Posted on 08/01/2004 8:14:45 PM PDT by doug from upland
Edited on 08/01/2004 9:05:09 PM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
HEROES
Hello. First, I wanted to point out that my last name is spelled wrong on the program. It is “from Upland.”
I have had two heroes in my life. One of them was shared with my two brothers, sister, and mom. He was, of course, my dad. The other was shared with hundreds of millions of people around the worldn who value freedom. He was, of course, Ronald Wilson Reagan.
My dad was a ordinary guy who worked hard for his family. He taught us the lessons of honesty, hard work, decency, compassion, and trying to do the right thing. I try to live what he taught me.
Ronald Wilson Reagan started out as an ordinary guy. He was born in Tampico, Ilinois but soon moved to Dixon, which is considered his home town. He was an average student. But a set of circumstances would all come together and he went much further than even he had ever dreamed. Preparation, hard work, and determination came together with an opportunity and an ordinary man did extraordinary things.
I wish I could have met him during his lifetime. I only had the opportunity to see him on the silver screen and the small screen.
While he was the head of the Screen Actors Guild, Reagan was a bad word that deserves a timeout. He was a Democrat. He learned in his Hollywood days the danger and insidious nature of communism. He would make that the focus and fight of his life. Well, that along with a little thing that affects all of us called taxes.
In 1948, Reagan supported Harry Truman. Then came the change. He campaigned as a Democrat for Eisenhower in 1952 and again in 1956. He campaigned for Richard Nixon in 1960. Finally, he registered as a Republican in 1962.
In 1964, Reagan made an impressive television speech for Barry Goldwater entitled "A Time for Choosing." From that speech came the following: “You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we will sentence them to take the first step into a thousand years of darkness.” Businessmen took note and convinced him to run for governor in 1966.
So here was this actor, somewhat famous after 53 movies and labeled the “Errol Flynn of B movies,” running for governor of California. The Democrats mocked him. Yep, here was a guy who did a movie with a chimp. They gave him no chance. But in 1966, he trounced Governor Pat Brown and was re-elected in 1970.
After a couple tries, including a very good showing in 1976 against the eventual nominee, Gerald Ford, 1980 was Ronald Reagan's year. After the national malaise that was Jimmy Carter, the conservative revolution dreamed by Barry Goldwater finally came to national prominence.
His platform called for "a new consensus with all those across the land who share a community of values embodied in these words: family, work, neighborhood, peace, and freedom."
It was fitting that American hostages held in Iran were released on the day he was inaugurated.
One of his first tests was the air traffic controller strike. Reagan gave those illegally striking 48 hours to return to work. Then didn't. He fired them. It set the tone and taught a lesson to his adversaries and enemies.
The actions taken by Reagan to bring the nation out of the Carter malaise not only worked, but they fueled an economy that still works today. He cut taxes and government. Wherever he could, he made the government get out of the way so that business could work. So that more jobs could be created. So that the economy could expand. Reagan knew well that you don't help the poor by hurting the rich.
In 1984, Reagan defeated Walter Mondale in an election in which Mondale only carried his home state of Minnesota and the center of the known universe for pork, Washington, D.C. The electoral count was 525-13. Mondale finally completed his dubious record by losing the state of Minnesota when he ran for the Senate in 2002.
The passion that guided Ronald Reagan for most of his adult life was belief that the right of men was to live free. The greatest evil of the 20th Century was communism. In terms of deaths, it was worse than Nazism, primarly because it lasted so long. Some estimates are as high as one hundred million human beings dead because of that evil system.
Reagan went after the great purveyor of communism, the Soviet Union. They were causing trouble and attempting to expand their empire arounde the world. Barry Goldwater had earlier set the stage -- "I ask your help, and the help of all Americans, so that an American president can tell Nikita Khrushchev: 'You are wrong! Our children will not live under communism--your children will live under freedom!'"
Ronald Reagan used every effort, overt and covert to accomplish that goal of defeating the evil empire. The political left hated that term. It was too confrontational. He sounded like a cowboy, as if that was something bad. He sees things in black and white. He is going to blow up the world!
He systematically did damage wherever it could be done. He attacked their currency. He attacked their economic interests. He convinced Saudi Arabia to dramatically increase oil flow to seriously harm the price the Soviets got for oil -- a major source of hard currency. He escalated the arms race, knowing that the Soviets could never keep up. And he had his CIA pull a great dirty trick. He allowed the Soviets to steal software that would run their pipelines. Unfortunately for the Soviets, it had a nice little bug in it. When the pipeline blew, it was the largest non-nuclear event ever seen from space, and it caused them serious economic damage.
The leftists and peaceniks thought it was the end of the world when Reagan threatened to install Pershing II missiles in Western Europe to answer the Soviet SS20s. There was a call around the world for a nuclear freeze. There were massive demonstrations. Reagan would have none of it. The Soviets knew that this cowboy meant business. And Reagan knew that they knew this cowboy meant business. Well, the Soviets blinked and the SS20s were removed.
As part of his defense doctrine, President Reagan oversaw the development of the most advanced weapons systems ever deployed by the US military, such as MX ICBMs, Pershing II IRBMs, cruise missiles, strategic bombers and nuclear submarines. The Soviet Union conducted similar modernization of its arsenals, further stressing a system that could not keep up.
It was a shame that the Berlin Wall did not fall while he was still in office because that wall fell because of him and because of a great partner he had in Great Britain. Lady Thatcher was a giant in the fight against communism. He called for that wall to come down when he spoke in front of the Branderburg gate on June 12, 1987. I will start part of his famous words, and when I give you the cue, I want you to join me.
“General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate!” Okay, are you ready………….. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!
Reagan didn't just go after the Soviet Union. After a 1986 bombing of a discoteque in Germany that killed American citizens, he want after Muammar Khadafi. Khadafi was almost killed, and he did not cause us trouble for a long period of time thereafter.
In our own hemisphere, because of Ronald Reagan, free elections were held in Nicaragua, much to the chagrin of many in the Democratic Party. And our military rescued American medical students in Grenada and kept the Soviets from putting into operation a landing strip that would have accommodated their largest cargo planes.
Hundreds of millions of people live in freedom because of this great man. Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, the Balkans, Central Americans.
They made me promise not to sing but I wanted to read some lyrics I had written to the stirring tune of “Do You Hear the People Sing” from Les Miz.
Ronald Reagan we love you and you are loved around the world
Thanks to your vision flags of freedom everywhere have been unfurled
We will all raise up our glass...here's a salute from one and all
Long live your legacy...the many who brought down The Wall.
One of my heroes is buried about an hour and 45 minutes from here in Loma Linda. I have missed my dad for over 25 years. My other hero is right here. Ronald Wilson Reagan, you did good work while you were on this earth. May the Lord be taking care of your soul.
You were caught "Tearing Down This Wall." Report to Hillary for your mandatory "Communist Re-education Programming."
WOW! Do you have a link or reference for that, I'd love to post it on my "Remembering Reagan" page, which is: HERE
I didn't know Minnesota was that close. Do you have a reference for the stats?
Come on out and twist my arm just a teensy bit and I'll go back!
bump for later read
Great speech. I wish I could have been there in person. Thanks for posting it.
Doodlelady did absolutely great sketches of FReepers, and she and I showed off our secret weapon against Kerry.
No I don't. It's something I read a couple of years ago.
ALEC BALDWIN FREEPED!
Activism/Chapters Free Republic Keywords: ALEC BALDWIN, KIM BASSINGER, LIBERAL SCUM
Source: HenchPAC
Published: 3-22-2001 Author: Henchster
Posted on 03/22/2001 21:30:37 PST by Henchster
Well, Alec Scumbag and his soon-to-be ex-wife, the always frumpy in public Kim Bassinger, their daughter, and it looked like mom, dined at La Finestra in Woodland Hills tonite.
I've seen them there many times, but this was the first in a while, since before impeachment and "Stone Henry Hyde to Death" days.
So I wasn't going to miss a chance to FReep the scumbag.
But....I was at a restaurant that I love to frequent, Mario and Fabrizio are fabulous hosts, and whip up the best Southern Italian Cuisine this side of, well, Italy!
Both Alec and Kim were true to form. Both looked dirty, frumpy, and on drugs. She wore sunglasses and a bandana to cover her bad hair and face night, and he had the greasiest looking hair I've ever seen, along with some major cocaine bags under his eyes. This was at 7:30pm!
Finally, they got up to leave, and had to walk right past us. He was last in line, and as he passed, I looked up, pretended to be surprised, and said "Mr. Baldwin, I thought you were moving to France!?"
No response from the jerk, he must be getting used to being FReeped these days!
Now Alec's a confirmed psycho, and he's about 6'3" - 230 lbs, so there's no way the 165lb Henchster was going to get in that ring, but there's NOTHING better than getting a liberal to resort to violence!
I'm sticking my pictures on fotki...hang on. It's SLOW tonight.
At the time, I was pretty sure Alec and Kim were separated, and I THINK she was just about to file for divorce. Kim shows up with her mom and child, and then Alec shows up, like he was uninvited and crashing the party. He sits with them, gets up, walks around a bunch of times, like he's jittery or nervous, (or on drugs) and it seems obvious it's not a regular "Family night out."
All of this is just my opinion as an interested observer, but it really rings true that he's trying to "be normal" and convince Kim he's OK. Of course, when he encounters Henchster, his blood boils, but he realizes he's gotta keep his cool or blow the whole night. Naturally, he makes a mental note: "Find this F'ing FReeper later and KICK HIS @$$!"
I'm 5'8 240lbs send the psyco my way, I haven't pounded a punk in Decades, tell him I will meet him halfway so he wont have to drive too far.
I will force feed him an entire box of my treats.
Keep talking...this is REALLY interesting!!!
Alec Baldwin moved to Paris…or so our friend Henchster heard
But inside at La Finestra, there’s the Baldwins
Would Henchster give them a greeting, while they’re eating?
He’d confront the happy couple…quickly he got in the groove
He asked Alec…that stone-throwing scumbag Alec…”When will you finally move?”
HENCH/Baldwin Round 2!
6-16-01 HenchPAC Exclusive!
Armed with only a cold beer, I was electronically assaulted by Alec Baldwin this afternoon. At first I didn't believe it was him, but it became obvious quite quickly that I had gotten the real McCoy, you just can't ACT as silly as he does! He obviously was finally clued in to the FReep of him I posted x-x-20001, and he's obviously pissed off, as you can tell from our following e-mail exchange:
Howzat@aol.com Sun 6/17/2001 3:25 PM
I saw your comment about me at La Finestra.
You are a filthy coward and a gutless liar, like nearly all Free Republic subscribers.
The next time you see me there, introduce yourself. We can walk into the back parking lot. You know, just to the left of the kitchen service window, and down the hall past the bathrooms. And there, in the shadow of the buzzing traffic on the 101 Freeway, I can beat your gutless, hillbilly ass.
You are a liar and a coward. Don't ever forget that. I will beat your cowardly ass like the lying dog you are.
ALEC BALDWIN
(THIS IS REALLY HIM!!! WHY WON'T YOU IDENTIFY YOURSELF, YOU FILTHY WEASEL???)
HENCH Sun 6/17/2001 3:40 PM
Haven't you moved to France yet?
And by the way, YOU are a cowardly scumbag weasel for threatening Henry Hyde and his family merely because he was doing his Constitutional duty to impeach the scumbag-liar-traitor friend of yours who you have so much in common with.
HENCH
Howzat@aol.com Sun 6/17/2001 3:31 PM
Come see me at La Finestra and take your beating, you weasel.
HENCH Sun 6/17/2001 3:46 PM
Take your medication.
Actually, you've already received a bit of your own medicine from me. Now take it like a man, and realize that, ACTORS SHOULD STAY OUT OF POLITICS. Only Reagan was smart enough to make the jump, and judging by your irrational comments, both on T.V., and to me, you just can't cut it.
Howzat@aol.com Sun 6/17/2001 3:41 PM
<< Only Reagan was smart enough to make the jump, >>
You are kidding?
Reagan was a boob and a disgrace as President, much like this beerblasting, keg-tapper that's in there now.
You must be crying now that moderates like Jeffords and, soon, McCain are bolting that crypto-facist whorehouse called The Republican Party in order to actually accomplish something for the American people.
All of you GOP oil whores don't know what pain is. Wait until we knock off this asshole Bush and his Dr. Strangelove VP, Cheney.
You ought to leave the country.
HENCH Sun 6/17/2001 4:04 PM
"Reagan was a boob and a disgrace as President"
Reagan won the cold war, cut taxes to boost a faltering economy under Carter, returned prestige to the American name, and is still revered around the World as one of the greatest Presidents we've had. Only liberal revisionists such as yourself actually believe your comment.
"...beerblasting, keg-tapper.."
Former, thankfully the Lord can reform those who stray. Better than the coke-snorter we had recently anyway.
Jeffords and McVain? Get real. They are the true whores, panning for media exposure and committee chairmanships. Good riddance, they fit your party better than ours.
"Wait until we knock off....."
You just don't know when to shut your mouth. Not only will I not repeat your insane comment, but I will be forwarding your e-mail to the Secret Service, for proper investigation. Expect a visit from the "Men in Black" soon, to explain your Federal offense in detail.
I intend to stay, but there's nothing stopping you from keeping your promise and moving to France. Oh, I forgot, you're a liberal, they NEVER keep their promises.
Howzat@aol.com Sun 6/17/2001 3:59 PM
< "Wait until we knock off....."
You just don't know when to shut your mouth. Not only will I not repeat your insane comment, but I will be forwarding your e-mail to the Secret Service, for proper investigation. >>
"Knock off" as in at the next election, you dumb bastard.
Why are you modern Republicans so dumb? So unironic and literal and...dumb.
The Republicans of Nixon's era look like cultured moderates compared to you Gingrich-era, Reagan-licking idiots.
Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Powell...all those election-stealing, GOP oil whores...gone in 2004.
HENCH Sun 6/17/2001 4:11 PM
Here's a link for you to read, a little history about our greatest President since Washington, you might find you've been misinformed:
http://hench.net/reagan.htm
There's always time to confess to your sins and reform your soul. {;^)
HENCH Sun 6/17/2001 4:15 PM
Who are the Dems going to beat them at the polls with?
Joe LIEberman? Joe "Mr. Plagiarism" Biden? A re-heated Al Gore, complete with new-style Tipper kiss? I know, I know, Al Sharpton, right?
Get a grip. You won't be invited to the White House for at LEAST the next eight years.
HENCH adds: Not often does one get to hob-nob with Holly-snobs. Ever rarer, thrashing them into hysteria.
OK, technical question - how did you get the pictures of Reagan's desk? The light was so low in there, and they don't allow flash, so all mine came out dark and blurry.
Wait until we knock off this asshole Bush and his Dr. Strangelove VP, Cheney.
I take this VERY VERY personally. And, btw, I WANT MY OIL! I AM A REPUBLICAN AND I DON'T HAVE MY OIL!!!
What a JERK he is!!! THANKS for the posts!!!
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