Try not to look too far ahead, but keep your eyes on the future.

Growing up in a Democrat household in Brooklyn, I vaguely remember my parents going to vote for Carter even though they hated him but we were democrats. Something about Reagan being a hawk and Carter giving us peace. Reagan seemed to have a tough reputation.

I remember being home sick the day he was sworn in. I remember I had a humidifying going and it was snowing hard. Then the breaking news. The hostages were released by Iran. The yellow ribbons on every tree and stop sign and banister had worked. And then it was followed by Reagan arriving at the capital. His reputation of strength had proceeded him and had let to the Iranians giving up what we held so dear. There have been few times since that I've felt the swelling up of pride in being an American. It may have been the first.

I remember the air controllers strike and how everyone said that the skies were certain disaster because Reagan fired them. His decision turned out to be right but he was given grief. In fact, everyone in the media treated him like a dim witted, senial, old man who was just acting as a president.

I remember Reagan being shot. I remember saying that is a good thing because Reagan was a republican and he was the enemy (this was in an era where no one voted outside of their own party). My father strongly scolded me and told me that he was the President of the US, respect him for that and for being a good human being. This is not something we wish for on anyone.
I remember being ashamed of myself especially since one of my heroes, John Lennon had been murdered just months before.

I recall how the news (back then the national news was 1 hour long and 1000 times more important than it is now) was all over President Reagan's build up of the arms race. I remember seeing giant No Nukes rallies in the US and in Europe (especially Germany). These rallies cried that Reagan was leading the world down the path of nuclear destruction because of his strong arm tactics. How dare he denounced the Soviets as evil. How dare he use war-like words like, "tear down this wall". They turned out wrong.

But Reagan wasn't always right. A prime example was the death of the 280 Marines in Lebannon. He ordered the US to run away. Lebannon is still in shambles and we didn't learn the lesson of the sick Arab fundamentalist mentality until almost 20 years later.

I remember being proud of freeing Grenada (oh silly that one feels today), of waving the US flag, of bombing Libya (Ghadafy has said that he is sad Reagan died as he will never be able to stand trial for bombing him). I remember the Iran Contra hearings and being glued to them and thinking that if the President was guilty of this at least it was the right thing to do.

I remember starting to like and love Reagan but feeling guilty because he was a republican. Then I saw a "Family Ties" episode. A family member of the Keatons was getting a divorce. When Alex (played by Michael J Fox)asked how could this happen to such good people, his dad said that these things happen. His mother added that Ronald Reagan had been divorced. Of course Alex said "Yeah, but that was when he was Democrat".

Reagan had ideas. His political opponents had notions. Reagan stood for ideals that seemed ancestral and ancient and yet seemed fresh and new. His opponents stood for little things and never saw the big picture.

For all the things that he was I noticed his successor GHW Bush wasn't. I knew I wasn't really a Democrat anymore though I still naively believed much of the things they expounded. But I knew that no one in the republican party was filling Reagan's shoes. No one has captured my attention and my heart like Reagan. The current President has been the closest I've seen to Reagan's visionary powers. And like Reagan he has been derided as a dimwit, and a lover of war pushing the world to the brink. He's not Reagan though. I wish he were. Because Reagan could've handled anything and made us believe we could too.