CryptoBox
Saturday, June 05, 2004
Ronald Reagan
The end of an era: Reagan has died at 93. It makes me think of what a powerful symbol he was during my youth. As a young punk-rocker in the early 80's I made a spray-paint stencil of Wasted Youth's album cover featuring Reagan's face and painted it on the back of my jacket. That kids saw him as such a perfect icon to rebel against underscores what a perfect icon Reagan was for that era. One thing that I think all will agree upon about Reagan is that he was a real visionary who saw the moment when the Soviets were on their back and saw a way to end the cold war with honor for both sides. He and Gorbachev had a long summit, which at times was just the two of them and thier translators and nobody else, where they discussed nuclear disarmament. The amazing thing was that Reagan actually wanted to destroy ALL nuclear weapons on both sides and totally eliminate them as a weapon altogether. Unfortunately the compromise they came to did not destroy all of them. However, I think it is a real testament to what kind of statesmanship and leadership he was capable of. Eventually, of course, the two leaders signed the INF treaty, beginning the reduction of nuclear arms. Can you imagine Bush doing that?
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