Ronald Reagan, the 40th president of the United States largely credited with ushering in an era of conservative politics and pursuing a foreign policy that led to the collapse of the Soviet Union, died Saturday at his home in California after a 10-year struggle with Alzheimer‘sdisease. He was 93.
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Born into poverty in 1911, raised in several small Illinois towns, Reagan turned a Depression-era radio sports-announcing job into a springboard to Hollywood fame and fortune. After a successful quarter-century career in movies and on television, at age 53 he turned his energies to politics full time and quickly became the inspirational leader of conservative Republicans nationwide. —40th President, Ronald Reagan, dies in California.
When Reagan spoke at U.Va. while I was a student, he confessed that he got mostly Cs in college. “I sometimes reflect that, I had applied myself to my studies, I might have gone farther in life” he quipped. The crowd responded with a polite chuckle, which quickly heated up into a full-fledged ovation — this was the leader of the free world, after all. Of course, there were also protesters holding signs such as, “AIDS: The Reagan Vietnam” and the like. But he sure knew how to work a crowd.
Reagan’s “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall” speech is probably less famous now than his infamous “We begin bombing in five minutes” joke.
I just wrote a rather long blog entry reflecting on my high school years, so this news hits me at a time when I am perhaps a bit nostalgic for the time when Americans were obviously the good guys, and the Russians were so clearly the bad guys.
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Patrice, I certainly don't glorify the C of a student who does not care. Bush and Gore both had mostly mediocre grades see ("The Quest for the Presidency," which notes that Gore's sophomore year transcripts were lower than any of Bush's transcripts), and the same has been said of Kerry. Dean's representation of himself as something of an intellectual didn't prevent him from making enough public gaffes that it ultimately hurt his chances.
As an educator, I get tired of people boasting about obtaining Cs in college. I don't mind if someone gets Cs because he/she is a free thinker, unafraid to challenge accepted interpretations, eager to stick by risky points of view. But oftentimes, students get Cs because they don't think that learning is worth the effort. Which is also fine, but for some reason, voters find it comforting to have an average learner in powerful positions. Today we have an educations president who is proud of his Cs, who boast of not opening a book. I find this discomforting.