Reagan: Good Fucking Riddance

"It's not important to even be remembered. I mean, the people who worry about being remembered are guys like Reagan, Bush. . . . I don't care."

--Frank Zappa

I heard Zappa say that over ten years ago during a presentation of clips on MTV's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame show that inducted the late Zappa. This past week, I haven't been able to get that quote out of my head, particularly when viewing the pomp and circumstance over Ronald Reagan's death. When the gushing praise and tears over someone who was practically dead years prior stretches over an entire week, I can't help but feel that the tears were just as prepared and rehearsed as the euologies. Appropriate for the life of a man that inspired confidence (re: made white people feel good) but no other emotions or feelings. Certainly not compassion.

Unfortunately, the public who didn't even think of Reagan for over a decade now feel like they miss him. They approve of giving Reagan a hero's farewell because enough people on the TV say over and over that he's a hero. Golly, he must have been a great man if so many people and teleprompters repeat it over and over and over again. Only a group of people who want to be remembered as the second coming of Washington and/or Jesus Christ, invoking such imagery in their political speeches every opportunity they can, could have pulled this off.

Which brings me to this quote:

"The Afghan Mujaheddin are the moral equivalent of the Founding Fathers of America."
Ronald Reagan

I probably said it before, but I'll say it again: No one can ever again say that the media has a liberal bias. Ever. Again. Not after I spend two hours of unsuccessful searching on the web and can't find the infamous picture of Reagan sitting in the Oval Office and buddying up with Afghanistan Mujaheddin. In their pre-Al Qaeda days I suspect, though I can't find too much refference to the meeting, and no visual references amongst the hundreds of husband and wife/cowboy photos commemorating Reagan's life.

I saw the picture in a couple of alternative papers just after 9/11, and never since (outside of a book printed by 7 Stories Press that uses it, or a similar photo, as a cover). Pity. Those who've seen it are sure to have a different (clearer?) picture of Reagan's true legacy. Especially in light of events in the last couple of years.

If the Middle East clusterfuck is his legacy twenty years later (and I believe it is when you combine his Afghanistan dealings with those of his other eighties buddy, Saddam), I'd rather he'd have left the Soviet Union intact.

There isn't a true liberal media--why else is Ted Rall singled out all the damn time?--but there are small covert groups deep in the system. At least, that's what I like to believe when I see HBO update their on-demand menu with And The Band Played On and Angels In America, which are nice reminders of Reagan helping along with what he most likely saw as his God's punishment on homosexuals.

I bought the original book And The Band Played On by Randy Shilts a while back when I was applying for an AIDS research position at Harvard. I think I'll read it this month. You know, to remember Reagan as many of us knew him best.