Hi Mike.
That was a lovely service. I value your opinion and I was wondering what you thought about Ron Jr's remarks about religion.
What was your take?
Although it was truly heartwarming to see all of the remaining Reagan children rally around Nancy at the end of Ronald Reagan's funeral services, it spells out all the more clearly the importance of reconciling differences as much as possible while every family member is still alive.
Too often it takes a tragedy and/or death for family members to come together. That is very sad.
Ron Reagan did something his dad and Pres. Bush would never do: bring the presidential campaign into a eulogy. Ron has such an open, relaxed expression in his childhood photos. It's sad to see him so brittle and buloxed up. Patti is a much better writer than Ron, and despite all her bratty antics and lonely teenager temperament (the hair), she has grown. So much so that she pointedly wore small crucifix pendant and earrings at the procedings. Ron's only gig these days is personally attacking Pres. Bush on Hardball and emceeing dog shows on Animal Planet.
Yet the great man's family gave America the precious image of their reconciliation. They allowed us into their most personal expressions of love and grief, and for that I thank them all.
A lot of people grow up without their dads around a lot and many people don't know their dads at all --- maybe it was harder on the Reagan kids because their dad was enjoyable to be around and they missed not having a lot more time with him. It's nice to see they are a close family in spite of it all.