The Great Communicator, Silenced

A eulogy for Ronald Reagan

by Thomas Lindaman

I was a young boy when I first heard of Ronald Reagan, and from what I heard from my parents and from the media, I wasn't supposed to like him. He was a cowboy willing to destroy the world with nukes, he was incompetent on economic issues, he was a doddering old buffoon who thought the government was like a movie set. We were to live in fear of Reagan's access to "the button" that would create a nuclear holocaust from which we would never recover.

As I got older, I realized just how wrong I was. Ronald Reagan was a giant amongst men, a strong leader who was not only bright, but on whom we could rely upon to make moral decisions. There was no gray area in Reagan's world, just right and wrong. And he strove to always be on the side of the angels.

And more often than not, he was.

Now, he will forever be at the side of the angels. But his impact is still being felt in the mortal world.

We no longer live in fear of a worldwide nuclear war because of Reagan.

The iron grip that the Soviet Union had on the Eastern Bloc has rusted and fallen into ruin because of Reagan.

A wall that represented a physical and metaphorical split between East and West Germany is little more than a fuzzy memory and multicolored chips of stone because of Reagan.

And a nation that was in turmoil and in shame was made calm and proud because of Reagan.

America owes Ronald Reagan a debt of gratitude, one that we will never be able to repay. But we can start by paying tribute to a man whose commitment to freedom and making America great were unmatched by any contemporary.

We at CommonConservative.com extend our deepest sympathies to the Reagan family, along with our thanks for President Reagan's service to this country, both as President and as a patriot.