 |
I say leave them all be for now..
Posted on 06/11/2004 9:00:42 PM PDT by nuconvert
Text of Ron Reagan Jr.'s Remarks at Father's Burial Service
The Associated Press
Jun 11, 2004
Text of remarks by Ron Reagan Jr. at Friday's burial service for former President Reagan, as transcribed by eMediaMillWorks Inc.:
RON REAGAN JR.: He is home now. He is free. In his final letter to the American people, Dad wrote, "I now begin the journey that will lead me into the sunset of my life." This evening, he has arrived.
History will record his worth as a leader. We here have long since measured his worth as a man. Honest, compassionate, graceful, brave. He was the most plainly decent man you could ever hope to meet.
He used to say, "A gentleman always does the kind thing." And he was a gentleman in the truest sense of the word. A gentle man.
Big as he was, he never tried to make anyone feel small. Powerful as he became, he never took advantage of those who were weaker. Strength, he believed, was never more admirable than when it was applied with restraint. Shopkeeper, doorman, king or queen, it made no difference, Dad treated everyone with the same unfailing courtesy. Acknowledging the innate dignity in us all.
The idea that all people are created equal was more than mere words on a page, it was how he lived his life. And he lived a good, long life. The kind of life good men lead. But I guess I'm just telling you things you already know.
Here's something you may not know, a little Ronald Reagan trivia for you, his entire life, Dad had an inordinate fondness for earlobes. Even as a boy, back in Dixon, Ill., hanging out on a street corner with his friends, they knew that if they were standing next to Dutch, sooner or later, he was going to reach over and grab hold of their lobe, give it a workout there. Sitting on his lap watching TV as a kid, same story. He would have hold of my ear lobe. I'm surprised I have any lobes left after all of that.
And you didn't have to be a kid to enjoy that sort of treatment. Serving in the Screen Actors Guild with his great friend William Holden, the actor, best man at his wedding, Bill got used to it. They would be there at the meetings, and Dad would have hold of his earlobe. There they'd be, some tense labor negotiation, two big Hollywood movie stars, hand in earlobe.
He was, as you know, a famously optimistic man. Sometimes such optimism leads you to see the world as you wish it were as opposed to how it really is. At a certain point in his presidency, Dad decided he was going to revive the thumbs-up gesture. So he went all over the country, of course, giving everybody the thumbs up.
(UNINTELLIGIBLE) and I found ourselves in the presidential limousine one day returning from some big event. My mother was there and Dad was, of course, thumbs-upping the crowd along the way, and suddenly, looming in the window on his side of the car, was this snarling face. This fellow was reviving an entirely different hand gesture. And hoisted an entirely different digit in our direction. Dad saw this and without missing a beat turned to us and said, "You see? I think it's catching on."
Dad was also a deeply, unabashedly religious man. But he never made the fatal mistake of so many politicians wearing his faith on his sleeve to gain political advantage. True, after he was shot and nearly killed early in his presidency, he came to believe that God had spared him in order that he might do good. But he accepted that as a responsibility, not a mandate. And there is a profound difference.
Humble as he was, he never would have assumed a free pass to heaven. But in his heart of hearts, I suspect he felt he would be welcome there. And so he is home. He is free.
Those of us who knew him well will have no trouble imagining his paradise. Golden fields will spread beneath a blue dome of a western sky. Live oaks will shadow the rolling hillsides. And someplace, flowing from years long past, a river will wind toward the sea. Across those fields, he will ride a gray mare he calls Nancy D. They will sail over jumps he has built with his own hands. He will, at the river, carry him over the shining stones. He will rest in the shade of the trees.
Our cares are no longer his. We meet him now only in memory. But we will join him soon enough. All of us. When we are home. When we are free.
Must be difficult for the former professional ballet dancer who looks the part to go through life denying the conclusions reasonable people reach about him.
You are right about Ron. I will add he hates W with a passion only rivalled by Mark Morford. It was undoubtedly a catty slam at our current president. Notice no attempts at political points were made by anyone other than a flaming lib trying to have his Wellstone moment, albeit in a slightly more subtle way. The libs in general, knowing how beloved Reagan still is, have been turning the trick of co-opting him and trying to contrast President Bush unfavorably. The truth is they hated Reagan with the same venom and for the same reasons when he was politically viable and able to crush them.
In the Catholic Church this is called the Cardinal Sin of Presumption.
Scratch post 61 - I was confused with someone else - my apologies. I was criscrossing with another poster who sent a lousy email. My bad.
Reagan expressed his love of God in a spiritual and ecunemical fashion. He didn't go around telling people they were going to hell if they didn't believe the way he does.
In this speech, President Reagan says it better than I ever could:
http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/resource/speeches/1984/82384a.htm
Well, Chris Mathews and crew were quiet excited and believed it was a slam at Bush. Chris followed the discussion by saying he had a HUNCH the Reagan's would not approve of how Bush is handling Iraq.
It escapes me why some who profess to love Ronald Reagan heap piles of hatred on the children he loved.
You are letting your lack of Bible knowledge show. Anyone, yes even you , if you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior is going to heaven. Read up man.
Yes, God decides who goes to Heaven...and explained it very clearly in His Word, including John 3:16. There is nothing arrogant about Michael saying he's going to Heaven. Michael simply trusts in the truth of God's Word.
It was a lovely speech.
The "earlobe" story was all wrong for the setting and the occasion. It kind of made you go, "WHA?" I mean, why is Ron Jr. talking about Dad stroking William Holden's earlobe at his father's funeral? Was it supposed to be funny? It wasn't. And just mentioning Holden's name was a tacky, name-dropping type of thing. The "finger gesture" story was only marginally better.
Ron Jr. has none of his father's grace and none of his smarts, but he thinks he's much smarter, much more graceful and way more sophisticated.
The guy's a dweeb.
The sad but inescapable fact is RR and Nancy did a very poor job with Patti and Ron Jr. They brought up two spoiled kids who fester with the self-centered and petty resentments only the very spoiled cultivate and feed off, sometimes for a lifetime.
It may be that Patti has finally turned the corner and begun to develop an adult perspective on life, but Ron Jr. has never grown up. He is one very deluded individual, and his remarks today only highlighted his immaturity.
Patti has been nothing but supportive these past 10 years. Her eulogy was heartfelt and touching, and something RWR would have loved.
Ron Jr.'s eulogy was fine except for that one barb.
It doesn't sound like the Republicans in that family (Nancy or Michael) feel that way. Big deal that at least one of the Democrats in the family feels that way about Bush. Matthews has been harping on trying to unfavorably compare Bush with Reagan all week. He makes me sick.
The barb was pompous and self-important, but then, the entire eulogy was. As I said in an earlier post, he affected a pose from the getgo that said, "I'm here to explain it all for you," only, lacking as he does the capacity to pull that off, he just came across as arrogant and smarmy.
The anecdotes he related were tasteless and inappropriate, and his insincerity when discussing his father's religious views was palpable.
If you can call that kind of performance "fine," remind me not to get speech lessons from you.
|
What a beautiful picture.
Michael's speech was so great.
By the way, I assume Patty Davis is single. She was the only one who came alone.
Once again, I agree with you, Dan. If anyone should be, Carterites and Clintonites should be offended.
As closely as I listened, I must have missed him zeroing in on that as a sharp rebuke of GWBush. Of all the places where one could and should protest Christian bashing, to quibble over this seems a waste of time and energy.
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.