Thanks of a grateful nation

New York Daily News ^ | 6/11/04

[kattracks]

And so it will be this evening that Ronald Wilson Reagan will be laid to rest in the California he loved so well, in the America he loved beyond measure. Over the last few days, the nation has made clear that this love was requited. It has honored his memory and celebrated his legacy and embraced his widow with compassion. The President who projected the bright, shining glories of "morning in America" to so many will be bid final farewell as the sun is setting and the shadows lengthening and the twilight darkening into night. All of which is appropriate, for the shadows and the twilight and the night will lead inevitably, ineluctably, to yet another morning and the promise that it offers.

The shadows were lengthening Wednesday, when President Reagan's funeral cortege made its solemn way along Constitution Ave. to the Capitol. At some points, the crowd was 15 deep. Up on the Hill, another multitude waited, and stood in hours-long lines in the sweltering Washington heat, to pay their respects. It was as if they had lost not just a President, but a friend, the sort of friend who helped them see the best in themselves.

Because he had been a long time dying, the country was ready. Because his death was, in some respects, a blessing and release, there was less a national outpouring of grief than a compelling need among millions just to say goodbye. To say, "We never forgot you. We never will." The tributes, coming as they have from across the political spectrum, are testimony to Ronald Reagan's accomplishments. He did, indeed, help change the world.

America's response to the passing of the 40th President is both an eloquent reflection of the awe in which Americans hold the Oval Office and a powerful measure of how tall he stood in the room. "A graceful and a gallant man," eulogized Vice President Cheney. "A good man."

In 1986, after the Challenger space shuttle disaster, a President sought to comfort the nation. In his speech that night, he quoted from a poem, "High Flight," by John Gillespie Magee Jr., a young airman killed in 1941. The quote is worth repeating now. Ronald W. Reagan has "slipped the surly bonds of earth," put out his hand "and touched the face of God."

Rest in peace, Mr. President.

[noutopia]

I as a man have cried few times,but this week I have cried more than ever before.My dad and mom are gone and one wife,lots of my family are gone.Something about Reagan hits a nerve with me.Is it that I am a retired vet,is it I am a republican,is it rich or poor is it good or bad is it free or oppressed is it just good verses evil.I have cried more this week than I have in 50 years.God bless this great man!

[teldon30]

I know where you are coming from....i tear up at the drop of a hat....all i know is that i loved that old man....i am glad to have lived during his time in office....i don't think most of us appreciated him like we should have...i feel a little guilty...maybe that's it...i don't know.

[noutopia]

Thanks teldon,glad to know I am not alone.

[xkaydet65]

During the 2000 election I had fantasized that the veil of Alzheimers could be lifted from Pres. Reagan long enough to speak again to America. To remind us of our greatness and our duties and our destiny.This, I felt would insure the election of George W. Bush.Of course it did not happen, and Pres Bush emerged victorious by the slenderest of margins. But maybe in his death Pres. Reagan is speaking to us one last time. Speaking in the retrospectives of his accomplishments and how they were achieved, but mostly speaking in the faces of those who pass his bier.Reminding us that America is her People NOT her government. Speaking in the eyes of those servicemen and women past and present who pause and offer one last salute, an acknowledgement of a job well done and a duty still in need of fulfillment.

Ronald Reagan is speaking to us loudly and clearly. We need only hear his message. We need only realize the choice for America this Fall is clear. America has a History, a Duty, and a Destiny. President Reagan showed the way.