Requiem for Reagan

Sickened by all the media coverage, I traveled back in time to recoup all the Great things a "Great President" did to a Great Country. The deeper I went down memory lane I couldn't remember anything good that came out of his presidency.

So, let's roll the film:

First thing that comes to my mind, sky high interest rates which were good for people who had money in the bank; that was not my case. I was just trying to buy my first suburban home and ended up paying 15.5% interest rate on my mortgage.

Then there was a new gasoline shortage "a la" Jimmy Carter that didn't last long.

And the unemployment rate was over 10%.

Poverty level reached 35% (from 11% before his presidency).

The soup kitchens were thriving, and homelessness reached national hysteria.

Next, I remember the free milk and free meals taken away from the poor children in public schools. I fondly recall the transformation of millions of welfare recipients into workforce. ( Remember the "food stamp queen"?)

Fired the Air Traffic controllers, and destroying their union... another great deed of Reagan. We were just introduced to a new era.

The Great President showered us with 30% tax cuts over three years (mostly to the wealthy) that exacerbated in an accumulated debt of the country of $3 trillion.

How many more "good deeds" does this country need to get this president into the "Hall of Fame"? Well, he sent the marines to Lebanon to stop a civil war, where 241 of them got killed by a terrorist suicide mission. At least he had the guts to take responsibility for it, and courageously withdrew our forces from Lebanon.

And the list goes on: Jailed Noriega when he refused to abide by the rules and gave Panama back to the Panamanians. (God giveth and God taketh it away)

Donated shoulder fire "surface to air" missiles to the "mujahadeen" in Afghanistan, that had Osama Bin Laden in their ranks as a recruiter.

But that was not enough; he sent Rumsfeld to Iraq to ally the Great Satan with Saddam against Iran. So, he sold Saddam chemical and germ warfare, and anthrax to kill some iranians and those rebellious kurds.

Next thing... as a great balancing act he sold weapons to Iran in great secrecy and laundered the money from those sales of arms through the Medeine Cartel to fund the Contras. He made Ollie North a hero, who did all the dirty work for them. There was a great danger that socialism may infiltrate the western hemisphere. And the Contras defeated the Nicaraguan Marxist revolution and Capitalism was thriving in Latin America. When the Tower Commission asked him about the details, he could not recall, or remember 95 times out of 100 answers. But by then Alzheimesr was doing great damage to a great mind.

What else did he do? Well, he deregulated most industries and gave big bones to big dogs. Privatized industries and founded the corporatist system with taxpayers money. He brought back the Republican party and religious right from chaos and confusion with right-wing ideology, created an artificial feel of prosperity with borrowed money and that led to the biggest wave of bankruptcy proceedings in history in our court systems around the country.

But he was a great leader, charismatic, witty, funny and very likable, a Great Communicator and above all the best salesman we ever had. He could sell us anything against our will, need or desire and history should remember him as such.

God rest him in peace and help us undo the perils of his legacy!
Amen