Cybrpnk's Rantings

Ronald Reagan was an evil man. I'm glad he's dead. Harsh, sure. But I don't have warm, fuzzy feelings about Reagan's time in office. I always thought his 'morning in America' blather was just hooie. Here was someone launching a full-out war on virtually everything I think makes America great, and claiming he was making things better. Fantastic, all of those poor people getting their social services cut, the insane being thrown out on the street, woo hoo! At least they can be psyched about what a great country they live in. Meanwhile we're waging war to support the military dictatorship in El Salvador, and to take down the democratically elected, but leftist, government in Nicaragua. We're funneling arms (illegally) to Iran, while openly supplying them to Iraq.

And then there was the blatant hypocrisy, this bastard had the self-righteousness to preach to us about not doing drugs, while he's gulping Halcion like it's candy. No wonder he thought everything was so chipper, he was coked to the gills. Lovely. And then there's his darling wife. While her husband is dismantling the social safety net she's telling people that conquering drug addiction is a simple matter of will power. Well fuck you, Nancy. You try living in poverty and finding the will power to say no to something, anything, that will take you away from the radical surgery your government is doing on your income, your community, and quite possibly your family back in the old country.

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And there's no way in hell Nancy gets off the hook for her pious preaching against abortion and her so-called principled stand against things like stem cell research because human life is sacred. All that until Ronnie's brain started to go (sometime late in his first or early in his second term, by the way). Now she's fine with killing fetuses to stop her pain. Fuck you Nancy. Would have loved to have you supporting choice when you could have made a difference. I hope that you start lobbying and manage to make stem cell research happen to help out lots of other families, but you earned every brutal day of hell you've lived through the last 15-20 years. Maybe now you understand the miserable effect your husband had on millions of people that he turned his back on while he was in office. Can you come up with any reason at all that we should give you the compassion that you and Ronnie denied to the partners and families of all those people dying of AIDS on your watch? Gosh, it must feel real good to stand by while your husband suggests that people like your son are somehow less than human.

And as for this crap about Reagan winning the cold war, what the hell makes you think anyone won? We got into the habit of squandering a tremendous amount of our national wealth (financial, human and environmental) on feeding an insatiable military-industrial beast that is still calling the shots in Washington. I've always thought these absurd claims about the USSR coming out being a triumph for capitalism was pure bullshit. It was one state showing that you can't spend too much on the military forever while ignoring the basic needs of your people. The old-line so-called communists learned that lesson first. I fear that the day our so-called leaders in Washington learn that lesson grows ever closer.

And lets not forget that a lot of the roots of the terrorism we are fighting today date back to Reagan's watch. He was the one who okayed training the mujaheddin who bacame the Taliban. He was the one who got caught arming both sides in the Iran-Iraq war. He's the one who took a flamethrower to our alternative energy programs ensuring our continued dependence on foreign oil. You really want to trace the roots of 9/11 back to before Bush 43's time, fine. But don't stop with Clinton, this sucker goes all the way back past Bush 41 (who certainly deserves some of the blame), all the way to the darling of the conservatives: Reagan.

There's only one positive thing I can think of to say about Reagan. When he testified about Iran-Contra we all thought he was lying through his teeth when he said he couldn't remember anything. It was only afterward that we learned the truth. Turns out that those of us who had suggested that Reagan had Alzheimer's while he was in office (and got scoffed at by conservatives for our cynicism) were absolutely right. When he said he couldn't remember he was actually telling the truth! So there's his legacy, he was truthful when his reputation depended on it. Not that he revealed anything but the fact that he was mantally incapacitated and should have been relieved of command. Remember this vision of this crazy bastard in the early stages of Alzheimers hanging out with the nuclear launch codes when the conservatives claim that outrageous charges against Bush 43 are not credible simply because they are too extreme.

W. has declared Friday a national day of mourning. I'm not sure how I'm celebrating, but I'll think of something. Mourn this miserable bastard? No way. I'll be celebrating the fact that the rat is finally dead.

By the way, this Sunday I had my first-ever letter to the New York Times published. Here's what I wrote:

To the Editor:

In ``Lands in Need of Care'' (editorial, June 1), how can you say that ``nobody, including conservationists, challenged the government's right or need to look for oil and gas''?

Many of us have been calling for years for a serious program to address our energy needs through efficiency and conservation. Haven't we destroyed enough of our federal lands in pursuit of gas guzzlers, gigantic houses, cheap air travel and so on? Not to mention the enormous cost of our military involvement in oil-rich lands.

I don't suggest that follies like our current fiasco in Iraq are purely about oil, but does anyone seriously believe that without our need for petroleum, our involvement in most of the Middle East would be so much greater than our engagement in sub-Saharan Africa?

DANIEL MASKIT Marina del Rey, Calif., June 1, 2004