Beautiful !!!

This is the First posting to the blogger.
It is Such a GOOD one I had to post it.
After you read it - send me an Email - LVKen7@peoplepc.com
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You know what breaks me up more then people waiting in line 10 hours to walk by a casket? Brace yourself, it's a long one. I'm on my soap box again.

When a scaled down version of the Vietnam Memorial came to Reno in 1997, I decided I wanted to go since I may never get back to Washington DC to see the real one. It was in the Mountain View Cemetery and just down the road from my apt. It was a nice sunny day and there were a good many people milling around but not so crowded that you had to stand shoulder to shoulder. I walked up to the men who sat under a tent and handed out literature about the wall. They also had paper and pencils. I asked what they were for. One man told me so I could trace the name of a friend or loved one whose name was etched forever in marble. I said thank you but I didn't know anyone who fought in that war. He told me thank you for stopping by and take my time.

As I walked the make shift path of the memorial, I started to read the names of the men who gave their life to a cause that wasn't ours to fight. I was half way down the wall before I realized how quiet it was. There were enough people there to make a buzz with their voices, but everyone seemed to feel the moment. To maybe remember watching the war on TV or remember someone whose name they came to see.

Then I had to move off the wood planks that were put down for a sidewalk and walk around a man who was kneeling on the planks. He had come to see the wall, to pay his respects to say hello and goodbye once again. He had on an old hat with pins in it. An army vest with medals on it and kakis that were worn. His kakis were tucked into his army boots. He was I'm guessing mid 50's and looked tired. Out of his back pack he pulled an army helmet, a bandana and a six pack of beer. He opened the bandana and laid it on the ground. He then put the helmet on the bandana and grabbed the six pack of beer. Pulling one out he placed the other five still ringed together beside the helmet. He then sat back on his heels and pulled the tab on the can of beer he had in his hand, held it up in the air and said, "See I remembered." He then hung his head and started to sob. I also started to cry. I couldn't help myself. Others around me were crying too. When I looked around I saw a women look at me. We both wanted to go up to the man, put our arms around him but neither of us could. This was a private moment between this Vietnam vet, his lost buddy and his tortured mind. One person did walk up to him, but he just held up his hand and continued to stare at the wall. I finally walked away, finished my journey into time and left. Feeling somber and overwhelmed with sadness. Until that moment, these were names on a wall. Faceless, lifeless names. But when that man opened that beer in a salute to his fallen buddy, it made it all too real.

Now Former President Reagan commands respect because he was President. I never wished the man ill at any time. But I have yet to agree with his politics and the way he ran this government while in office. When I was allowed to vote in 1984, I studied the candidates and listened to news, read the right magazines, papers and researched my choice. It wasn't Ronald Reagan. Maybe I've had to look at too many caskets as they carried my loved ones out to a final resting place these past 10 years. But to stand in line and file by a casket just to say I was there. That's a little too much for me. I do get a lump in my throat when Mrs. Reagan is shown. I feel for her. She lost her husband a long time ago to an awful disease, but it's always a shock and heartache when they truly are longer there. And I understand they had a deep love for one another. I just hope she continues her work and struggle to get more research done for Alzheimer’s. Now that it's happened to her, she has the ways and means of getting the word out.
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Do you remember,
didn't stem cell research FIRST come up when Reagan
was President
and didn't he KEEP RESEARCH
FROM PROGRESSING?

Now Bush doesn't want it to progress either.
Hopefully,
Bush and Nancy will fight over SCell Research
and Nancy will win.
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Tomorrow the nation has an official day of mourning for Ronald Reagan and I'll say a prayer too. But to say he was a great figure in history. A great leader, a man with vision. Well, I can't do that. I didn't agree with him, but it's sad to lose someone.
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In the NEXT email I send you
it is written by a Canadian reporter.
If you only read the HIGHLIGHTED IN YELLOW PART
it will
I hope
give you a history many forget.

Reagan fired the Air Traffic Controllers
which started the End of the Union Movement,
and has effected Workers.
Not good.
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Now Ray Charles, his passing silent the music. He brought soul into music. Joy into people. Overcame great odds to get where he was in life. Showed others in his situation that poverty, racial bias and having no parents at a very young age, can be overcome with hard work and a will to stive for the top.

Ok, soapbox closed for now. I know you didn't expect me to go on and on like this. I know that you don't agree with anything I've said about Reagan.
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Kind of wrong there.
I DO agree.
To me Reagan was a TERRIFIC GUY,
Funny, and I liked him.
As far as him being a GREAT president
well I wouldn't go that far.

It is like Clinton.
He probably was the smartest president EVER.
But the guy committed Perjury.
He can't even practice law in his home state.
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People either liked him, or didn't. I don't think there was any middle ground. I'm not speaking ill of the dead. He did what in his mind was right. I just happened to think, a lot of it was wrong.