Jelly Belly Honors Ronald Reagan

[Paladin D]

[url="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5166402/"]http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5166402/[/url]

Mmmmm....

[Iacobus]

I am tired of Ronald Regean tributes. It is too much hero worship to me. He was a pres, good and bad in most areas. He was human. We are venerating him like a saint, why?

[Paladin D]

[quote name='Iacobus' date='Jun 9 2004, 08:35 PM'] I am tired of Ronald Regean tributes. It is too much hero worship to me. He was a pres, good and bad in most areas. He was human. We are venerating him like a saint, why? [/quote]
I don't know, maybe because Jelly Belly is funding all this? (j/k)

[VeraMaria]

[quote]Reagan wrote to the company chairman in 1973, "we can hardly start a meeting or make a decision without passing around the jar of jelly beans."

Reagan carried that tradition to the White House, where jelly beans became a must-have at Cabinet meetings. He even ordered seven-thousand pounds of Jelly Belly's for his 1981 inauguration.[/quote]

[Mickey's_Girl]

[quote name='Iacobus' date='Jun 9 2004, 07:35 PM'] I am tired of Ronald Regean tributes. It is too much hero worship to me. He was a pres, good and bad in most areas. He was human. We are venerating him like a saint, why? [/quote]
Iacobus--

I know the reasons behind this long-drawn-out drama is probably hard to understand, coming from your perspective (your profile says that you were born in 1986, and so obviously you didn't consciously experience Reagan's time in office). And, depending on your knowledge of history, you may or may not understand what it was like to live during the Cold War, and what the Soviet threat felt like to the average American.

I think there are two reasons for what you see as "hero worship" (whereas I see it as giving the man his due).

One: he was the right man in the right place at the right time to end the Cold War and shut down the Soviet Union. Of course he was not the only person who made it happen. But most people (historians, politicians) seem be coming to the conclusion that it wouldn't have happened without him. This makes him tremendously important in a historical sense. Those of us alive and aware during his time feel the heavy weight of history right now.

Two: he was a man who inspired strong feelings. Many people disliked his policies, but nearly everyone (even bitter political enemies such as Tip O'Neill) liked the man. I've listened to quite a few writers and politicians in the last few days, and no one except Don Regan (who was bitter anyway, and who mainly complained about Nancy) has had anything bad to say about the man himself--even though several of them make a point of downing his policies. Every person remarks upon his sincerity and kindness. And many, many people just loved him, plain and simple. He managed to get a Democratic Congress to follow a lot of his plans (how? how on earth?). There were "Reagan Democrats" (can you imagine "George W. Bush Democrats?" ). Many, many people got into politics because of him.

I knew that the assessment of him had changed when they named the airport after him. That wouldn't have happened ten years ago.

People who lived through the Reagan Era, who had a stake in his vision of America, need time to process his passing. Thousands upon thousands of people have stood in line for hours to pay their respects. This is the sort of event that binds people together.

After Friday, it will be over, and you won't have to live with the drama any more.

MG

[crusader1234]

Well, this tribute isnt anything new, they just but a ribbon on it in his honour...

Anyways Jake, if you want to learn more, theres a wicked article about him in Time magazine this week. I suggest you pick it up.

[Mickey's_Girl]

Nice avatar, Crusader1234!

MG

[OwNeD_byGoD]

hah i remember going to the ronald reagan museum so much when i was in elementary and junior high as a part of GATE program since i live so close, it was always fun, so much cool stuff, and LOTS AND LOTS of jelly beans

[Ash Wednesday]

[b]Mickey's Girl -- thank you, thank you, thank you.[/b]




[quote]I am tired of Ronald Regean tributes. It is too much hero worship to me. He was a pres, good and bad in most areas. He was human. We are venerating him like a saint, why?[/quote]

Iacobus, I really like you because you think for yourself -- but I have to be honest that it saddens me just how young and cynical that statement sounds to me.

I think if you are old enough to remember the Cold War, you would understand what a big deal this is to some of us.

I was born in the 70s and I remember all of the 80s, and I can tell you, he really meant a LOT to this country. He meant a lot to people on the other side of the Iron Curtain. I remember the Cold War, and the Soviet Union just really scaring the the living daylights out of me, and all of us.

The prospect of absolute and total nuclear war was something that absolutely terrified us. It wasn't just one modern nation against a bunch of terrorists scattered around in Afghan caves. It was the U.S. against the U.S.S.R., a country with modern technology that was much like ours, and a country that was probably almost three times as large as we were. We had missiles around the world pointed straight at each other. So you've got to understand the context of the time. To me it was a hell of a lot scarier than Al Qaida and the "war on terror."

I remember seeing all the information about the nuclear arms race on television, and just being totally distressed about it, and I was just a kid. Everyone was so upset about the Challenger explosion, I remember our teacher coming into the classroom in tears. What's more, we were still in the space race with the USSR, and it was embarassing and demoralizing for us. But Reagan handled it eloquently and I will never forget the speech he gave that day. He just had that way of making people feel like "everything was going to be all right." And I think we really hunger for that now.

The thing was, he represented a lot to people. Freedom and security, and a lot of stuff that we hear about nowdays but we kind of let it go in one ear and out the other without thinking about it, because all it is now to people is a media soundbyte. It isn't necessarily about what he did. It's about what he represented.

Maybe it's because we want to remember his optimism because of what a crappy last few years this has been for our country.

According to my father, this pomp pales in comparison to what happened when Kennedy died. I think in times past we took time out to honor and respect our leaders, and now it's like we barely have the attention span to do even that, and it hasn't even been a week. We haven't even had the funeral and the man hasn't even been buried.

If you don't want to hear it, turn off the TV, get off the internet until Saturday. And don't worry, America's MTV attention span and sense of honor is so short, chances are they'll be over it in no time.

[crusader1234]

Even though I wasnt born until '88, I hold great respect for this man. The tribute in Time magazine did him great justice. I especially like the quote from after the Challenger disaster.

"We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they preparedfor their journey and waved goodbye and slipped the surly bonds of earth to touch the face of God."

Now THATS eloquence that Dubya could learn from.

[Ash Wednesday]

Yes, again the Challenger speech was really good. A little trivia here, the poem Reagan was referring to is High Flight, by John Gillespie Magee, Jr. It is one of my most favorite poems. It's so beautiful it brings tears to my eyes.

High Flight
John Gillespie Magee, Jr.

Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds -- and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of -- wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew.
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

[Mickey's_Girl]

[quote name='crusader1234' date='Jun 10 2004, 02:44 AM'] Even though I wasnt born until '88, I hold great respect for this man. The tribute in Time magazine did him great justice. I especially like the quote from after the Challenger disaster.

"We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they preparedfor their journey and waved goodbye and slipped the surly bonds of earth to touch the face of God."

Now THATS eloquence that Dubya could learn from. [/quote]
Poor Dubya: he was never meant for a speechifier.

If you didn't know, that Reagan comment was alluding to this poem (oh, he had a great way with quoting!):

High Flight
by John Gillespie Magee, Jr.

Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth,
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds...and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of...wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up, the long, delirious burning blue
I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, nor even eagle flew.
And while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space...
...put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

[crusader1234]

TUBULAR DUDE

[Mickey's_Girl]

LOL, Ash! Great minds think alike!

MG

[Ash Wednesday]