Monday, June 07, 2004

Ronald Reagan

At the risk of seeming disrespectful during this time of official mourning; is there anyone out there who is as disturbed at the hagiography of St. Ronald as I? This reminds me of the rehab of Nixon when he died. Never mind that tricky Dick (along with his sidekick Henry Kissinger) killed millions of Southeast Asians; let’s remember him as a “statesman.”

I believe the Reagan damaged this country almost beyond repair and we live with the sins of his presidency every day.

Do you remember large amounts of homeless people on the streets of America before this man became president?

Did Saddam Hussein have biological weapons before this man became president?

Why did Saddam receive a visit from Reagan's envoy Rumsfeld saying we’d look the other way after he murdered women and children with the weapons we sold to him if he would just slaughter a few hundred thousand more Iranians with those very same weapons?

Did Osama Bin Laden exist as a credible political force before this man became president?

Did the right wing fundamentalist extremists that run the Federal government have a snowball's chance in hell at political office before this man became president?

This man tripled the national debt, increasing the defense budget beyond all reason, while passing tax cuts for the rich at the expense of the American middle and working class and made us love it.

Did he really end the cold war or merely bring us to the brink of a holocaust with his talk of a "winnable" nuclear war before more intelligent, educated and rational heads on the other side blinked?

Did St. Ronald do it all??? Doesn't Gorbachev deserve any credit?

Personally, I saw the end of the cold war as two old men hanging on to the edge of a cliff by their fingernails. The Soviet’s nails weren't as strong or as long and they fell first; leaving us hanging on looking down and laughing because we won! Well, millions of Americans are still hangin’. With tens of thousands homeless and the political heirs to the "Reagan Revolution" engaged in dismantling what's left (pun intended) of the middle class with elitist shock and awe tactics, while disparaging any attempt at leveling the playing field even just a bit by repealing the huge giveaways to the rich and the corporations as class war! Talk about the triumph of image over substance.

I’m sorry he died the way he did. I don’t wish that fate on anyone. I’ve two uncle’s and an aunt by marriage, along with many friends, that suffer/ed from Alzheimer’s. I also had a cousin that died of aids and perhaps if RR had listened to literally hundreds of health professionals instead of the likes of Jerry Falwell who called aids God’s wrath on homosexuals and moved to fund aids research he may be alive today, maybe not. All I know is that RR was no saint and the relentless propaganda that fills the airwaves of this country would not be quite so pervasive if his administration hadn’t repealed the Fairness Doctrine. This nonstop hagiography is McHistory in the worst possible sense. NBC, CBS, CNN et. al. seem as if they are falling all over themselves to beat Fox News to the punch. The truth is out there; it just takes a little digging. “1984” and “Brave New World” are upon us.

Click on the link above, read the article and REMEMBER what this man did to our country and the world.

That’s my rant and I’m sticking to it...


Best regards,

Franco