]

[Tamzee]

Lech Walesa speaks of freedom and cowboys...

[T. Buzzard Trueblood]

Big, Big Bump.

[Mo1]

When talking about Ronald Reagan, I have to be personal. We in Poland took him so personally. Why? Because we owe him our liberty. This can't be said often enough by people who lived under oppression for half a century, until communism fell in 1989.

President Reagan had a powerful impact, not only in American .. but all around the world

God Bless You President Reagan

And as you said in your final speech to the nation before leaving office

Not bad .. Not bad at all

[wingnutx]

bump for later

[Torie]

One other bit from the article, which Bush if he reads it, must quite enjoy (and of course Reagan would especially enjoy:

"I have often been asked in the United States to sign the poster that many Americans consider very significant. Prepared for the first almost-free parliamentary elections in Poland in 1989, the poster shows Gary Cooper as the lonely sheriff in the American Western, "High Noon." Under the headline "At High Noon" runs the red Solidarity banner and the date--June 4, 1989--of the poll. It was a simple but effective gimmick that, at the time, was misunderstood by the Communists. They, in fact, tried to ridicule the freedom movement in Poland as an invention of the "Wild" West, especially the U.S.

But the poster had the opposite impact: Cowboys in Western clothes had become a powerful symbol for Poles. Cowboys fight for justice, fight against evil, and fight for freedom, both physical and spiritual.

[sarasmom]

Thank you for posting this.
All us old cold warriors especially appreciate the tributes, long overdue, currently being paid to our beloved former CINC.
Most people seem to have forgotten the mission of the DOD in the 1980s.
I will never forget, since I was part of it.
We won that war. It was not without cost.
We were not allowed to count the costs, and mourn our dead, at the time.
God bless Reagan.
He mourned our dead, and counted the costs, when everyone else found it expedient to ignore us.


Rest in peace, sir.

[ambrose]

Wonderful article...

Onyx, are you archiving all of the Reagan articles?

[hmmmmm]

I had flipped to C-Span and saw this compelling moment... a man, obviously a dignitary since he was "right there", shown from the back, his grief obvious. He was kneeling beside Our President Reagan, his hands lovingly smoothing the flag. Then the shot shifted and I saw who it was, Polish President Lech Walesa. I can't imagine ever forgetting that moment in time.

[Cincinatus]

I have often been asked in the United States to sign the poster that many Americans consider very significant. Prepared for the first almost-free parliamentary elections in Poland in 1989, the poster shows Gary Cooper as the lonely sheriff in the American Western, "High Noon." Under the headline "At High Noon" runs the red Solidarity banner and the date--June 4, 1989--of the poll. It was a simple but effective gimmick that, at the time, was misunderstood by the Communists. They, in fact, tried to ridicule the freedom movement in Poland as an invention of the "Wild" West, especially the U.S.

But the poster had the opposite impact: Cowboys in Western clothes had become a powerful symbol for Poles. Cowboys fight for justice, fight against evil, and fight for freedom, both physical and spiritual. Solidarity trounced the Communists in that election, paving the way for a democratic government in Poland. It is always so touching when people bring this poster up to me to autograph it. They have cherished it for so many years and it has become the emblem of the battle that we all fought together.

Bump!

[EveningStar]

Wonderful article (wiping away the tears).

[The Sons of Liberty]

People in America take freedom for granted. They exercise their God given rights without a thought to the price that has been paid, and continues to be paid to ensure it. Only those who have been denied these rights fully appreciate them.

Ronald Wilson Reagan, by defeating communism, gave these rights to enslaved populations of central and eastern Europe. Ask the populations of Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Romania, East Germany and Poland. Abraham Lincoln will always be remembered as the Great Emancipator, but Ronald Reagan freed many more people than Lincoln ever did.

[T. Buzzard Trueblood]

we owe him our liberty.

Thanks for the tagline, Mr. Walesa.

[Robert Drobot]

BTTT!!!

[Coleus]

In Solidarity-The Polish people, hungry for justice, preferred "cowboys" over Communists.