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rant in five...four....three...two....
Jun. 12th, 2004 05:25 pmlift. off.
i truly mean no disrespect to the author of the lj comments quoted herein, and i'm sure none of the people that then commented on that lj entry did either...but a former President of the United States is dead and i can't let disrespect, even unintentional, to that office go unchallenged. disagree with the politics of the person that occupies the office as much as you want, but do *not* disrespect the office, and the sacrifices that are required to occupy that office.
Johnson's death didn't trigger a day of mourning, and hello, Civil Rights legislation? And no matter how I felt/feel about Nixon, same thing? No day off from government.
that is at the discretion of the sitting President.
much to the chagrin of the Democratic party, there is a Republican in office. a Republican who's father was Reagan's vice president. the man was a family friend. it was the least President Bush could do.
from an article at msnbc.com http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5151474/
Presidents, former presidents and presidents-elect are entitled to state funerals. It is left to the family to decide whether one should be held and how involved it should be.
Reagan and his family and his chief of staff have had Reagan's funeral planned for years. it is a prerogative of a former president, and regardless of party affiliation, a former president fucking well deserves it.
Apparently, the 101 is going to be literally shut down this afternoon so people can watch the hearse drive to the Reagan Library. There are signs, SIGNS, telling people not to park on the freeway!!
yesterday was about the office of President of the United States, and what it stands for, about this nation and what it stands for. that's why people lined up along the road to pay their respects. that's why the Stock Markets all closed of their own volition. that's why the government was shut down for one day, and the 101 was shut down for one day.
one day.
for a man that served his country for two terms, who almost died serving his country while in office, you can't suck it up for one lousy day?
I'm angry, and I know if Reagan had been one of my heroes, I'd be more sympathetic. That's a given. But I still don't understand it....
for fuck's sake...the man was President of the United States. during one of those terms, someone tried to assassinate him. the Secret Service agent that took a round for his President didn't care if Reagan was a Republican or a Democrat. didn't care if he agreed with the decisions of his President or not. the man was the agent's President. that's the bottom line.
Reagan deserves every respect that can be accorded to him whether you agree with his politics or not because he had the courage of his convictions and he tried to do something good for his nation.
whether he succeeded or failed in anyone's estimation is not the point. he put up. he put his
life at risk for the rights and freedoms of total strangers simply because they were his fellow Americans.
you know why politics is messed up and has been since the beginning of time, regardless of nation? because people can't get beyond bullshit partisan bickering and their own self-absorbed viewpoints to stop and think about doing the right thing regardless of political affiliation.
the freeways are messed up and people have been inconvenienced for one day.
isn't life traumatic.
Nancy Reagan just lost her husband, and her children just lost their father. i'd say they're a bit more permanently inconvenienced than the rest of us, wouldn't you?
even if it had been William Jefferson Clinton, I'm still not going to stand my ass on the street and watch a body drive by.
i would bet cold, hard cash that he would be deeply, deeply disturbed to hear that said.
love him or hate him, William Jefferson Clinton is also a former President of the United States and deserves the respect of the office. and when he dies, if i'm still alive, he'll get the same respect from me that Reagan did. and Nixon did. and any other former President of the United States should get from every single American.
people are not watching "a body drive by". they are paying their respects to the office of the President of the United States, the most free nation on God's green Earth.
i'd die defending this country, and were i in the position to, i'd die trying to defend the President of it. i'd also, for the record, die trying to save the life of any fellow American, were the situation present.
remember United Airlines Flight 93? the one where the passengers took over the flight from the terrorists one sunny morning in September? the one where the Americans on the plane sacrificed their lives for other Americans they'd never met by intentionally crashing the plane? remember that?
why'd they do that? because they were taught that we don't leave our people out to dry. because they were taught that our nation, our way of life, our freedom, is worth fighting for, and worth dying for.
by some of the remarks, i think it's a safe guess that the author is a Democrat.
want to be a proud member of the Democratic party? then start by working to make the Democratic party stand for something other than the Automatic, KneeJerk Republican-Hating Party,[tm] because *that*, is not a platform. that's a temper tantrum.
STAND FOR SOMETHING REAL. Reagan did.
oh, and one last thing.
about the death of former President Lyndon Johnson....he was, in 1973, the last ex-president to have had an official Washington ceremony. the stock markets also chose to close as a sign of respect. those inconsiderate bastards.
