A Shared Father
Newsweek Web Exclusive
Updated: 4:56 PM ET Jun 4, 2008

Four years after his death, Ronald Reagan's daughter reflects on how the former president would have felt about the current race for the White House.
Patti Davis

Tomorrow is the fourth anniversary of my father's death. For anyone who has lost a loved one, those anniversaries are both sad and sweet. The sadness is obvious—you don't stop missing the person who has gone; you don't stop wishing you'd had one more year, one more day. The sweetness sneaks up on you. It comes in the form of memories, some of them long buried. But mostly it comes with the realization that nothing ever dismantled the love between you, even though many things seemed to along the way.

At this time of year in California, the jacaranda trees are blooming. On some streets, there is a canopy of purple above and a blanket of purple blossoms on the pavement below. Jasmine is also blooming; the soft perfume lingers in the air. If I didn't have a calendar, I would still know that this anniversary was upon us. Jacaranda and jasmine will always be the background palette of that time.

As similar as my experience is to anyone else's who has lost a parent, it is also different because my family lived in the public eye. Because the country grieved along with us when my father died. Because tomorrow at the Reagan Library, when my mother and I go to put white roses on my father's grave, there will be more people than usual there, all of them marking the occasion, too.

It seems valuable, I think, in these thorny political times, to remember why so many people mourned so deeply when Ronald Reagan died. It had nothing to do with politics, but rather with the quality of his character. It had to do with his goodness, his dignity—qualities that we as a nation are hungry for. We know we need leadership, but we also know we need compassion. We're sick to death of meanness and sniping, yet we've also grown accustomed to it.

My father would be perplexed by the overabundance of meanness in the political field. And he would be deeply saddened by it. His wish, I think, would be that we as a country turn our backs on the vitriol that has become too commonplace and demand that the "race" for president become a dignified one, as archaic as that may sound these days.

A friend who recently lost her mother said to me, "Death distills everything." It's true. I, like many people, live with regrets that will never lessen—the times I lashed out at my father, refused to appreciate him or consider his feelings, his point of view. I envy those who can say after a parent's death that they don't have remorse—I just don't know too many people like that. But regrets can lead you to a profound awareness of what's important, what's meaningful. Since I do share my father with America and with the world, how he lived his life—not just as a politician, but as a man—has resonance for all of us.

He believed that words can wound, that even in the harsh, muckraking world of politics, it simply isn't right to insult another person. He believed that this country's greatness came from its collective heart, from its history of being a "melting pot" and that the dark passages of our history came when we lost sight of our own heart. He had no tolerance for racism. He was raised in a home where people were never judged by the color of their skin. He was raised in a home where everyone was considered a child of God, and he carried that belief with him throughout his life.

Politics aside, I think most Americans long for those qualities in a president, particularly in these uncertain times.

When we were in Washington, D.C., for my father's service, I was taken on a tour of the White House. I hadn't been there since he was president, and in those years I couldn't appreciate it--I was too blinded by my own saga of being a very reluctant First Daughter.

But four years ago, in June, I finally understood the reverence my father felt for that building—for its history, its memories, its significance. To walk through the White House and really absorb the environment is to remember that this country was founded on the idea of respect for life, truth and freedom. It was also founded out of rebellion, but that did not diminish the dignity the Founding Fathers brought to the task.

My father's dignity didn't die four years ago, and neither did our longing for it. The anniversary of his death may best be marked by reflecting on how he lived his life.

even though Reagan might have been the best president weve ever had, his aproval rating from me wont ever get above a 29. { william harrison, [ the first one ] might have been better then ronny } i dont reverence any who has not committed himself 100% to any task. and he failed 283 marines when he would not draw the line AND back it too.

The real story non Ronald Reagan is one of treason, failure and curruption

Violated SALT, SALT2, AMB, The Helsinki accords, and the OAS treaty

Supported terrorists, dictators and terrorist organizations and genocide (PolPot, UNITA, The contras, Augusto Pinochet, Salvadorian death squads, and the Mujihaddin, who would later morph in the Taliban and Al Queada just to name a few)

Imposed the biggest tax increase in US history

Not only did Reagan NOT win the cold war ;

He had signed on to Gorbacev’s “Union treaty” which would have guaranteed the existence of the soviet union indefinitely

His "tear down that wall" speech was made nearly two weeks after the Solviets already stated they planned to

The most corrupt administration in US history


Lyn Nofziger--convicted on charges of illegal lobbying of White House in Wedtech scandal.

* Michael Deaver received three years' probation and was fined one hundred thousand dollars after being convicted for lying to a congressional subcomittee and a federal grand jury about his lobbying activities after leaving the White House.

* E. Bob Wallach, close friend and law classmate of Atty General Edwin Meese, was sentenced to six years in prison and fined $250,000 in connection with the Wedtech influence-peddling scandal.
Then there was:
-
- the Pentagon procurement scandal, which resulted from the Republicans' enormous infusion of money too quickly into the Defense Department after the lean Carter years.

-- Massive fraud and mismanagement in the Department of Housing and Urban Development throughout Reagan's eight years. These were finally documented in congressional hearings in spring 1989, after Reagan left office. Cost the taxpayers billions of dollars in losses. What made this scandal most shameful was that Reagans' friends and fixers profited at the expense of the poor, the very people HUD and the federal government were pledged to assist through low-income housing.

-- the Iran-Contra scandal. In June, 1984, at a National Security Council meeting, CIA Director Casey urged President Reagan to seek third-party aid for the Nicaraguan contras. Secretary of State Schultz warned that it would be an "impeachable offense" if the U.S. government acted as conduit for such secret funding. But that didn't stop them. That same day, Oliver North was seeking third-party aid for the contras. But Reagan, the "teflon President" avoided serious charges of impeachment.

* Oliver North--convicted of falsifying and destroying documents, accepting an illegal

There is MUCH more...but this is all Steve K's usual retard cut and past bullshit warrants

__________________
Argue with some..IGNORE the stupid

Yeah it hurts, you have been fucked by an Elephant !

"Happamia, sanoi kettu pihlajanmarjoista kun ei niihin yltänyt" ("Sour, said the fox about rowan berries, being unable to reach them"

Not Reagan but the Polish pope won the cold war..

scraps of paper. thats all those were.

Huh ?

Scraps of paoer ?

I thnk that is something close to what "Dubya' called the Constitution too,,,isnt it ?

What exactly were just scraps of paper ?


Dude...the cold war ENDED in 1971, whan the USSR and then West Germany entered into a deal where by nateral gas was piped accross Europe
This is a little know fact lost to history

It began again, when we short sightedly opposed the USSR going to war against what would become Al Queada, and was escalted by Reagan violating virtually all treaties signed between the US and The USSR the ten years prior, and when he declared poroxy war in Africa and cental America and Asia, and supported terror groups, terrorist governments and dictators

__________________
Argue with some..IGNORE the stupid

Yeah it hurts, you have been fucked by an Elephant !

"Happamia, sanoi kettu pihlajanmarjoista kun ei niihin yltänyt" ("Sour, said the fox about rowan berries, being unable to reach them"

your salt treaty inuendos. peacekeepers should be allowed to transport 12 warheads, not just 10.

So you believe it should be American policy to negotiate treatys, then violate them ?

How about the ABM treaty, or the OAS treaty ?

Were those so unimportant we should have compromised our credibility as a nation, and violated those as well ?

__________________
Argue with some..IGNORE the stupid

Yeah it hurts, you have been fucked by an Elephant !

"Happamia, sanoi kettu pihlajanmarjoista kun ei niihin yltänyt" ("Sour, said the fox about rowan berries, being unable to reach them"

no. it should be american policy to negottiate treaties, verify complyance to them, then adhere to our part. this crap of us abiding by them and not the other party is crap, and you know it too.

How did the USSR violate SALT and SALT 2

REAGAN did that with the cruise missile and the MX missile

How did the USSR or anyone else violate the ABM treaty ?

REAGAN did that with the IMP and SDI

How did the USSR violate the Helsinki accords ?

REAGAN did that by the naval excursuses in the black sea

Who else violated the OAS treaty ?

REAGAN did it my mining Nicaraguan harbors

Diplomatic protocol in 4000 years old
.
Even the Mongol horde abided by treaties

Interesting also, that you ignored the other 95% of the facts in my post

__________________
Argue with some..IGNORE the stupid

Yeah it hurts, you have been fucked by an Elephant !

"Happamia, sanoi kettu pihlajanmarjoista kun ei niihin yltänyt" ("Sour, said the fox about rowan berries, being unable to reach them"