Posted on 06/11/2004 3:22:10 PM PDT by Dog
Edited on 06/11/2004 3:43:21 PM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
LOL!!!!!!!!! Bet you are right!
Two words: Absolutely Superb! This week has been the culmination of an American tribute. Ronald Reagan would not have been prouder of this week, nor could our Nation have been more proud of him.
My first Commander-In-Chief was John F. Kennedy. My last was bill clinton. Ronald Reagan was the best of the eight I served under, and there were a few good ones in the mix. But none like Ronald Reagan.
As a child, I remember the air raid drills in school where we went under our desks, then marched down to the shelters in the basements - all in preparation for a Soviet nuclear attack. I was young and didn't really know what was going on.
But at 13 years old, my first real political memories and realizations of danger were the Soviet tanks crushing the Hungarian Freedom Fighters in Hungary and their desperate cries for help over the radios from Budapest - for the help that never came.
My first military memories include among them the frightening Cuban Missile Crisis. They also include standing on a dark summer night, face-to-face with the enemy in a possible military confrontation at Checkpoint Charlie at the Berlin Wall. And so it went on over the years. The danger was always there. It never ended. And I slowly grew older in the process.
For most of my entire adult life, in various places at constant times, I trained for and sometimes fought against Communism - often at the very periphery of the Iron or Bamboo Curtains. I was constantly girding for an awful war against the Soviet Union - a war in which it was not at all a sure thing we would emerge on the victorious side. For more than 30 years this was where the core of my personal efforts were centered.
Then, one day, suddenly, it was over. Over. The Berlin Wall came down. The Iron Curtain dissolved. The bells of freedom rang in Prague, Budapest, Warsaw, Bucharest, even Moscow.
Oh, there would be other wars, other efforts. But the big one, the major one, the always present, looming nightmare. The prospect of annihilation or slavery by the Soviet Union and Godless Communism was over.
Thank you, President Reagan. Thank you.
Thank you for setting so many of us free. Not just those in the Soviet Empire, but even those of us here in your own land. You gave so much more to us than we can ever give to you. That bow which Margaret Thatcher gave to you could be multiplied many, many millions of times for those of us who could not be there to salute you.
I can't wait to see you in Heaven and talk with you about it!
Then they showed the LBJ funeral coming on. The only explanation was that the lefties HAD to have equal time - sort of. They just could not let it go. They just could not allow President Reagan (even in his funeral) and all Republicans - especially our President George W Bush - to have all this emotional "free" television coverage.
I suppose showing JFK's funeral would not have been similar since he died in office....so they went back to the last Democratic President's (out of office) funeral to display to counter the tremendous outpouring for President Reagan (and the linked positive emotions towards the current President Bush).
There is no clearer indication that Brian Lamb's CSpan responds to the pulls of the Clintonista chains, sad to say.
I was, however, so very grateful for the replay of the events today with NO idiotic commentary that I will not diss Mr. Lamb totally. However, he really has been pscyhed out by the Clintonites. What a shame.
Doesn't Cspan UNDERSTAND that what we saw this week was both right and good for ALL Americans to have witnessed with NO NEED FOR A POLITICAL COUNTER STROKE AT ALL by them or their string pullers??????
The answer: Cspan does understand - and has Clintonistas running their program selection decisions. Too bad.
IN President Reagan's final journey, he - once again - went OVER THE TALKING HEADS, and America's communists - and THE CSPAN programmers - DIRECTLY to the hearts and minds of the American people!!!!!
Thank GOD!
That is cool. My little one stayed home from school friday, so I don't know if they had a moment of silence or anything.
I heard it, but I didn't understand what he was getting at at first. The earlob story was just as weird. Didn't this guy have any other memories of his dad? He's been detached for the whole week, I chalked it up to shock. I was watching Patti and Ron at the state funeral, and his eyes were everywhere, probably checking out the archectural aspects of the Rotunda.
At least he made room for Michael to give Nancy a kiss.
Major General Galen Jackman.
Kudos to the man for being a stellar supporter for Nancy during this entire week of events.
I will never forget the images of the two of them standing in so many places this week, and his gentle caring for her, whispering on occasion what was going on or what was going to happen next.
Thank you, MG Jackman. Job well done.
Well all the smiling and laughing she did at the Captial was a little give away
I noticed that with his eye also.
I thought Patti did good comforting her mother and holding her hand ... Her mother is really going to need her in the coming days and months
When the family came in, it was odd -- no one seemed that sad. I don't remember ever seeing that funeral before.
I'm raising a good strong conservative young man. And I'm proud to be a big part of his life.
I didn't see that part .. I started watching mid way into the Capital Building part.
BTW .. I noticed that no republicans spoke at LBJ's funeral
I had the same feeling -- detached. I thought at least in the end when he stepped away to let Michael help comfort Nancy, he was doing the right thing and then afterward when Michael and Ron were together it seemed like they were family for the first time all week.
I didn't get that far. When Lady Bird, her two daughters and their husbands walked in, they didn't seem sad -- had the sense they were just going to church not to a funeral.
The earlobe story seemed rather odd to me as well. I wish he'd kept that privae.
I was touched by the turnout of young people too. My oldest was 9 years old when Ronald Reagan left office (my youngest was 4). My kids know Reagan is my hero, but this week, they were introduced to him in a real way (I have a whole shelf full of books about Reagan, but my children have never shown any interest in reading them...I take that back: my oldest did read REAGAN'S WAR), and now they have a sense as to why I'm such a big Reagan fan (plus, they got to see their father shed tears more than a couple of times this week). But it looks from the turnout of young people this week that we've got a new generation of Reaganites poised to enter adulthood.
"I watched, for comparison purposes, a bit last night; did you notice how the sailor dropped his corner of the coffin as they approached the set-down spot in the Rotunda?"
Sorry, I didnt notice, EB...I was only able to catch the program at the church service part. The part I saw, I thought the guys were really struggling with a great weight, but were doing their best. Did you see all those STAIRS??? I was thinking that no matter which generation we're talking about, our troops are the tops, despite what burden they might be carrying!
"Have they aired any other state funerals??"
Not to my knowledge, Mo1. The feeling I had about it was that it was sort of a non-sequiter. Their playing of it sort of reminded me of the logic of a frequent conversation my parents used to have that would drive my dad crazy:
"What are we having for dinner?"
"It'll be ready in a minute!"
"I watched the LBJ Funeral too and I did not get the impression that Lady Bird was too much in mourning for most of the service. Her eyes were bright and sparkly."
She was holding up remarkably well, wasnt she?
The Torch has been passed on
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