St. Ronnie and the 11th Commandment

(Arthur comments on a post I sent out last week.)

When Ronald Reagan had the National Guard tossing tear gas at students in Berkeley in around 1970 at the time of the People's Park dispute (Reagan is dead, the park is alive) I happened to be eating lunch on the outside deck at "Reza's" a sort of Iranian/Middle-Eastern joint on Telegraph Avenue. It should be noted that the deck was in the back, not on the street. On the street a determined group of wanna-be martyrs had gone out that sunny afternoon, in the words of the Rolling Stones, "To get their fair share of abuse". Which they did. But so did I and my fellow diners, there for a determinedly apolitical lunch. We climbed over a wall to depart, since leaving by the street entrance seemed like a bad idea.

To say that Ronald Reagan was well-known in California as being a complete dick head is to state the obvious. Unfortunately there were a lot of Californians who had not yet gotten the message. From that I think it is fair to assume that most of the population of California not-so-secretly wishes they were movie stars. Crazy, I know. I can be seen in the movie "The Way West" in a street scene behind the opening credits. Leaving a house of ill-repute. Clearly I have no grounds on which to question the sanity of my fellow Californicators.

But those who were only partially stage-struck always knew that Reagan was a douche. It amazed everyone when he went on to enjoy something after being Governor of California. We thought he should be imprisoned, but our advice was not heeded. Not a nice man. Robbed the poor to enrich the rich. Lied as easily as he read scripts in his movies.

Was he a racist? Oh, probably only to achieve an end. I don't think he cared about anything except making a big impression on people and keeping his nasty little wife happy. She looked like one of those people who could be very, very no fun to live with.

Once he got done being President he probably purposely got Alzheimer's, to escape.

But a great President? A nice guy? A straight-shooter?

Nah, just a self-promoter.

Arthur