Posted on 06/13/2004 9:09:41 AM PDT by qam1
The British refer to young people who grew up from 1979 to 1990--during the time Margaret Thatcher was prime minister--as ''Thatcher's Children.'' We could easily say the same of the approximately 30 million Americans who were born during the Reagan years, me included.
We would be a decent generation to consider ourselves Reagan's Children. For every young person needs heroes. This generation has had few, and Ronald Reagan was the greatest.
As a 13-year-old, I wrote a letter to President Reagan: ''I have certainly been inspired by you and that which you stood for ... I will stand firm for America by going out and winning one for the Gipper.''
I read Ronald Reagan's autobiography ''An American Life'' in the fifth grade, and I considered him a hero after that. To this day, my bedroom wall displays a large poster of Reagan standing beside a pillar along the West Wing corridor, a 1984 ''Americans for Reagan'' campaign banner, and a poster with this quote by the Great Communicator:
Freedom is not something to be secured in any one moment of time. We must struggle to preserve it every day. And freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.
But can Reagan's Children preserve freedom for America? Can we carry on the mantle of greatness Reagan inherited from Washington and Lincoln and Cleveland and Coolidge? Can we still possess that genuine faith in God and country that gave breath to the Reagan Era?
Reagan's trademark optimism inspires me to answer nothing but an unequivocal yes, though the challenges are immense. Our culture, our government, and our sense of identity are at times and in places confounded. Still, our heritage and our hope remains.
''The future of our nation will be determined, more than anything else, by the character of our children,'' Reagan declared in 1982.
Indeed, we have character problems in America. But there is a strong and vital corps of young Americans who are committed to the simple, permanent things--the things of the spirit that define the American character. These are Reagan's Children who will keep America going.
Recent surveys show that Generation Next has more conservatives than any generation since statistics were available. The Harvard Institute of Politics reports that 31 percent of college students identify as Republicans, compared to 28 percent who are Democrats. And according to a Higher Education Research Institute report, 24 percent of college freshmen consider themselves liberal while an all-time high 21 percent say they are conservative. Even the Baby Boomers and Generation Xers who were Youth for Reagan in 1968, 1976, 1980 and 1984 could not rival with the energy and passion of what Rolling Stone and the New York Times have recently called, ''Young Hipublicans.'' These are Reagan's Children.
And Reagan's Children are lining the ancient sands of Babylon, fighting for the peace and freedom of Iraq, or they are defending liberty in Afghanistan, or they are at home on military bases struggling to prevent another terrorist attack.
Reagan's Children are the faithful corps of conservative college students, fighting against the leftist establishment in the dark realm of higher education, and studying eternal truths where that establishment has neglected to invade.
Reagan's Children go to church, plan for marriage and family--despise the deadly intellectual and moral poisons propagated by the left--and commit to a life of purpose and honor.
And Reagan's Children are optimists about the future. We are deeply divided at the moment, and civil wars of spiritual proportion are not out of the question, but it was only after the Civil War that America became the nation she is today. Reagan never ignored the reality of our circumstances and the inevitability of our struggle, but he never despaired. Likewise, Reagan's Children are both fighters and dreamers.
''If you take away the dream,'' warned Reagan, ''you take away the power of the spirit. If you take away the belief in a greater future, you cannot explain America--that we're a people who believed there was a promised land; we were a people who believed we were chosen by God to create a greater world.''
We must, at this moment and in this generation, renew our faith in America's future, for that is the best tribute we could pay to the legacy of Ronald Reagan. May Reagan's Children dare to dream, struggle to preserve the sacred fire of liberty, and ''go out and win one for the Gipper
I love what President Reagan did for this country, but we are still recovering from deep wounds caused by the Clintons. If we are going to be the shining city in the future, we have to clean the poison left by the 90's. We can do it, but it is is no easy task. The future depends on doing it successfully.
One More Tribute (to President Reagan)
Bill
I have to confess now...I am greatly confused. Being born in 1967, am I part of the late boomer wave? or am I a part of GenX? I didnt even have boomer parents, with my dad born in 1936 and my mom in 1940, but they came of age right about the time of the Korean War. What's more, Im adopted, and my birthmother, for all I know, was a hippie, and so where do I fit it? Its why I always make the cutoff date for the GenXers to be right at 1980, because that's when the Boomers started settling into their careers and began having babies. The amount of money spent on toys in the 80s was thrice that of what had gone on when I was a child. I have a great deal of affection for the after '80 child boom, because I have a feeling they too will greatly surprise their parents, but I get a bit incensed when my peers are brushed over to call the boomlet the Genxers. We have then gone from being "whatever" to "who?" which is worse than being labeled. We weren't easily defined or manipulated, so I feel we were tossed aside...and now that we have a hero with which we can identify ourselves and makes ourselves known, YOUNGER groups are claiming him too.
GAH...its silly and profound at the same time.
OH I am SO glad someone posted this. It is exactly how I feel. I was born in 1974, and growing up under Reagan I absolutely fell in love with this country. He made me believe that we could do anything we set our minds to- he was like our country's grandfather. My grandfather was the man that always believed in me- I could do no wrong. He had all the faith in me that I could do whatever I put my mind to, and that I was a good person. To me, Regan was like that to our country. Sure, we might not be perfect, but we are intriniscally good, and we can do anything we set our minds too. We were beloved by this man, and we all felt it.
I feel the same kind of loss for President Reagan I felt for my grandfather- just heartbreak and a deep sadness. Who will believe in us now with that same unwavering adoration? I adore our current president, but I don't think he conveys that same love of country as well as Reagan.
I was a sophomore in college when Reagan was reelected (which was the first time I was old enough to vote!) and as a known Reagan supporter, more than a few of the jackbooted militant feminutties sneeringly called me "Reagan Youth" (with a heavy German accent).
I think in their first book they call this the "echo effect" where the Baby Boomers had babies, and so there was an "echo baby boom". These were the "babies on board." Meanwhile, noone bothered to put us in carseats, etc. Yeah....Gen Reagan was neglected from the get-go. We're the most mis-treated, hard-working generation.
You realize, of course, they're saying those who had not a clue of Reagan are the "Reagan Generation"?! (Read: it ain't "Generation X" he's talking about!)
No way, no how, no sir! I CAME OF AGE during the Reagan Revolution, so I know darn well who he was, alot of what he did, and definitely what he stood for. *I* am the Reagan Generation!
Never mind that the Dart was basically a '60s car, not a '70s.
Don't you love the hypocrisy of the Left:
'80s - generally noted as a huge ecomonic boom, dominated by Reagan, called the "Decade of Greed" and selfishness by hippie boomers.
'90s - proudly declared biggest economic expansion ever, dominated by Clinton, not a word about greed or selfisness.
It all depends on who's in control.
Like I said in post 26, guys:
This post claims any1 born from '79 to '90 is the "Reagan Generation" - so that means you cannot be *older* than 24! ;-)
"say the same of the approximately 30 million Americans who were born **during** the Reagan years"
We've been shafted again on this generation thing! Maybe we really are the "lost generation"! Or is that the "Shafted Generation"?
Good post ping for later reading
Get a hobby.
BULL PUCKY!! You need to have been growing up in the Reagan era IMO -- i.e. during your formative years you lived with him as President. I would say like 1970-1985 would be my "Reagan Generation." Those old enough to remember him as president and be influenced by his leadership.
Without hypocrisy, what would the Left be? Genetic mutations, maybe.
Hey, you're still shafting me! ;)
I'd say it's really GenX (whatever!), like 1965-1975 (any1 born during Reagan's years shouldn't count!!!). We were all at least reasonably sentient certainly when Reagan left office, and most of us were very aware of his ascendency to the office.
Get lost.
I turned 18 in 1985, so I can't even say that I got a chance to vote for him...but I would have! Does that make me a non-GenReaganite? I don't think so. He was talked about every day of my life then.
LOL! I love it how we all love Reagan enough we are fighting to have our years included. It gives me some cool ideas for some Tshirts though.
Bite me.
That's OK, because as a Reagan teenager, I gave up on most of my teachers and the media by the time I was around 15.
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