tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3576716365575919550.post5252631539634270393..comments2023-10-03T18:30:42.773-05:00Comments on Meta Watershed: REAGAN THE CLASS-BAITERMaggie Jochildhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07577090500862823864noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3576716365575919550.post-34427327932850759212007-11-17T00:18:00.000-06:002007-11-17T00:18:00.000-06:00Maggie, I know I wrote of this on another blog, bu...Maggie, I know I wrote of this on another blog, but I think it bears repeating. Here's what Ronald "Ray gun" means to me:<BR/><BR/>It started in 1978, before his tenure as Prez. My father-in-law died of a heart attack. All of his children were grown and gone, save one---his youngest, a 17 year old boy, still in high school. At that time, a person in that situation could get payments from social security not only through high school graduation, but if they chose to go to college, they could continue to get those payments until the age of 23. A couple of years after Ronnie came into office, his administration pushed through legislation stopping these payments when the person in question reached the age of 18, whether or not they had finished high school yet. This information was not widely publicized, and even as late as 2003, when my child's father died, they repeated the erroneous information to her. I quickly corrected them---it was the first they had heard of the change in a law that had occurred over 20 years ago. Because of this cutback, my brother-in-law was forced to drop out of college, and he never did go back, Because of this change, my daughter also dropped out of college after only a year---it was just too hard to do financially.<BR/><BR/>My husband at the time, got into a carpenter's apprentiship program, which when he would finish would help him find a high paying job in the building trades. But Ronnie cut the funds to the program. My husband then went to college on the GI bill, but eventually that was altered and the funding for that went away as well. Jim dropped out and got a job as a school custodian, which he held until he died in 2003.<BR/><BR/>I also went back to school, on scholarship money and Pell Grants. That lasted about a year. Then, guess what? Since we owned our teeny-tiny ranch house, the government counted it's value as "income" for me, and I lost the grants. The scholarship money lasted another 6 months or so, then I lost that too---I had to work so much, my grade point average dropped, and it was bye-bye scholarships. I was forced to get student loans, which I am still paying off today.<BR/><BR/>No, I am no fan of Reagan; I suppose if you compare someone to Shrub, anyone would look a little better. But Reagan's policies affected my family for the worse, and will continue for many years to come. And I know there are many families out there who went through the same things and worse than we did. I didn't celebrate his death. But I shed no tears over it , either.shadocathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06521665457310453680noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3576716365575919550.post-86858207179256881882007-11-16T23:48:00.000-06:002007-11-16T23:48:00.000-06:00for some inexplicable reason, Reagan was at a lunc...for some inexplicable reason, Reagan was at a lunch for a bunch of engineers the day Iran Contra hit the news. My grandparents were there, cuz my grandpa's an engineer. My grandma (whom I've mentioned at Maoist Orange Cake) had the best summary:<BR/>"You know, he was so cheery and polite, as if nothing were wrong in the world.....I never was too keen on him as a president, but that day really cemented my belief in his acting!"Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3576716365575919550.post-64395050800645595852007-11-16T22:14:00.000-06:002007-11-16T22:14:00.000-06:00(From Cheryl who was with Maggie that trip in DC, ...(From Cheryl who was with Maggie that trip in DC, and who gave her the Portland Mercury newspaper with the Ronnie and McChimpy cover)<BR/><BR/>OH Meg!!<BR/><BR/>yes, yes, yes. Then we ate Lebanese food after you let us in on a secret about you: that some of your best friends are Lebanese.<BR/><BR/>You may or may not have known about my personal connection to Reagan's death on that trip. My flight was changed on me with no warning whatsoever. So instead of arriving in D.C. very late at night, I showed up around 9 or 10 am the next day. But what ever did I do with all those hours in between? I lay on the floor, in a wilted heap in the Newark airport, beneath a hovering big-screen TV tuned to CNN. For 11 hours, they played nothing but interviews with, interviews about, and footage of Reagan for 50 minutes and then 8 or fewer minutes on Ray Charles' death. Oh my fucking god. 11 hours. By the middle of the night, they were so out of information that they were actually having rousing exchanges about Reagan's ties. And I am not <BR/>even making that up. I would shiver beneath my flimsy sweater, try to readjust my head on a pile of books and trail mix, and hold my breath until the next musical break came on. This went on all night until the sweet relief of the vacuum cleaners showed up before dawn to clean the place up and drown out the Reagan-humping fest on the TVs. I didn't think to try to turn the TV off till just now, three years later. Perhaps I enjoyed the surreality and pain of lying on the ground, listening to this drivel while I hadn't the money to even dream of getting myself a Motel 6 room for the night, much less pay for a cab out of the airport and back. I knew my flight wouldn't leave until 8am, but I had no means to leave the building. I sneaked into your hotel room for two nights for free, in fact.<BR/><BR/>It was good to reminisce. I do so enjoy it. I've since caught back up on my missed sleep, but I have never seen that documentary about this country's response to his death. But clearly, as politicians today evidence, Elvis has actually not left the building.<BR/><BR/>I love you so much.<BR/><BR/>I plan to come home in June so I'll meet up with you at Threadgills then. I am so worn out by graduate school this term. And I've only been working a couple hours a week and need to use December to catch up financially and work as much as possible. The plan is to bring Andy to Texas with me. So you can meet this gem of a partner I have. You'll want to roll him in lacquer and post him on your mantel. I know I do.<BR/><BR/>Oh, and yes I very much do remember that Mercury cover art. I stared at it for a very long time when it came out, kind of stunned. We'd all made the Shrub/Hitler connection, but to see that groveling mini-me (and know for a fact that since you can't see his lower half, he must be humping Reagan's leg), was an eye-opener for me three years ago.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com