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June 08, 2004
A gentleman passes from the stage ...
Funny how, with hindsight, a period, a politician, or a leader takes on a different mantle. One such is Ronald Reagan who died this week, released at the age of 93 from the clutches of a debilitating and humiliating illness - Alzheimers. The media, for the most part, now look back at his Presidency with fondness; those same wolves who delighted in highlighting his every stumble, mispronunciation, and the occassional gaffe, are now singing his praises.
I can remember a time when he was being reviled as a "madman", a "failed B-list movie star", and "a puppet of Nancy's making". I will confess that, as a non-US citizen whose own country was being affected by the Cold War struggle kept going by surrogate terrorist organisations, I did make the odd crack at him, myself. But I will also say that it was difficult not to admire his honest approach to the threat of Communism. He faced it head on, called it what it was, and declared he would kill it. In one sense he succeeded; in another, sadly, he underestimated it. He failed to kill the bureaucracies that are now strangling the West by their "socialist" policies and controls.
It is evident from his record that he was neither fool nor puppet. He was his own man in every sense of the word, and he had a quality singularly absent in any of the world leaders (or would be world leaders!) currently strutting the stage. If there is one quality that shone through this man's leadership it was this - he was a Gentleman. This does not mean that he was stuck up, a snob, or a social climber; he was a man of courtesy, humour, and compassion. A man who stood by his beliefs and did his best to do what was right, and not necessarily just what was popular. A man rightly honoured by our Head of State, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second (and of Scotland, the First), when she made him an "Extra Knight" of the Most Noble Order of the Garter.
I picked up a link to the Ronald Reagan Foundation on Ozguru's site and I would urge you to follow it and leave your condolences for the family who have lost a loving husband, father and friend - and for a world that has lost one of its very few statesmen.
May he rest in peace, and rise in Glory.
Posted by The Gray Monk at June 8, 2004 01:11 PM