Of course, my sympathies go to the Reagan family on the death of their matriarch, Nancy. But as the national media gears up for another round of fawning eulogies and bullshit mythologizing, I’m reminded of the post I wrote 12 years ago on the death of her husband.
HA was less than a month old at the time, and I had very few readers. Which is a shame, because looking back on it, this was a damn good post. So I’m repeating it below:
I was never a Ronald Reagan supporter, and the benefit of hindsight has not mellowed my opinion of his Presidency. I remain confident that the judgment of history will more closely resemble mine than that of the fawning revisionists who, like the man they endlessly eulogize, seem prone to confusing his movie roles with the role he played in public life.
Thus I never thought Reagan’s death would touch my life so personally, until both PBS stations chose to preempt their morning children’s programming to show coverage of his memorial service.
Some things should stay inviolate: The Bill of Rights… my grandmother’s pinwheel cookie recipe… a seven-year-old’s morning routine.
Even on 9-11 and the days that followed, with the nation transfixed by the tragedy of those terrible attacks, our PBS affiliates wisely shielded our children from the horror, sticking to their familiar schedule of Sagwa and Dragon Tales and other god-awful-boring but thankfully commercial-free fare. Well the rest of us watched and re-watched the clips of planes flying into buildings and towers collapsing like some recurring, national nightmare, my daughter could obliviously munch her Cheerios as she watched for the umpteenth time as Arthur triumphed over his personal nightmare that he forgot his pants.
But not this morning. No, instead of watching Clifford once again help Emily Elizabeth make amends with that bitch Jenna, we found ourselves viewing a flag-draped coffin while somber announcers struggled to pretend that the death of the body of a 93-year-old man was somehow more tragic than the Alzheimer’s disease that years ago robbed him of his mind.
I watched for a few moments, imagining an enormous red dog rampaging through the National Cathedral, crushing dignitaries as he tossed the withered body of a dead president high into the air, like some rawhide chew toy.
But my cartoon fantasy was quickly interrupted by reality. Not the reality of a national media who buys and sells the spin that Ronald Reagan was a great leader simply because he happened to preside over the culmination of the Soviet Union’s decades-long collapse. No, it was the reality of a disgruntled seven-year-old, clearly suspicious that I had somehow conspired with PBS executives to rob her of her precious kid shows.
I slipped a tape into the VCR, and the image of a procession of mourners was quickly replaced by that of dancing cartoon cutlery, which struck me as no less illusory, no less scripted than the caricature of national grief that danced in unison across six local broadcast channels.
Of course I have sympathy for Reagan’s family and friends who watched a terrible disease slowly squeeze the humanity from his once vital body; and I hope these ceremonies can bring them closure.
But their grief is not my grief. And it certainly shouldn’t have been imposed on a seven-year-old girl who asked little from the world that morning, but a bowl of Cheerios and a brief diversion of talking dogs and dragons, before trudging off to a hard day of first grade.
As parents, we often try to protect our children from the realities of our adult world… a world where towers crumble and planes fall from the sky and the most powerful nation in history can crush another in retribution, on the whims of a single, ordinary man.
Yes, even presidents are ordinary men (some, more ordinary than others.) For all the eulogizing of our week-long national shiva, I think my daughter summed up Reagan’s legacy best, when staring briefly at his flag-draped coffin she eloquently pointed out: “There’s a dead person in there.”
Ronald Reagan is dead. And now back to our regularly scheduled programming.
Same goes for Nancy.
I’m glad she lived long enough to see Washington and Colorado just say “Yes!”
Wow, Goldy you truly are just a little shit.
Nancy Reagan will be well remembered for articulating the heart of the klownservatic philosophy:
“Just say no..”
Need bridges that won’t collapse? Eh.. They’ll last till the Dems take over. No..
The poor and the otherwise financially strapped need access to health care and education? It’s their own fault they’re not rich enough. They’re lazy. Just say no.
Hmm. The darker skinned natives are getting restless overseas. We need to kill ’em all and let the skydaddy sort em out. Up the Pentagon’s budget! Just say yes!
Millionaires and billionaires don’t have enough money. Redistributing wealth upwards “creates jobs” (wink, wink). Worked gangbusters in the fall of 2008. They need tax relief. Just say yes! to tax cuts for the rich.
Heh. People can thank Nancy for do-nothing klownservatic kraptastic kongress’ for being the gang of NO!
Old movie co-star Nancy swooped in and grabbed Ronnie right after Jane Wyman dumped the fool. Nancy groomed him to be the klownservatic reactionary he became through his stint sponsored by GE, right up to the speech he gave at the Republican convention supporting Barry G and beyond.
All the batshit insane commentaries he spouted purveying paranoia about everything from Medicare to the Panama Canal – just makes one wistful indeed.
No one is happier than I that all of that is laid to rest.
While I sympathize with Goldy the parent with an upset daughter I disagree with any expectations that PBS not run the funeral of a former President. On any Presidents death the nation should mourn. There are other times I expect PBS in their purpose to serve the public to interrupt their regular programming be it their wonderful children’s programming or a new version of “Hamlet.” I do realize that their are two frames of thoughts as to what the station should run in the event of a nuclear attack, asteroid, or viruses have killed the internet. I would hope they would choose the course that most serves the public. That does mean running a former Presidents funeral.
Other seven year olds had to stand through the parade with one parent while another parent was in the parade or protected the casket or stood guard on the route. They survived and perhaps built a little character whether or not their parents agreed or disagreed with the mans politics. As will future 7 year olds will stand at the parades of President’s Carter, Bush, Clinton, Bush, Obama should this nation continue to endure.
There won’t be all that much hoopla for Nancy.
So from this nations service members and veterans stop your whining.
@2 And you aren’t?
Saint Ronnie gets some credit for facilitating the demise of Stalin’s doddering empire that should go to an obstreperous Polish priest.
So what do you call the wife of a saint? A saintess?
@6 Who was shtupping somebody’s wife.
@7 Chicken jerky.
@4 Eh? You think Fox will interrupt their programming for Jimmy Carter or Bill Clinton? Or Barack Obama, when his time comes? How many TV stations are owned by Democrats?
@2 I don’t hear anyone calling her a “bull dyke” or a murderer or a felon who should be in prison. She was never endlessly investigated by Democrats. Her and Reagan got pregnant before they were married, but I never heard her called a slut. Funny how that only happens to First Ladies that dare to be more than props for their husbands.
You think Fox will interrupt their programming for Jimmy Carter or Bill Clinton?
Yes R senile. Fox now plays Heilary’s whiny voice and her BULLSHITTIUM speeches when she wins a primary!
Drone on dumb wabbit!
Dunceman @11,
Awww… Nancy was never a headline grabber! She didn’t try to force herself upon the American public. Big difference
Sux to be you!
Yes Nancy Reagan is dead. Read what some libtards are saying after her death… http://www.mediaite.com/online.....-obituary/
Remember Mediaite leans libtard!
When abortion advocate The Notorious RBG breathes her last and abortion protestors switch the channel from the many fawning news accounts of her body lying in repose at the Supreme Court to some station showing Ginsu knives, I know what image will be conjured up in their minds.
The jars they’ll be leaving at the Supreme Court building on that day won’t be filled with applesauce.
And then without hesitation take themselves or their own daughters to Canada or Mexico to rid themselves of their oh so shameful missteps if only they got their way.
Nino would shrug.
@2 I don’t hear anyone calling her a “bull dyke” or a murderer or a felon who should be in prison.
Maybe just maybe Heilary caling her husband’s rape accusers “bimbo eruptions” caused those return fire comments? Did Nancy Reagan ever attack her husband’s accusers dunceman? Did Nancy Reagan ever attack her own accusers dunceman? Apparently you forgot this dunceman. Well you are a dunceman! http://www.newsweek.com/wretched-excess-202154
Slightly OT
In the early internet days I remember reading a NYT piece on the effectiveness of the D.A.R.E. program which came about through the tireless efforts of Mrs. Reagan’s “Just Say No” initiative.
A very in-depth twenty year study found that high school students 16-18 that had been through the D.A.R.E. education program in elementary and middle school had identical rates of alcohol and marijuana use as those who had not.
In short, the program never worked. D.A.R.E., while maintaining all along that study after study confirming the same results were flawed, essentially admitted that it didn’t work by scrapping the entire curriculum in 2009 in favor of the “This One Works/Keepin’ it real” program in use today.
Why do I bring it up? Well if your local police cruisers have D.A.R.E. logos on them a combination of federal grants and local education bond money paid for a program that had zero effectiveness.
So Mrs. Reagan, of the Order of the Blessed Low Tax Government Waste Abbey of Sacred Deficits, through her main accomplishment as First Lady created a program that might as well have taken a pile of your tax dollars and lit them on fire rather than paying for training and overtime to have local police officers come to your schools and deliver the “Just Say No” message.
@18 We’ll pay any amount to prop up our delusions and create new gods.
“Conservative” defenders of Nancy are nothing but worthless fucking hypocrites.
Nancy Reagan promoted and donated money to fetal tissue research. Exactly the kind of research supplied by StemExpress – the center of the latest Republican manufactured outrage.
@10 Fox doesn’t have to, nor does CNN or MSNBC. It may not even make it on your local news. It used to be that there was this little federal requirement that all tv channels provide the public with information and the channels were required to be even handed. In the land of cable those rules don’t exist and even the requirements that used to be on the large networks don’t exist.
Still we were talking about PBS that actually still has the public interest built into it’s existence. Along with NPR. Both are likely to report on any future President’s death, funeral special parades, ect. Fortunately they are not state tv so we don’t need to worry about the dictator or ummm President speaking for hours on the only channel. So sorry 7 year olds there is a interruption in your morning routines someday in the future unless all former Presidential candidates have achieved immortality,