From the Publisher:
President Reagan: A unique leader in America’s history
While traveling to New York during the week of President Reagan’s death, I had the unique opportunity to track what was taking place through the print media instead of tv.
The time I did have in my hotel room to turn on the tv and to see what was going on, was interesting to me in how a great deal of the print media vs. the tv media portrayed the late President in two different ways.
The tv outlets quickly portrayed President Reagan as someone who had set the country back economically, socially, etc., while the print media pointed to his record of achievement. In many ways, it reminded me of the first several trips I made to Washington many years ago picking up a copy of The Washington Post and The Washington Times. Both newspapers always featured the same late breaking story on page one. However, the story would be presented in two different versions – the Post story would have the extreme liberal slant, the Times story would feature the conservative slant. The reporting on Reagan in New York followed the same story slants depending on the local New York tv newscasts or even CNN, often referred to as the liberal news source, or Fox, often referred to as the conservative news outlet.
Reagan was the first president I followed and actually knew what he was talking about perhaps due to his down-home delivery. There is nothing here that I can top in writing that better writers have not put into words during or since his funeral. However, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that during Reagan’s watch, while not always a perfect administration, the U.S. was a better country. Forget the liberal spin - they are wrong on every front.
Don’t ever be mislead, President Reagan’s impact on America led our country and the world to being a better place today than it was when he came to the Oval Office in 1981. Before that time, America was in turmoil with a top personal income tax rate of 70 percent, the U.S. economy was in the middle of a seemingly unstoppable inflation, home mortgage rates were at 17 percent, and we were running out of oil. America was in a decline and Reagan arrived at just the right time. His strategy: to provide freedom (less government intervention), and incentives (tax decreases, innovation, invention and job creations), and of course President Reagan played the key role in ending the Cold War with the Soviet Union. But, I will always remember him for his strong belief in family values.
Reagan’s belief in God, and his belief that America’s best days were ahead, are worth noting. In my view, during the Clinton administration, this country began to drift from these core beliefs in which the founding fathers created this country. Somehow, we began to feel that we could not hold each and every U.S. citizen accountable for their actions. This shift from personal responsibility (accountability), has damaged our country. Consumption and pleasure, as columnist Cal Thomas recently wrote, “has replaced self-control”. And when Thomas was asked how a football field is defined, “...By its boundaries. There are now no boundaries in America. Any rule is potentially viewed as oppressive and any law - whether legal or moral – is up for debate, negotiation and overturning if it impedes a single individual from fulfilling his or her desire...”.
Watching President Reagan’s funeral reminded me how much he brought out the best in America. Morals, honesty, integrity, and freedom are words that Reagan mentioned time and again during his speeches and writings.
Perhaps President Reagan’s death and the long week of remembrances that accompanied it, will help remind us of the significant contribution this great leader made to the world during his watch. The values he promoted as President are things we should hold dearly and of which a great segment of our population should return to. DBJ
Scott Coopwood
Publisher
