Imagine There's An Image

Even though I'm a lifelong Democrat and Child of the Sixties, I must say that I do miss President Reagan.

When he was elected in 1980, I thought the world was going to come to an end. "How can we have this right-wing nut for a president?" I thought.

But President Reagan's actions soon started to change my mind.

I was really impressed, touched, even, when President Reagan appeared in his hospital robe, smiling and joking, only a day or so after being shot. Me, I woulda been in isolation in bed for a week from a hangnail. As a 70-year-old gunshot victim, I'm sure the President didn't physically feel like being photographed smiling and joking, but he did it out of convicition that seeing him in seemingly good shape would be good for the rest of us.

Two other events in 1981 raised my respect for President Reagan - his handling of the air traffic controllers' strike and his military action, pushing back on Khaddaffi in the Gulf of Sidra.

During the following year or two, I became more and more amazed and dismayed at the way my Democrats acted in the area of national defense, especially their support for the "Nuclear Moratorium" movement. "Now let's get this right, guys, you really think that if we unilaterally disarm, Brezhnev and his gang will do the same? Right!" No, time proved my Democrats wrong and Reagan (and me!) right.

By 1984, I had become quite a Reagan fan and voted for him in the election. No, I didn't agree with him all the time, but I had come to respect him and truly like him as a person.