Quote:
Originally posted by Eclipse
I certainly had no love jones for Reagan. One of the saddest/funniest things I read in Sunday's paper was that during both terms of his presidency he never once visited HUD offices. In addition, on one situation where his HUD Secretary, Samuel Pierce who was black, was visiting the White House he greeted him as "Mr. Mayor". He didn't know who the man was!
That being said, I think it is STILL important for us to be respectful of the people, who for what ever reason, supported him and mourn now. Saying things like "evil sumb*ich" only serve to polarize us. I can only imagine how we would react (me included) if some of our "friends" on this board said the same thing about one of our icons, say Martin Luther King.
In other words, kinda like what my grandmomma useta say...."If you can't say nothin' nice, don't say nothin' at all."
ETA: I am NOT saying you need to pretend to agree with the man or talk about how great he was. I DO think it is important for people to tell the truth about Reaganomics (I loved explaining this in a Econ class I taught for a certification program!) and some of his other programs, or lack thereof, but I think it is all about the way we do it and the language we use.
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I can see this point and SisMad's points, too. I guess that's the squishy, fence-sitting Libra in me.
This post is coming from deep in "Reagan country" -- Orange County, Calif. Dude was revered here, even by socially moderate GOP folks.
I was 16 when Reagan was elected and I'm not surprised that he never visited a HUD office. Remember, in some ways he was the culmination of backlash that began in the 1960s with the Silent Majority concept. For instance, he did a campaign rally somewhere near Philadelphia, Miss.