Charles P. Pierce has a message from Ronald Reagan in Heaven to one of his worshippers on earth. It’s supposed to be funny, and it is, in a rather gentle, Reaganesque way, but it’s also the most genuinely moving thing I’ve read in this week of Reaganolotry.
Tell them to stop, Peg. I mean, really. Tell them to stop. That building in Washington is big and ugly. I don’t want to be on the dime, if only because my Dad told me while we were walking along the river last night that it would really bother him if I bumped FDR.
And I’ve gotten to like Hamilton. He took the whole Contra thing in stride, and we go riding together a lot. He likes being on the $10 bill, had me explain to him why it was called a “sawbuck.” He really wants to stay there, and that’s just fine. Tell Grover that, OK? I’d tell him myself but… ah, I don’t think I’ll be seeing him, if you know what I mean.
Really, Peg, I live in a place without monuments now. I like it that way. We take each other as we are here. No spin, not even from historians.
If you’re a Christian, and you don’t really think Reagan was that nice a guy, just put it down to the miracle of the Atonement. If not, just take it as a very pleasant fiction.
Really. Read it all.