"What would Wellstone do?"
"It's not time to Park the Bus"
"Say No to Bush"
Which means it's well past time to begin to respond.
These are on my car:
Posted on 06/07/2004 1:31:59 PM PDT by Cinnamon Girl
We’re Not Gen-X, We’re Gen-Reagan
This is for everyone who was raised to believe that our young lives would soon end in a nuclear war, of mutually assured destruction, quivering under our school desks with President Reagan to thank for making the pink and gray tile on our classroom floors the last thing we would ever see.
This is for those of us raised in the post-graduate, post-doctorate suburbs where Volkswagens and Volvos taught us that we “can’t hug our children with nuclear arms” and that “war is not healthy for children and other living things.”
This is for the generation that grew up watching “Welcome Back, Kotter,” “Laverne & Shirley,” “Cosby Show” and hundreds of bad impressions of President Reagan as a shellac haired cowboy buffoon who didn’t have a thought in his head, followed by impressions of Dan Quayle as a simple minded bad speller who attacked the beloved “Murphy Brown” for having a baby and no husband, followed (in our adulthood) by monkey-like caricatures of the ignorant and stupid cowboy-war-monger President Bush.
We know who we are. We accept the moniker “Generation X” and we don’t even know what the heck that means. It might have something to do with being jaded and feeling crappy about dolphins in canned tuna, and about the tragic death of Kurt Cobane. It probably refers to a specific group of people who saw every John Hughes “teen” movie and point to “The Breakfast Club” as a virtual documentary. It has never signified the Generation that grew up feeling good about America because of President Ronald Reagan.
Our generation went from an early childhood of Jimmy Carter, a droopy peanut farmer with big teeth and a hostage crisis, to a happy, energetic, powerful and confident Republican president who suddenly made politics interesting.
I remember watching a Carter/Reagan debate by myself one night when my mom was out. There was no doubt in my mind that Ronald Reagan would be president. He was irresistible, and he made America sound like an exciting, attractive place.
I remember collapsing on the couch in the family room, feeling as if I’d been punched in the stomach, the day President Reagan was shot. It was in middle school. There was no discussion of the event by teachers or even the principal. My happiness that he would survive was a quiet and personal event.
While family friends and neighbors continued to wring their hands, and angrily mock what they called “Reagan’s Star Wars fantasy,” I remember him saying “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” He just seemed really gutsy. And my neighbors, who said “Visualize World Peace,” and meant it, seemed passé. Action, not words. That was hot.
In high school, I remember a school assembly before Reagan’s re-election. Nobody in our debate team wanted to be on the pro-Mondale side. Reagan’s second big win was a done deal and everyone knew it. Even before we could convincingly articulate our reasons for supporting President Reagan, and long before we could vote for him, we knew he was great, and that he was helping us.
In college, I waited in a long line of other students at USC to vote for President Reagan’s then Vice President, G.H.W. Bush. When I finally got to a voting booth, inside the small house of a Mexican-American family, I noticed on their mantle, a big framed photograph of President Reagan. That’s right. That is right.
When his second term was over, President Reagan came to speak at USC. Somehow, I managed to get a seat in the fully packed auditorium to see President Reagan in person. The standing ovation, when he took the stage, was 11 minutes long. And he was dazzling, of course. We were all riding the high for a long while afterward.
The first time I went to the Reagan Library, I was most impressed by the big chunk of graffitied Berlin Wall sitting outside, above the valley. I knew what that was about. That was a part of my growing up memories.
Tonight, I plan to go again to the Reagan Library, to pay my respects to the man who had a greater influence on my generation than any other person the media or the pundits bring to mind.
Thank you, President Reagan. G-d Bless you. And G-d Bless America.
I'm seriously thinking about putting my Bush/Cheney '04 bumper sticker on my car. Who's in?
Eeek!
Good article! I think we are about the same age...Reagan become President when I was in 5th Grade(?)..LOL! I remember I was in high school at the end of his second term. I also remember that that he was widely admired at my school, it was "cool" to like Reagan.
I've had mine on for several months now...
Then there is the sign in the yard...
And the T-Shirt, Cap and Mug...
www.georgebush.com
"What would Wellstone do?"
"It's not time to Park the Bus"
"Say No to Bush"
Which means it's well past time to begin to respond.
These are on my car:
This is an interesting post. Over the last couple of days I've started to believe that "Generation X" has an ingrained sense of dissatisfaction built into us. Not because we are malcontents by nature, but because we are in the "unfortunate" position of having grown up after the doldrums of the 1970s. Our "problem" is that we came of age during the most optimistic periods in the last 50 years -- and we are not likely to experience that again anytime soon.
Great post/article. I was 10 when we won the Gold Medal in Hockey, and I can remember being sooo excited that there was something to cheer for after gas lines, staggering inflation, and the hostage crisis. It seemed a bleak time.
During the campaign I also remember getting into an argument with a fellow student in the bathroom at school that Reagan would win the presidency over Carter. They were convinced that Carter would win (I grew up in libbie CT). I think it was after one of the debates.
I also remember when my eldest brother registered as a Republican. My family had always been Democrat (Irish Catholics from Massachusetts will do that to ya). And it was all because of Reagan.
You are right. We are the product of his presidency. And what a great presidency it was.
Gen-x ping?
I'll second that : We are the Reagan Generation.
OOO...how ruffled will the Lefty Boomers be now?!
Cinnamon Girl wrote:
I'm seriously thinking about putting my Bush/Cheney '04 bumper sticker on my car. Who's in?
Careful with that sticker, Cin. You live in LA & your car will be vandalized. I have had people make nasty comments about my "Freedom isn't Free" sticker. I got that from a charity I support (Disabled American Veterans).
Plaid wool skirts a la fifties style and knickers were in. We were just beginning to hear about groups like Duran Duran and the new sensation called MTV.
ping to read later
Why don't you already have it on there?????????
Ronald Reagan became president during my first year in high school. I had already picked up on my father's conservative views by osmosis so I was what you could call a 'proto-conservative' at the start of grade 9. It was during those years in high school that I made a critical examination of those views and incorporated conservative principles into my belief system. President Reagan's example, optimism, confidence and conviction had a large impact on me (even up here in Canada) and I frequently found myself defending him against the criticisms of my fellow students.
Every now and then God will raise up a man and put him in the right place at the right time to turn the course of events in God's favor, and Reagan was such a man.
His wife's long years of devotion to your husband were an example of the kind of loyalty and true love that is far too rare these days.
God bless and keep you Mr. President. And may his blessing pour out on the loved ones you've left behind.
Good post, BTW!
I remember not being ble to sleep in November 1980, when I was finally legal to vote in my first Presidential election..... ( and yes, i voted Reagan! )
That's the thing. I don't want the peace-loving tolerant lefty scum scratching my paint.
I can easily identify with what you've said. Nice job and good post.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
