Poll: So, Reagan's dead.

Where's the poll asking us how we feel about Ray Charles death?

That'll be in 3 days. =P

i didn't even find out he was dead until last wednesday. :D

Last Wednesday?� Where have you been?� . . . Oh, yeah.� Never mind.

He was not a great president but it is still sad that he succumbed and that he and his family had to suffer from Alzheimer's for 10+ years.

I wanted to check both "How sad, poor Nancy" and "What's the big deal." Having recently lost my father, I have a lot of compassion for the family. But after the day of mourning and Week of Everything Reagan, I'm tired of having to hear about it.

I'm with you on the two choices thing. I didn't like him as a president, and lots of people die horrible deaths without national attention. That said, Alzheimer's sucks and I wouldn't with it on anybody.

Ditto to both.

where's the "he was actually killed in the assassination attempt and it's been a body double ever since and there's no body in that casket" option?

look, the guy was sick and that was really tragic. but i was so young that his presidency meant little or nothing to me. he wasn't god and he wasn't the current president. so, to me, this is just another age and illness related death, but i didn't see my grandfather's funeral on the news. want to hear something really sad? my great aunt joan died on friday afternoon. she was only 73. she had lung cancer. and she died on the way to the bathroom to take a shower, in her husband of 50 some odd years' arms. THAT to me is tragedy.

as stalin once wrote: "a million deaths is a statistic. a single death is a tragedy."

i would wager most of the FHDC population isn't old enough to remember much about the reagan presidency.

i've learned to keep my mouth shut about politics in public forums so i won't bother going into the things that i agree with and the things that i disagree with about his policies, but he was a very good man who the united states truly lost ten years ago. it just took a while for the peace of death to find his doorstep.

-= george =-

Nixon was surely the first to greet him when he entered Hell.

I do feel bad for his family - that they had to deal with 10 years of him not recognising them or even himself. but I cannot ever have any sympathy for a man to whom millions of people's lives simply did not matter.

He wasn't great, but he did prove that tax cuts actually increase federal revenues. Unfortunately, he then spent those revenues (and more) like a drunk sailor (well, actually the Democratic Congress had a hand in that too).

I don't see why we had to have a week long remembrance for him. Usually those who exemplify such leaders are just trying to continue to keep power for the position and it has little to do with the man himself.

Was he great? No...he just sucked less than most of the other presidents before and after.

Ray Charles, of blind piano playing fame, and Kate Worley of under ground comics fame (Omaha, the Cat Dancer) died this week, too! Is Margret Thatcher making my daughter laugh durring their uligies? I don't think so!

I am sorry he died suffering from Alzheimers and also feel sympathy for his family.
However Reagan broke the law when congress cut off the funds for his Nicaraguan and El Salvadoran death squads(trained at the School of the Americas in Georgia with our tax dollars I might ad). By selling arms illegallly to Iran and using the profits to fund the contras in Central America was Reagan circumvented the law and should have been impeached and tried for treasonous acts.
http://www.soaw.org/new/index.php

Every president has done something that they should have been impeached and removed from office. Well, except maybe Washington and Adams.

My grandfather cared for my grandmother for many years while she suffered from Alzeheimers.�� God bless him for that.� I visited them about a year before she passed away, and she was completely immobile and unresponsive.� It was almost freaky to me which is a bad emotion to experience around your own family, but it was a very freaky feeling to see her that way.� But my grandfather did what he could to care for her until one day he finally ouldn't anymore, and she spent the rest of her days at the nursing home.

Fortunately after she passed, my grandfather is still alive and happy (although he won't show it, he hasn't for decades), has a new girlfriend and a dog, and is very healthy.

However, I believe that you'll hear news very soon that Nancy will pass away too.� The same thing happened with Pat and Richard Nixon, where Pat died, then Richard died shortly after.� I saw how distraught Nancy was over Ronald's passing, even though I'm sure Ronald was as comatose as my grandmother was for many years.� Although I don't think Nancy would have had to care for him like my grandfather had to, but still, even though he was like that, Nancy still missed him greatly.� So I'm thinking it won't be long before she joins him.

Sorry to post such a sad post, but Alzeheimer's hits me hard since I've seen it for myself.� I hope they do find a cure for it soon, because no one should go through with that.� Ever.

However, I believe that you'll hear news very soon that Nancy will pass away too. The same thing happened with Pat and Richard Nixon, where Pat died, then Richard died shortly after.

Same thing happened in my family, except the other way around... After my grandfather died, my grandmother (who was the one suffering from Alzeheimers) didn't have the need to take care of him to hold her together, and she died within about two years.

-- Pauley

I feel sad for his family that he suffered from Alzheimers for so long. In a way, though, it is also a blessing that he has finally died, BECAUSE he was suffering. i mean, the man did live till his 90's. It's not like he tragically died young.

However, I am getting sick of the media canonizing him and exploiting his death for lots of schlock. Oooh let's have a special about how he and Nacy were "the romance of the century." Let's gloss over all of his egregious errors and talk about how he won the cold war and brought peace to the world. There's been a lot of "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down that wall!" but minimal coverage of Iran-Contra, his support of South American dictatorships, his arms policy, his economic policy, or, HELLO! his arming of Saddam Hussein and his training of Osama Bin laden. Good grief.

Compassion for the family because he was still a human being and they are all grieving right now. But for god's sake, don't make the man into a saint just because he's dead.