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President Reagan

Wow, it's been 3 months since my last Digressions... article. I've been busy at work and have had other distractions the past few months. There's a reason I'm forcing myself to write another article, why I want to remember someone who's made a difference in my life.

President Ronald Reagan, 1911-2004

Growing up in North Philadelphia, I thought I would be a Democrat, that Republicans were rich white folks who didn't give a damn about the rest of us. Although I wasn't old enough to vote for Reagan, I would have voted for Carter in 1980 - that is, I wasn't a Reagan supporter at first.

Today I regard him as the best President in my lifetime to date, and among all the presidents I would put him in the top 5 (the others would be Lincoln, Washington, FDR and I'm undecided on the fifth). I am a conservative Republican today because of Reagan. President George W. Bush's presidential style has been closer to Reagan's than to his own father's - to some that's a damnation, to me it's a compliment (not taking anything away from the 41st President!).

Why? Two reasons.

Reagan-Bush won the Cold War

Even when I thought I didn't support Reagan I was very much in favor of a strong U.S. military, of confronting the Soviet Union and anyone else who wish ill will towards us. Of course I was worried about a nuclear holocaust, but I thought confronting our enemies from a position of strength was far better than confronting our enemies when we were weak.

The more I started paying attention, the more I realized I agreed with Reagan than I thought. Reagan and the Republicans (and conservative Democrats, to be fair) said and did things I thought were right for the country. The more I started paying attention, the more I realized liberal Democrats were doing a lousy job in Philadelphia and for the nation.

At the start of President Reagan's administration the country was in decline by just about any meaningful metric. At the end of the administration the country's greatness was restored and growing. I personally think of President George H. W. Bush's administration as the prologue of Reagan's - again, taking nothing away from Bush and acknowledging his own contribution to the nation's greatness. I think Reagan's record compares favorably to those of Lincoln, Washington and FDR.

I also think both Reagan and Bush would be the first to agree that winning the Cold War was a team effort, that it wouldn't have been possible without Margaret Thatcher, Mikhail Gorbachev and others.

Black Thursday 1987 was just a drop in the stock market

The day the Dow Jones index dropped over 500 points, 25% of the index at the time and a greater drop than in 1929, I had been out on an interview for a co-op position with some construction engineering company. When I finally got home, I just got through the doorway when Mom and Rich told me the stock market CRASHED 25%. At first I couldn't believe it, but as I saw the news stories on TV I first felt fear - it was WORSE than the crash of 1929 - then despair. All the news programs were comparing the crash to 1929, and how the country was headed towards DEPRESSION. I won't hear from that engineering company about that co-op job, I thought (and I didn't). I'll have to drop out of school, get a job to support the family, indeed IF I could get a job. I'll never get my engineering degree, I'll be forced into low-paying menial jobs, never get ahead, never fulfill my dreams - if I'm lucky.

The despair lasted a few hours. The news programs eventually showed Reagan's comments on the crash: that it was just a drop in the stock market, that all the economic fundamentals were sound, that we were OK. As usual the news pundits ignored Reagan, predicting dark times ahead. As usual they were wrong.

There have been three times I have felt real despair in my life. Ronald Reagan rescued me from one, Jesus Christ rescued me from the second. (The third rescue is too personal to record here.)

I went on to get my BSEE, then an MSEE, I'm an engineer today, am reasonably well off and God willing will do well in the future.



Thank you, Mr. President, I am better off now than before because of you.

Mark Bersalona, a Reagan Republican