But I do remember the Presidential Physical Fitness Award
It can be weird when a major leader dies and your memories of him or her are really fuzzy. At some point, you interpret the leader’s legacy from assorted posthumous articles and columns and pop culture ephemera. There is no personal connection from live speeches or televised events. When I think of the Reagan 80′s, my mind scans a predictable list of bad things that happened: Grenada, Iran Contra, defecits, response to AIDS, and Star Wars. But I also associate some good things with his legacy, like that whole winning of the Cold War thing and the fall of the Berlin Wall. And I’m told that he was optimistic and inspired ordinary people. It is also strange when you discuss such a leader with an older friend or family member who has a much deeper appreciation for the leader in question. They have vivid memories of the little things– facial expressions, rhetorical tricks and techniques, hints of courage, glimpses of ignorance, awkwardness, and all the quirks that make him human. In other words, they remember the leader, not just a laundry list of historical factoids weighed down by years of analysis and spin.
The week’s Reagan-related events will, obviously, throw into relief the different takes on the president. People who may not even follow politics will be sad because there was something about the leader that stirred them. Peggy Sheffey, an 85 year-old woman who had never seen Ronald Reagan, choked back tears and said, “He’s a wonderful man… He was so real, absolutely real. Down to earth. He didn’t just think of himself. He thought of everybody else.” This sort of emotion means nothing to Christopher Hitchens, a writer often capable of serious insight. Hitchens take on Reagan: “dumb as a stump.” Nuance will be in short supply athis week as the left resurrects Nicaragua and Ollie North and the right elevates him to a mythological hero incapable of doing harm.