Memories of Ronald Reagan

It's Ronald Reagan's birthday. Had he lived he'd be 95. It's guess it's disrepectful
to speak in a derogatory manner of those who have passed on.
Perhaps as an individual Ronald Reagan was a charming, good & generous man with a big heart.
From stories I've heard about him, as an individual, I believe he actually was.

( He wrote out personal checks to people he never met to help pay their bills. Once one such
individual never cashed one of these checks. Reagan called and asked why. The responded because they framed it for his signiture. Reagan wrote that person another check.) This was while he was president. Maybe that explains why he did such a poor job of running a country.

It's not Ronald Reagan the person I have less than fond memories of.

But my memories of him as President unfortunately are not so cheerful.

Here are a few things that come to my mind when I think of the Reagan Presidency.



Secretly dealing with terrorists to win the release of American hostages and embarass President Carter.

Firing air traffic controllers for demanding less stressful working conditions and up to date
equipment.

Driving up the budget deficit higher than every administration preceding his.

The greatest trade deficit in history.

Hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs moved overseas.

The creation of the rustbelt.

Sleeping through cabinet meetings.

The 2nd largest Stock Market Crash in history. I'm pretty sure surpassed only by 9-11.

The begining of corporatations raiding their workers pension. A & P was one of the first.

The beginning of the "Government is Bad" mantra.

Rising unemployment.

Thousands of families loosing their family farms.

The begining of the decline of rural America.

Junk Bonds.

Wall Street Corruption.

Hostile take-overs.

Huge defense expenditures for weapon systems that never worked. ($80 billion for the "Star
Wars" inititive).

The Iran Contra Affair.

The elimination of the Dept.of Energy.

Oppulent White House Dinners and Dances.

An unprecedented increase in homelessness.

Obscene oil company windfall profits.

Massive cuts to social and education programs while giving tax cut to the rich.

So with all these fond memories of the Reagan years. I have to say

Happy Birthday President Ronald Reagan. You'd be proud of these times too.

Thank You Dr. Bill for the reminder.
For some reason this day wasn't marked in red on my calendar.