It never ceases to amaze me how hateful, spiteful, evil, cruel, heartless, self-absorbed some people can be.

This week, we are mourning and celebrating the life and legacy of President Ronald Reagan. Arguably, President Reagan was the best president of the last century. President Reagan had a vision of a "shining city on a hill", referring to Washington DC. This city was meant to act as a symbol of freedom for the rest of the world. You can say all you like about this great country of ours. But, when it comes down to basics, we enjoy more freedoms than any other nation on the face of the planet. Yes, we have our pitfalls, our problems, our social issues to deal with. But, in my humble opinion, we outshine any other nation. We live in the Great Society. And much of the benefits we enjoy today we owe to our previous leaders, most notably, Ronald Reagan.

Hind sight is 20/20. At the time of Reagan's administration, the things he was doing may not have made much sense. We were reeling from double-digit inflation, exorbitant income taxes, a Cold War which we were loosing, and a lack-luster military. To top this off, 52 of our citizens were being held hostage in Iran. Just prior to his inauguration, Reagan was told that the hostages had just left Iranian airspace. I guess Iran didn't want to test the will of the new president. They already knew what to expect from President Carter...nothing. Nothing which thus far had lasted 444 days. Check one on Reagan's To Do List.

Next came taxes. As we have seen from this administration, the money we earn does the nation better when it is in our own pockets, not the government's. The higher end of the income tax bracket was 70%. I don't know what the dollar amount was, but in essence, one would be working for 30 cents on the dollar! And with that amount of money coming in, we still couldn't pay our bills. Cut, no make that slash personal income tax rate down to 35% and see what happens. Then there is the little thing with Communism and the former Eastern Bloc nations, the Berlin Wall, oh, I could go on. But that is not the point.

(this is now about 2 hours later) You know something? Time has a way of not so much healing wounds, but providing a sense of calm in an otherwise tumultuous world. I was going to comment on "comic artist" Ted Rall's sad and pathetic comments about President Reagan, but I have changed my mind. If you wish to read what this person said, I suggest you search on the web for Ted Rall's website. I have decided not to do Mr. Rall any favor by further publicizing his thoroughly inappropriate comments.

As I said a couple of days ago, God Bless you, Mr President. And may the God who raised Jesus Christ from the dead bring all into communion with Him on the Day of the Lord.