President Reagon

President Reagon

When I first came to the US, Ronald Reagon was president. I was just 3 or 4 years old, and did not have a political conscience at the time. However, that period of my life is marked by sheer happiness -- there is not a single moment of unhappiness that I can recall from my life in the 80's. Cynics may say that it was a state of ignorant bliss, but I was happy. I was carefree. While on the surface most people may thing that children are oblivious to consequential things and unpleasant events at such an early age, it is completely untrue. I know many people who are deeply wounded by pain inflicted at an early age, and pain during this point in childhood is probably the most difficult to bear. Nevertheless, I was blessed, because my childhood was fabulous. When I think of my preschool and kindergarten days, although I don't remember much, I think of sunny SoCal skies. Much like California weather, I don't think that there was ever a rainy day, or even just an overcast one. It was perfectly sunny, brilliant. Just awesome. And that is how I think of Ronald Reagon's presidency.

I guess it is unfair to judge other presidents because I became more politically aware during their presidencies, or because I learned about them in history books, while I judge Reagon's presidency by my state of bliss at the time. The truth is, I know very little of Reagon's political influences. All the US History classes I have ever taken do not emphasis modern history. They seldom even go up to the 1980's; most end with the Vietnam war and slightly mention something about the cold war, but not too much, because at that point, the semester is coming to an end, and the teachers realize (although a little too late) that they spent too much time on the Revolution, Civil War and the World Wars. So the little information I have to gather about Reagon is what I felt like while he was president.

I can't help but believe that he was a big part of the 80's, and that was when I was happy, therefore there is some sort of relationship between those two things. Well, that wasn't much of a eulogy to Reagon. But I really doubt that I will see those sunny skies the way I did back then... literally or politically.