Ramblings' Journal

Project 21 members remember Ronaldus Maximus

A new release by Project 21 (of which I'm proudly a member of), highlights comments by several members on the passing of President Ronald Reagan.

• Ak'Bar Shabazz (Atlanta, Georgia): "We all mourn the passing of a great leader. As Americans, we bask in the freedoms that Reagan had the clarity of vision to secure. All future presidents will be measured by the great examples that he provided."

• James Coleman (Los Angeles, California): "I spent my youth as a leftist radical after becoming disillusioned with what I saw as the hesitant policies of the civil rights mainstream. Ronald Reagan convinced me that the conservative movement was my home. As for African-Americans, we can only hope that someday we all recognize the benefits we experienced and continue to experience from the Reagan legacy. Black businesses and businesses owned by women prospered greatly in the 80s. There is a national purpose that was solidified and set the basis for the optimism that sustains our youth and keeps our military vital in such dangerous times. Whether we realize it or not, Ronald Reagan set a philosophical tone that lasts to this day and may indeed sustain us through the hard times ahead."

• Donald Scoggins (Springfield, Virginia): "Through his determination and forward thinking, President Reagan paved the way that saw the destruction of communism abroad, as well as here at home. After decades of paralyzing government social programs, Reagan was instrumental in establishing a national climate that allowed for the elimination of welfare as we know it."

• Mychal Massie (Zion Hill, Pennsylvania): "Leaders such as the late President Reagan can only be fully appreciated in their passing. While they are admired and referenced in life, it is history that ultimately provides their legacy. I believe that history will reward Ronald Reagan with the honor he justly deserves. He reminded America that ours was a country to be proud of and that our way of life was the envy of the world. And this he did in a way few have before him and none have since him."

I have to echo Mychal Massie's comments.

Reagan will become more appreciated -- especially by many here at home -- now that he is gone, and a more objective eye can be cast on his work.

Reagan was the architect of the fiscal recovery of the 1980s, and helped to fuel the entrepreneurship that fueled the advances of the biotech, internet and real estate sectors that began during the latter years of the Reagan Administration and continued nearly to the end of the century.

Reagan, contrary to the whining that has gone on by pundits far and wide the past few days, was the architect and driving force that caused the fall of the Soviet Union.

And though many on the left get upset by Reagan's cuts of some social programs, the dollars saved from those cuts allowed the nation to recover from a recession that the Carter Administration left the nation in, and restored the adventurous spirit of all Americans.

Civil rights critics, then and now, go out of their way to claim that Reagan set civil rights for blacks back more than fifty years, yet cannot point to any one thing that he did -- outside of eliminating a number of social programs. Reagan put in place programs that allowed and encouraged entrepreneurial growth for all people, black, white and otherwise. Black businesses flourished in this country as a result of this, at an unprecedented rate.

After a decrease in black owned and operated businesses in the 60s and 70s, those businesses -- in all economic sectors -- began to grow at a rate that continues unabated to this day.

Posted by mhking at June 9, 2004 07:49 AM