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Letter from Ronald Reagan to his son

lettersofnote.com

21–30 of 65 posts

Re: Letter from Ronald Reagan to his son

#21
post #19

As an armchair history buff, I love famous historical people who were also prolific letter-writers. It gives a great insight into the person, especially when the letter was between family members or close friends and never intended for public consumption. (Reagan was one of these people) As much as I like Letters of Note for the great letters, for me having a stream of letters makes the person much more three-dimensi…

You may be interested in reading [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letters_from_a_Father_to_His_Da... ] - letters from India's first prime-minister Jawaharlal Nehru to his daughter Indira who later became India's first female prime-minister and the only one to have imposed a state of emergency.

I'll definitely check this out, thank you!

Re: Letter from Ronald Reagan to his son

#22
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ronald Reagan was a wise man and great president.

I'm more on Spitting Image - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3u3PwCZfM4 - and George Carlin's - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hm7D2Ms_zc - side with this one.

That Carlin clip is great. Hard to believe it's all still about business-crime and the uterus.

Re: Letter from Ronald Reagan to his son

#23

Regardless of the fact that this was written by a former US president, what’s truly amazing is that somebody could take a subject old as the world – love and marriage and write such a simple, genuine, straight to the point message, without a hint of bullshit that happens to reads like a novel.

If you think about it, it may be much harder to do so in a hand written letter too....compared to typing 75 words per minutes. Writing is slower, makes you more purposeful with every word, etc.

Re: Letter from Ronald Reagan to his son

#24
post #4

How qualified was Reagan to give marriage advice? How many marriages did he have? Was he a marriage counsellor? Did he study marriages? Statistics on couple behaviors? Or is this like listening to the Kardashian's opinion on... child rearing or something?

Ronald Reagan was a wise man and great president.

I don't think political trolling is needed on HN.

There are plenty of other places on the internet to make controversial personality politics statements.

Re: Letter from Ronald Reagan to his son

#25
post #17
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You cannot level such a stark criticism against a man who dared to be great - when you do so you embarrass only yourself. "It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes…

Talk highly of him all you want, his rhetoric has hurt the US far more than it has helped. Between his voodoo economics and ignoring of the AIDs crisis, Iran Contra, the 'Moral Majority', I think you are embarrassing yourself here, not me. He is the epitome of style over substance.

Much as I hate to stray this far from the topic at hand, AIDS turned out to be a much, much smaller deal than the alarmists of the 1980s would have had you believe. Not that it wasn't worth being concerned about, researching, and educating people about, but y'know what the death toll from AIDS is in the United States nowadays? Forty per million per year.

While that's still an order of magnitude above "lightning strike" it's below, say, Hepatitis C or many hundreds of other diseases that get less press.

Re: Letter from Ronald Reagan to his son

#26
post #17
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You cannot level such a stark criticism against a man who dared to be great - when you do so you embarrass only yourself. "It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes…

Talk highly of him all you want, his rhetoric has hurt the US far more than it has helped. Between his voodoo economics and ignoring of the AIDs crisis, Iran Contra, the 'Moral Majority', I think you are embarrassing yourself here, not me. He is the epitome of style over substance.

You can say the same about just any other politician. They all made (and make) mistakes and stumble. The key is how history judges them. In the case of Reagan I think history is pretty clear about what he accomplished and what he didn't. Notice I said "I think" because that's just my opinion; everyone is entitled to one. Informed opinions are not embarrassing. Waving your arms and pushing your own absolutes on other people however can be quite so.

Re: Letter from Ronald Reagan to his son

#27
post #26
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Talk highly of him all you want, his rhetoric has hurt the US far more than it has helped. Between his voodoo economics and ignoring of the AIDs crisis, Iran Contra, the 'Moral Majority', I think you are embarrassing yourself here, not me. He is the epitome of style over substance.

You can say the same about just any other politician. They all made (and make) mistakes and stumble. The key is how history judges them. In the case of Reagan I think history is pretty clear about what he accomplished and what he didn't. Notice I said "I think" because that's just my opinion; everyone is entitled to one. Informed opinions are not embarrassing. Waving your arms and pushing your own absolutes on other…

I think you just nicely reiterated my response to the OP, thanks.

Re: Letter from Ronald Reagan to his son

#28
post #27
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can say the same about just any other politician. They all made (and make) mistakes and stumble. The key is how history judges them. In the case of Reagan I think history is pretty clear about what he accomplished and what he didn't. Notice I said "I think" because that's just my opinion; everyone is entitled to one. Informed opinions are not embarrassing. Waving your arms and pushing your own absolutes on other…

I think you just nicely reiterated my response to the OP, thanks.

Go troll somewhere else.

Re: Letter from Ronald Reagan to his son

#29
post #28
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you just nicely reiterated my response to the OP, thanks.

Go troll somewhere else.

You're being silly now. I am not trolling - I stated my opinion. You said:

> Waving your arms and pushing your own absolutes on other people however can be quite so.

Which seemed to be directly in response to the OPs assertion:

> Ronald Reagan was a wise man and great president.

You can see how I would think you were referencing this in your comment as you specified that you were stating an opinion and the OP asserted this comment as fact, yet I stated:

> As far as I'm concerned he is an embarrassment

Which is obviously presented as opinion and not hard fact. I did however back up my opinion with points in a follow up comment.

edit: the downvotes don't make me any less correct in my response, if you disagree please explain.

Re: Letter from Ronald Reagan to his son

#30
post #4

How qualified was Reagan to give marriage advice? How many marriages did he have? Was he a marriage counsellor? Did he study marriages? Statistics on couple behaviors? Or is this like listening to the Kardashian's opinion on... child rearing or something?

Ronald Reagan was a wise man and great president.

whether I agree with you or not, please, let's not bring politics to HN.
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