If what we saw this week was a movie, written and scripted and acted four our entertainment, perhaps your review would be fair. But it isn't. It is not a movie, it is not for us, it is what it is. It belongs to the Reagan family.
How would your own family fair under that kind of situation? Would everyone be equally beautiful and eloquent? Would all spout the right political mantra with perfect grace, humor, and heart?
Or would they look like a mix of people that is a family. All doing what they can do. Shame on anyone who thinks they didn't fit your agenda or should have been something else.
Well said. This thread seems to be an equal mix of posters interested only in politicizing every comment, and busybody gossips who can't resist taking potshots at the family.
Well, this time wasn't meant to entertain the rest of us; it was reserved for Reagan's family and friends to say goodbye in whatever manner they felt was fitting.
It was for the us and the world, too. That is why the lights and cameras were allowed.
People choose what their message will be. Ron chose and some of us heard. I am not "knocking" him. I think he might be upset if you guys don't get what he was saying, actually. And he did deliver his message very well, from a stylistic angle, I think. And I was pleased to see he and Michael and Patti swiftly move to Nancy's side shortly after, when she had to bid her farewell. That was extremely loving and moving.
Observing all of these events correctly does not cancel each other out and it doesn't mean we must ignore or pretend something wasn't said when it was.
The state funeral of a former president of the United States broadcast live to the nation does not simply "belong to the Reagan family." Ron Jr.'s remarks were made in public and he meant to address them to the entire nation. He politicized the event by unfavorably comparing his father's religious fervor, practiced "responsibly" in his opinion (at least, his opinion in the insincere line he was taking in his remarks) as it applied to affairs of state, with GWB's more crass religious convictions, which, again according to young Ron, are mistakenly taken as a "mandate" directly from God. Ron Jr. clearly meant to imply that Bush is some kind of religious nut.
I get a kick out of the people on this thread who don't seem to know that Ron Jr. hates George Bush, and seem to think he had something else in mind when he made the comment. Read the Salon article in Post #86 to get a true picture of who this loser is. He entire adult life has been dedicated to trashing his father and his father's legacy, which he did as recently as 2003 in a four hour American Experience documentary in which he said he never once in his life had a "real conversation" with his father. By his own admission, he is an atheist, so all the stuff his said about his Dad's religious views were dripping with insincerity. As a third rate journalist the only jobs the guy has ever held have been given to him by people who like use his name as a club with which to bash Republicans.