- Dec 31, 2000
- 7,751
- 8
- 91
Got this in my e-mail today. It brings up some interesting points about his presidency...
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Collective Amnesia or Collective Alzheimer's:
America 'Remembers' Ronald Reagan
by
Paul Douglas Newman
To remember Ronald Reagan as one of the greatest Presidents of
the twentieth century, to replace FDR on the dime with Reagan's
profile as Republicans wish to do, we are being asked to forget
too much.
We are asked to forget Lebanon, where Reagan decided to "cut and
run" after hundreds of Marines perished when a suicide bomber
invaded their compound.
We are asked to forget the arms for hostages deal.
We are asked to forget El Salvador, where the right wing ARENA,
armed with Reagan money, Reagan weapons, and Reagan military
training from the School of the America's at Fort Benning,
Georgia slaughtered more than 80,000 civilians in the "War on
Communism."
We are asked to forget the Iran-Contra Scandal, an event that he
evidently "could not recall" in response to more than one hundred
questions during the Congressional hearings.
We are asked to forget the groundwork laid for nuclear
disarmament by Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Nixon.
We are asked to forget the Strategic Arms Limitations Treaties I
and II.
We are asked to forget the re-freezing of the Cold War following
the Nixon thaw, when Reagan bellicosely denounced the Soviets as
the "Evil Empire," and then joked on his weekly radio address
that our missiles were ready to launch.
We are asked to forget the silly invasion of Grenada following
the Lebanon disaster, and the reversal of goodwill gestures made
to the Caribbean made by previous administrations, including the
return of the Panama Canal.
We are asked to forget the Soviet Union's internal move to
Perestroika, a groundswell that occurred over decades resulting
in a generation of new Communists by 1985 who were not
manufactured by Reagan's bravado, but were products of the "Evil
Empire."
We are asked to forget that Reagan presided over the worst
recession since the Great Depression.
We are asked to forget the enormous cuts to social welfare
programs and the Veterans Administration, moves that led to such
an enormous rise in the homeless population, especially evident
on the streets of Washington, D.C., that even comedians felt that
they had to do something to stop the bleeding with "Comic
Relief."
We are asked to forget the policies that enriched agri-business
at the expense of small farmers, continuing the decline of the
family farm to the point that recording artists were the only
ones left to uphold the Populists' mantle with "Farm-Aid."
We are asked to forget that he slashed taxes for the wealthiest,
raised taxes on the poor, and then bailed out the corrupt Savings
and Loan industry at taxpayer expense.
We are asked to forget that his SEC presided over such a corrupt
and over-inflated stock market that the Dow saw the largest one-
day crash in its history, greater than in 1929.
We are asked to forget that Reagan's economic policies effected a
reversal in the trend toward greater distribution of wealth begun
by Progressive Republican, Democratic, and Socialist politicians
in the early twentieth centuries, and have led us to the greatest
concentration of wealth today since the days of Andrew Carnegie
and James Pierpont Morgan.
We are asked to forget the enormous and outrageous military
contracts, for which American taxpayers paid hundreds of dollars
for nuts, bolts, and toilet seats, and the nation saw defense-
spending rise to astronomical heights.
We are asked to forget the Reagan Administration's opposition to
the Civil Rights movement, their blocking of busing programs and
cuts to Head Start meant to bring equality of opportunity to
American education.
We are asked to forget that Reagan considered ketchup to be a
vegetable in federal school lunch programs.
We are asked to forget "government cheese."
We are asked to forget jelly beans, splitting wood, bad b-movies,
McCarthy-ite participation in Hollywood blacklisting.
We are asked to forget our history.
We are asked to forget, and forget, and forget.
And by the looks of the New York Times and Washington Post's
memorials to the "Great Communicator," it appears that what
historian Studs Terkel has referred to as "America's collective
amnesia" is still acute.
Perhaps it is more serious than that.
Perhaps we have a national case of Alzheimer's Disease.
Perhaps our ability to remember relatively recent events has
eroded, and our capacity for rational thought has diminished as
well.
Perhaps we are becoming a danger to ourselves and others.
Perhaps we need admittance into a managed care facility for
nations.
Perhaps we are "riding off into the sunset." How else do we
explain our descent into Bushism?: our quick repetition of past
economic and foreign policy blunders, our re-visitation of failed
policies to solve current problems, our persistent dementia that
results in trying the same things and expecting different
results? As of now, there is no cure for Alzheimer's Disease,
only management of the symptoms and provision of comfort until
death.
Hopefully Studs Terkel is right, and we've just suffered another
blow to the head from which the American people will recover, and
remember, and remember, and remember.
Paul Douglas Newman is Associate Professor of American History at
the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, PA
--------
Collective Amnesia or Collective Alzheimer's:
America 'Remembers' Ronald Reagan
by
Paul Douglas Newman
To remember Ronald Reagan as one of the greatest Presidents of
the twentieth century, to replace FDR on the dime with Reagan's
profile as Republicans wish to do, we are being asked to forget
too much.
We are asked to forget Lebanon, where Reagan decided to "cut and
run" after hundreds of Marines perished when a suicide bomber
invaded their compound.
We are asked to forget the arms for hostages deal.
We are asked to forget El Salvador, where the right wing ARENA,
armed with Reagan money, Reagan weapons, and Reagan military
training from the School of the America's at Fort Benning,
Georgia slaughtered more than 80,000 civilians in the "War on
Communism."
We are asked to forget the Iran-Contra Scandal, an event that he
evidently "could not recall" in response to more than one hundred
questions during the Congressional hearings.
We are asked to forget the groundwork laid for nuclear
disarmament by Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Nixon.
We are asked to forget the Strategic Arms Limitations Treaties I
and II.
We are asked to forget the re-freezing of the Cold War following
the Nixon thaw, when Reagan bellicosely denounced the Soviets as
the "Evil Empire," and then joked on his weekly radio address
that our missiles were ready to launch.
We are asked to forget the silly invasion of Grenada following
the Lebanon disaster, and the reversal of goodwill gestures made
to the Caribbean made by previous administrations, including the
return of the Panama Canal.
We are asked to forget the Soviet Union's internal move to
Perestroika, a groundswell that occurred over decades resulting
in a generation of new Communists by 1985 who were not
manufactured by Reagan's bravado, but were products of the "Evil
Empire."
We are asked to forget that Reagan presided over the worst
recession since the Great Depression.
We are asked to forget the enormous cuts to social welfare
programs and the Veterans Administration, moves that led to such
an enormous rise in the homeless population, especially evident
on the streets of Washington, D.C., that even comedians felt that
they had to do something to stop the bleeding with "Comic
Relief."
We are asked to forget the policies that enriched agri-business
at the expense of small farmers, continuing the decline of the
family farm to the point that recording artists were the only
ones left to uphold the Populists' mantle with "Farm-Aid."
We are asked to forget that he slashed taxes for the wealthiest,
raised taxes on the poor, and then bailed out the corrupt Savings
and Loan industry at taxpayer expense.
We are asked to forget that his SEC presided over such a corrupt
and over-inflated stock market that the Dow saw the largest one-
day crash in its history, greater than in 1929.
We are asked to forget that Reagan's economic policies effected a
reversal in the trend toward greater distribution of wealth begun
by Progressive Republican, Democratic, and Socialist politicians
in the early twentieth centuries, and have led us to the greatest
concentration of wealth today since the days of Andrew Carnegie
and James Pierpont Morgan.
We are asked to forget the enormous and outrageous military
contracts, for which American taxpayers paid hundreds of dollars
for nuts, bolts, and toilet seats, and the nation saw defense-
spending rise to astronomical heights.
We are asked to forget the Reagan Administration's opposition to
the Civil Rights movement, their blocking of busing programs and
cuts to Head Start meant to bring equality of opportunity to
American education.
We are asked to forget that Reagan considered ketchup to be a
vegetable in federal school lunch programs.
We are asked to forget "government cheese."
We are asked to forget jelly beans, splitting wood, bad b-movies,
McCarthy-ite participation in Hollywood blacklisting.
We are asked to forget our history.
We are asked to forget, and forget, and forget.
And by the looks of the New York Times and Washington Post's
memorials to the "Great Communicator," it appears that what
historian Studs Terkel has referred to as "America's collective
amnesia" is still acute.
Perhaps it is more serious than that.
Perhaps we have a national case of Alzheimer's Disease.
Perhaps our ability to remember relatively recent events has
eroded, and our capacity for rational thought has diminished as
well.
Perhaps we are becoming a danger to ourselves and others.
Perhaps we need admittance into a managed care facility for
nations.
Perhaps we are "riding off into the sunset." How else do we
explain our descent into Bushism?: our quick repetition of past
economic and foreign policy blunders, our re-visitation of failed
policies to solve current problems, our persistent dementia that
results in trying the same things and expecting different
results? As of now, there is no cure for Alzheimer's Disease,
only management of the symptoms and provision of comfort until
death.
Hopefully Studs Terkel is right, and we've just suffered another
blow to the head from which the American people will recover, and
remember, and remember, and remember.
Paul Douglas Newman is Associate Professor of American History at
the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, PA
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