Someone please tell me I'm not a bad person for not caring about Reagan...

[LynneSin]

and the fact that the old coot is dead.

I keep thinking of the millions of people who died because of his bad policies especially the fact that Reagan refused to do anything about the AIDS epidemic when it was in its infancy stages.

I shed no tears for the loss of Reagan heck I only wish that guy could have suffered for a few more years.

Can I say "Good Riddance Reagan" and still be a decent human being???

[Pale Blue Dot]

1. I think not caring is fine

I have a slight tinge of sadness because my grandfather made a movie with him, but otherwise, I am completely indifferent.

[terrya]

7. Would it be too rude to ask...

Who was your grandfather?

Thanks for indulging me in my non-sequitir. :-)

Terry

[Pale Blue Dot]

11. My grandfather was an actor named Eddie Bracken

He was a semi-big star in the mid-forties. The movie he made with Reagan was "The Girl From Jones Beach" (by all accounts a terrible film). Virginia Mayo was in that one, too.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0102787/

[terrya]

16. My God...I know Eddie Bracken!

Wow. I remember him from some movies I've seen on TCM. I also remember one of his last roles in "National Lampoon's Vacation". :-)

Thanks for satsifying my curiousity, Finn. :-)

Terry

[flamingyouth]

17. I didn't know he played Roy Walley in Nat'l Lampoon's Vacation!

I must have missed that before!! :D

[Darth_Kitten]

33. I loved that movie!!!

:)

[nuxvomica]

30. Eddie Bracken was a treasure

He starred in one of the great screwball comedies of all time, The Miracle at Morgan's Creek. Whatever he was in, Bracken was always worth watching.

[Catch22Dem]

2. Well

I only wish that guy could have suffered for a few more years

Can I say "Good Riddance Reagan" and still be a decent human being???

I think to celebrate someone's death is a little cold. Even after all of Reagan's bullshit, I don't wish suffering on anyone. It's what separates us from the freepers. They celebrate death and dismemberment and suffering. We do not. I won't stoop to their level.

[Citizen Daryl]

13. Careful not to say it too loudly.

I suggested that we criticize his policy without getting hateful, and I got a fistful of "shut the fuck up".

[wryter2000]

34. Hi, Daryl

You're a little new here. Thing is, there is diversity of opinion here, unlike that OTHER SITE.

I hated his policies. His trickle down almost put the dh and me on the street. But I wouldn't wish Alzheimer's on anyone.

[bearfan454]

3. You sure can LynneSin.

He was just another repuke criminal. His contras slaughtered thousands in Central America. He once said ketchup and relish were acceptable vegetables for school lunch program cuts to pay for his deficit tripling tax cuts in the 80's. You sure can.

[Don_G]

4. You're Not Bad

Your opinion is shared by a lot of people and not just here at DU.

Look at #5 on this list: http://www.deathlist.net/

[Braden]

5. I can think of a few hundred Marines

the gipper didn't protect who would whole heartedly agree with you.

The guy was charismatic, a pretty good speaker and looked the part but lets see.

Timor
Nicaragua
I am a Contra!
El Salvador
Beirut
Grenada
Iran
Ollie North
Lybia
Pan Am 103

real american hero, my ass.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

24. Hero apparently means nothing anymore.

It really means someone who, without regard to his own life, risked everything to save the life of someone else, without being paid for it. (God, the throwing around of this word pisses me off!) And that is not Reagan. He had just as much regard for human life as Barbara Bush does. And we all know her views on this.
Duckie

[flamingyouth]

6. I have absolutely no feeling

Neither happy nor sad nor filled with seething hatred - just very blase. And yes, you're a decent human being! :hi:

[latebloomer]

10. Same here

Couldn't give two shits. He was a rotten fuck but I suppose some of his family loved him. He's been brain dead anyway for at least ten years. I'm neither seething nor jumping for joy. Whatevah. . . :shrug:

PS-- You're a good person, LynneSin!!

[LynneSin]

25. 10 years? That's mighty generous of you

I'm thinking the Alzheimer kicked in sometime during his second term

[latebloomer]

39. You're right!

If not earlier.

[kalian]

8. You're OK...

there's no need to "feel" anything for Reagan.

[rbnyc]

9. I'm with you.

One thing, it makes me realize there is an up-side to America's short attention span. It will all be over soon.

Another good thing, folks in my community are spending a lot of time talking about Reagan and AIDS and about the October Surprise, so it's nice to know that even tho the news will barely touch these topics, people are aware. (At least in NYC)

[flamingyouth]

15. LOL - good point about our collective attention span!

Ooooh, look at the bright shiny thing!!! :D

[WillParkinson]

12. Well...you're not bad for not caring about Reagan...

But there's a long list of other reasons....

[kitkatrose]

14. You're not bad Lynne,

just human like the rest of us. I'm really indifferent to his death, cuz I wasn't alive for most of his presidency. However, I'm not turning on the TV for the next week, because it'll be the Regan lovefest, and I already know that he was a crappy prez. Have a :hug: and be happy.

[MissMillie]

18. My take on this

I'm not going to spend the next week watching "The Life of Ronald Reagan." I didn't like the man's policies and and thankful that The Clinton Administration was around to counter the effects of his "Charge and Spend" attitude towards fiscal matters.

I'm sorry for his family. I'm sure they will miss him (in fact, I'm sure they've been missing him for some time).

It's ok to not shed a tear, but I think "Good Riddance" was probably more appropriate when he left office, as opposed to his death.




(Edited for punctuation.)

[Tatiana]

19. Actually, I think that would make you quite patriotic! n/t

[amandae]

20. I agree .... I don't care either ...

I wouldn't say that I wish he would have suffered a few more years ... it's good that his battle with that horrible disease is over, but I still don't care that he is gone.

I don't think he was as great as anyone makes him out to be. I don't think everything should be named after this guy who, I agree, had HORRIBLE policies. I don't think he should be so widely celebrated!! We had a MUCH more prosperous time under Clinton, but everyone is still celebrating Reagan and everything is still being named after Reagan (and the airport!?!?!?! If that wasn't the biggest joke of all!!! Anyone for Reagan's States of America?????).

I'm with you ... he's just another president that reached old age and has passed. Now when Clinton passes .... then the tears will fall.

[Crewleader]

21. Not at all....

watch how the republicans are using this for their own political gain to the ignorant who are unware of Reagan's policies that cost such debt to America...he wiped out the family farm, had no respect for union workers or what it meant for Americans to be able to be in the middle class because of wages earned from collective bargaining.

He took care of his rich buddies like George W. Bush is doing...those defense companies. I hear the same line from both "Stay The Course", we know what that's been...this one we have now in office is worse!

[lazarus]

22. Not at all

Here's the post I made on my blog about his passing:

So the old fart finally died. He's been brain dead for 20+ years, but get ready for an orgy of sorrow and anguish that The Great Communicator has passed on.

Of course, if he was a liberal, here's how the obituary would start:

"Our first divorced president, his second wife was already pregnant when he married her. (Suppose there would be a mention that her rep was for giving the best head in Hollywood?) He presided over the most corrupt administration of the 20th Century, with countless member of his administration indicted or convicted of crimes, some of them near treasonous.

His response to the bombing of the Marine Barracks in Lebanon was to pull out of Lebanon and invade Grenada, a small island in the Caribbean. This told the terrorists that we are weak, and will run if hurt badly enough.

While often remembered for his line, 'Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall,' the fact that Mr Gorbachev didn't tear down the wall isn't mentioned at all."

I'm sure there's about a thousand things I could add, but that's a good start, and you can bet the "liberal media" would be playing that angle if Reagan had been a liberal president.

[put out]

29. And, let's not forget,

That Nancy said about Patty's birth, that she was so big and actually held on to Nancy's bones and nearly killed Mommy while being born! Gosh, can you imagine! And a healthy nine pound baby girl born at only six months or so! Can you imagine!

Can you imagine being told that little tale as a child. As far as I'm concerned, Mrs. Reagan had better do some real advocacy for stem cell research to make up for that bit of mothering.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

23. Well, if you're a bad person, then I'm a bad person...

And I'm not a bad person. I'm just a cynic who doesn't give a shit anymore. And I'm with you. The bastard should have suffered a few more years. I'd share other ideas with you, but I'd get arrested. And the way the news is going off about this. As if his life was anymore important than the other 2000+ people who died yesterday.
Duckie

[Bertha Venation]

26. why do you need others' assurances?

I'm sick of seeing people say "good riddance." But that shouldn't affect anyone else.

He was a lousy president who leaves a legacy of death. But he was a human being and he leaves a grieving family. I respect that.

Just be yourself and be okay about how you feel.

[gpandas]

27. my last reading or posting about rr-

FUCK REAGAN

[ikojo]

28. Not a bad person at all.

I say you are being honest and not hypocritical.

I cannot mourn a man in death whom I despised in life. His death does not change the policies he championed when he had the power to do otherwise.

[Liberal Veteran]

31. I'll just state the minority opinion and say...

...while I don't want anyone to be a hypocrite, there is no reason to be crass and uncivil.

Silence costs nothing.

[Darth_Kitten]

32. I like you.....you're kinda cool and stuff....

;) :hi: :evilgrin:

[mr blur]

35. You're not a bad person for not caring about Reagan

OK?
Back in the '80s he and Thatcher brought us all closer to world war than anyone since 1939. If I had to chose which one between Reagan and Bush was more arrogant/out of touch/dumber it would be a hard choice.

[RebelOne]

36. No, you are definitely not a bad person

because I could not give a shit one way or another. In fact, the man has been almost dead for the past few years anyway. And how many people live to be 93 years old?

[Just Me]

37. It kinda' saddens me that you feel compelled to ask.

Compassion should never be a punitive experience.

Being "caring" should never be a lash against human decency.

I know that being compassionate and/or caring is subject to persecution in these times because I've experienced the whip of human judgment.

It saddens me to see others who have obviously been infected by such cruel judgmentalism.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

38. You're not a bad person for not caring nor for acknowledging that

he was no hero to anyone but the right...there's a difference between acknowledging what is so and posting some of the really hateful shit that was being posted yesterday.

I didn't appreciate the man, I didn't vote for him, I didn't support him, I didn't like him, I stood for nothing that he stood for, I hated his policies and I hated the results of them.

That being said, some of the vitriolic shit that was posted here yesterday about him shitting his pants etc. (after caring for five years for a father who did the same thing) angered me.

Am I wrong for asking us to show a little class once in a while?

Anybody ever notice that the few times DU has been quoted by mainstream news orgs, it hasn't been for our finest moments but for our worst?

Am I wrong to wish liberals would be seen for our ideals rather than for some of the off the wall hateful shit that gets posted here by people who refuse to think before they hit enter?

AM I wrong for not wishing to be defined by the worst of us rather than the best of us?

[Angelus]

40. Yeah...good riddance.

I hated that man. Yes, hated.

I don't hate him as much as I hate that fucking prick GWB. :grr:

[MisterP]

41. no! you're evil and disgusting and hypocritical and lower'n dirt...

just kidding (though others aren't)
You're not a horrible person!