June 7, 2004

The Eulogy

ED-AB688_1gipper06062004194607.jpg

THERE WILL BE A PLETHORA OF EULOGIES TODAY and in the coming weeks, but Peggy Noonan's is really all you need to know:

He was dying for years and the day came and somehow it came as a blow. Not a loss but a blow. How could this be? Maybe we were all of us more loyal to him, and to the meaning of his life, than we quite meant to be.

And maybe it's more.

This was a life with size. It had heft, and meaning. And I am thinking of what Stephen Vincent Benet, a writer whom he quoted, wrote on the death of his friend Scott Fitzgerald. "You can take off your hats now, gentlemen, and I think perhaps you'd better."

Ronald Reagan was not unappreciated at the end, far from it. But he was at the beginning.

Posted by Vanderleun at June 7, 2004 7:57 AM
Bookmark and Share

Comments:

HOME

"It is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood." -- Karl Popper N.B.: Comments are moderated and may not appear immediately. Comments that exceed the obscenity or stupidity limits will be either edited or expunged.

I thought you'd outdone everyone with the Lind portrait of Reagan, so much so that it's my screensaver. But leave it to the WSJ to come up with that dashing, damm-your-eyes photo. Fantastic!

Posted by: slimedog at June 7, 2004 6:52 PM