A Student's Tribute To Ronald Reagan
Written by a homeschool student, the following free-verse poem commemorates the passing of Ronald Reagan. This young poet is a Christian and a patriot, and graduated from high school last June.
A Great Man Remembered
Two flames--
One is extinguished,
The other is never-ending,
Today a great man moves on,
Maybe not in this world,
But in Heaven.
He helped fight off the evil in this world.
He helped those in time of justice,
This great man was President Ronald Reagan--
A leader,
A husband,
A Christian,
Even though his body is broken,
His spirit still lives.
At the right hand of God
He sits and talks to Him
About the world.
And he says, “I am truly home.”
One flame extinguished--
The other still lives,
And will live eternally.
--N.B.
June 2004
Note: Visit Mike's America to see a collection of tributes to Ronald Reagan.
posted by Always On Watch @ 1/16/2006 06:00:00 AM
40 comments
40 Comments:
Well written poem! This reminds me of William Blake.
"Tyger! Tyger! Burning light!"
"Flame" is an impressive word.
Shah,
I was hoping you'd stop by. I know of your appreciation of poetry. The student's use of "flame" allows for many levels of interpretation.
N.B. will appreciate your kind words.
great poem. One of your students wrote that? I am very impressed. Losing Ronald Reagan was such a hard thing for so many people. I can't think of any other president who would have had affected me so completely.
I remember the Democratic Party trying to steal the legacy of Ronald Reagan At the Democratic Convention.
Does anybody think that Reagan would have supported John Kerry?
Great Post
Crusader,
Yes, a student wrote this poem and was gracious enough to share it with me in June of 2004. I saved it in a special file, so when Mike's invitation came along, N.B. granted me permission to post the poem.
A few years back, I did a free-verse unit in my Lit/Compt class. I'm a poet by no means; but one of my dearest friends is a published poet, and I shared some of my friend's work with my class. N.B. became inspired to write in free-verse form and has been writing poems ever since.
Sometimes we teachers make a connection, which is one reason why I've been teaching for over 30 years. N.B. and I still keep in touch; in fact, N.B. recently stopped by my classes last week. I consider N.B. not a former student, but a friend.
I like the approach you took at your site, Crusader. Going back to one of Reagan's pre-Presidential speeches is an excellent idea.
Eyes,
Poetry affects different readers in different ways. Your reaction was very like mine.
I myself am not very good at writing any kind of poetry. Then again, I don't get much practice with that genre. I'm always writing blog articles. Hehehe.
"Each year on Martin Luther King Day, let us not only recall Dr. King, but rededicate ourselves to the Commandments he believed in and sought to live every day: Thou shall love thy God with all thy heart, and thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself. And I just have to believe that all of us -- if all of us, young and old, Republicans and Democrats, do all we can to live up to those Commandments, then we will see the day when Dr. King's dream comes true."
—Ronald Reagan, Remarks on Signing the Bill Making the Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., a National Holiday, November 2, 1983
Great poem.
And this to supplement Mr Beamish's comment.
At the White House Rose Garden on November 2, 1983, U.S. President Ronald Reagan signed a bill creating a federal holiday to honour King. It was observed for the first time on January 20, 1986.
Yes Samwich, because everyone knows "racial equality" directly contradicts the Book of Mormon.
I don't know what's more ironic, that Samwich the racist Mormon would take exception to people who want to add to the Bible, or that the unmistakably clear finding that Joseph Smith's Book of Abraham was a hoax based on mistranlated and misconstrued Egyptian funeral papyri hasn't persuaded him to run screaming away from the Mormon cult and to disassociate himself from the racist doctrines expoused in that fake "holy" book.
Ducky,
J. Edgar Hoover acted under the supervision of his racist superiors in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations who sought in vain to derail the Civil Rights movement on up to moment Republicans in Congress passed Civil Rights legislation over their proper Klansmen filibusters.
Lyndon B. Johnson used to play tapes of Martin Luther King having extra-marital sex to his friends in the Oval Office.
No oversight my ass.
I hope the Kid got an A for that poem....
Hoover is a complete set of posts in itself which desearve a full thread of their own.
City Troll,
N.B. wrote the poem after grades for the term were completed. During the school term, N.B. got A's on all submitted poems, I think.
That is really good!
AOW, a very moving poem by a very talented young poet. Thanks for sharing it.
Samwich,
N.B. writes poems as a method of introspection. But I admit to having encouraged N.B. to seek publication.
Hey, N.B. The following is a review of Samwich's recommendation (from Amazon):
This is one of those rare books everyone ought to have to read. Like "The Elements of Style," "Writing That Works, and "Profiles in Courage." I had read this book back in 1990 when I was out of work, looking for a job in advertising. The advertising job never happened for me and I moved on to other things.
I did not realize, until I recently picked up a copy to re-read, how much it had influenced me the first time I read it. Half of the way I conduct myself at work and a lot of my thought processes and strategy is still influenced by what is in this book. I make over 6 times what I made back in 1991. I realize now I have Mr. Ogilvy to thank for a great deal of that.
Read this book. At least once.
N.B., notice the mention of Strunk & White's The Elements of Style. You know that book, don't you? Hehehe. A textbook we used!
Old Soldier,
N.B. comes from a military family. I hsve the feeling that other poems of this former student would interest you.
I'm glad you stopped by because a compliment from you will please N.B.
Typo! "hsve" should be "have"
Esther,
Thank you for stopping by. I know you've been under the weather. Hope you're better now! Slow down and stay well.
Glad you liked the poem.
Great Poem. "Scarlett" the Mike's America Poet Laureate has one going up tomorrow. I may save this for the grand finale.
More stuff up today. You might want to edit the post below and direct to the top of the page:
http://mikesamerica.blogspot.com/
Mike,
When I post my RR essay, I'll be linking to your site.
I'll also add your link at the end of the student's poem here.
That's fairly easy to explain, Ducky. When prospective Democrats join the party, they each swear an oath to seek policies that will usurp the Constitution, kill lots of Americans, or both. Democrats are not above killing each other in this quest for power.
Anybody who thinks J.F. Kennedy was actually in charge of anything before Lyndon B. Johnson had him killed is deluded.
Was LBJ involved in the death of JFK? I don't know. But my mother (gone now), who personally knew Lyndon from the 1930's when they both came to D.C. and who maintained contact with him until at least 1960, said he was capable of it.
Off to work now.
Samwich,
You're an active member of a racist cult founded by a murderous scam artist that has been wholly discredited as false in archaeology and linguistics.
In short, you have no right to call anyone a fool, as you're fooled through and through.
Dance, puppet, dance!
AOW,
LBJ as President stands head and shoulders above his Democratic peers in their dedication to destroying the Constitution and killing lots of Americans, as he devoted his policies to both goals.
He was a special kind of Democrat sicko, whipping out his penis to guests and pracing around naked in the Oval Office as his answer for why we were fighting the Vietnam War.
No Democratic President since Franklin Delano Roosevelt got such a kick out of trampling the Constitution in as many ways as possible as LBJ. Even Woodrow Wilson's grand efforts to abolish the rule of law for fun and profit while killing Americans pale in comparison.
LBJ had quite an election fraud network set up in Texas, and when the votes were counted in the 1960 election, several Texas counties had more votes for Kennedy-Johnson than people that lived in those counties. No Democrat in America has honestly won an election since then.
It didn't really matter that JFK had crossed LBJ's Mafia buddies, because LBJ had set his eyes upon killing JFK and becoming President on Inauguration Day. He waited, biding his time until he could strike.
I only hate stupid people, Ducky. You know that.
Samwich is a big boy, I'm sure if he really looks at the evidence that Joseph Smith was a scam artist and that the few scraps of "archaeological evidence" he provided for his cult's "holy books" turned out to be falsely misattributed Egyptian burial artifacts, he'd then look at the fictional theology Smith constructed from these props for the ignorant and illiterate and figure out that black people aren't "cursed of God."
But then again, Samwich is a special kind of stupid, so it's anyone's guess.
Reagan began as a Democrat, did he not?
When you have a chance let us know what you find compelling about the current administration.
As I have stated on my blog many times, George W. Bush's pacifism sickens me.
" Why are you rethugs always invading states that have no defenses? "
Actually when Bush Sr. invaded Iraq, it had the world's fourth largest standing army.
I'm glad you liked my Reagan tribute AOW..he had an unwavering view for America. That speech would be just as relevant today.
Reagan stands tall as a strong symbol of change. He made it okay for that rare sort of Democrat, the kind with a brain, to renounce the Democratic Party.
Reagan was a bleeding-heart in his early days. In fact, I read somewhere that he once considered joining the Communist Party but that the Party didn't want such an "open" fellow. I'm not sure, but I think that Reagan had a political turn-around while president of the Screen Actors Guild.
As to my mother and LBJ...In the early 1930's, my mother came to D.C. from east Tennessee, TVA country, where most blindly voted for FDR or for any other Democrat who came down the pike. Mom got a job in the government at the recommendation of some Democrat politician, and somehow got to meet LBJ, to whom she always referred as "Lyndon."
LBJ was a secretary on Capitol Hill and dirt poor when my mother met him, and one day, he borrowed $3 from her. Around 1960, she phoned him up, and they amiably laughed that he still owed her money. The topic of the phone call? Why LBJ had teamed up with the Kennedys. They both agreed that the criterion was bringing in the votes. At the end of the conversation, my mother said, "You'll never get to be President unless Kennedy dies in office."
I overheard every word of my mother's side of the phone call (My mother thought I was out of earshot), but I was quite young and didn't understand the import of some of what she was saying. But I DID understand that my mother was talking to the famous political figure Lyndon B. Johnson.
Many years later, I asked my mother how well she knew the man. I was curious if they had ever dated, and she said not. Apparently they ended their contact with each other shortly before or shortly after he married Lady Bird.
As far as I know, my mother never again spoke with LBJ after that conversation I overheard. But on the day that Kennedy was assassinated, my mother said that evening, "Lyndon is capable of having this done." We didn't much pursue the topic of LBJ because my father didn't want to hear about my mother's life before he met her--at least, not in my presence.
From the few personal stories I heard, LBJ cared about little except getting the votes. And he knew how to get others to vote the way he wanted them to because he had a way of "dishing the dirt," then using the threat of revealing that "dirt" unless votes went his way.
Samwich,
The stock market is volatile. Recent sell-offs are a run to safety, IMO.
I look for precious metals to take off like a rocket, but in a few months--not right away.
My personal strategy: Stay out of debt!
How much worth will any type of bonds have if the big crash comes?
Iran Watch,
Duck does tend to stick with one theme. I'll say this: he is consistent.
Glad you enjoyed the poem.
Bonnie Blue,
I enjoy all the poems which N.B. shares with me. This one fits the theme which Mike's America proposed.
Bush grabbed Iraq to get control of Iraq's Energy Policy. The dog and pony shows in the press are so much propaganda and little else.
Because we all know Bush tricked President Clinton into signing into federal law the foreign policy goal of toppling Saddam Hussein (The Iraqi Liberation Act of 1998) and needled him constantly to annihilate their air defense network faster than China could rebuild it. All in anticipation of countering the looming Iranian threat. Because America has always supported Iraq against Iran.
The conspiracy to make Bush haters irrationally inconsistent actually goes back to Alexander the Great's exploits in Persia, but I'll not bore you with the details.
Samwich,
If you can't "cash out" your own debt from your own capital, you could be in a world of financial trouble.
This is how I see it, too. But I know plenty of people who could not begin to pay their credit-card balances in full--never mind their house mortgages.
My parents, who grew up during the Great Depression, impressed that same priniciple into my young mind. In fact, in 1928, my mother, not quite a teenager, told her grandfather (I'm paraphrasing here), "Take every dime out of the bank. I have a bad feeling about the economy." The ailing old man, for whom the time had come to leave the farm, did so, and in a few months, the family bought, outright with no mortgage, a house for next-to-nothing during a foreclosure as the bank scrambled to recover from unpaid mortgages. In just a few months, of course, the bank closed its doors. In my father's family's situation, the family held the farm without any mortage (Mennonite frugality); my grandfather, a blacksmith, and my father, who opened a sawmill, did just fine during the Depression; of course, they also had plenty of land to farm, so they weren't going to starve, no matter what the economic situation.
Today families don't have those rural and agricultural options. How many people know how to save seeds and keep a garden going? Not many around here. And, of course, hybrids prohibit that saving of seeds anyway.
Funny story here...I once knew a very bright school student who wanted to do a crop-growing project for the annual science fair. And what did she use for her corn kernels? Libby's! Right out of the can! After a time, she wondered why the little stalks weren't appearing. Several of us teachers who had grown up in the country were amused. Of course, the student wasn't too amused! Hehehe.
Beamish,
What is it about human nature which loves a conspiracy theory?
Samwich,
The run to safety, to which I referred in an earlier comment--I've observed it in the coin business over the last several months.
Gold bullion is nice. Jewelry is prettier. Hehehe.
About T-bills...As you pointed out, they are safe as long as the government collects taxes. But what happens if taxes cannot be collected because of a failed economy?
I'm not an economist, so I'm asking. Any historical lessons there?
What is it about human nature which loves a conspiracy theory?
The truth is too simplistic for those who thrive on pretending to be persecuted. Mormon history is a relevant example. Mormon terrorists charged by their leaders with cleansing the "holy land" of Missouri of infidels and apostates got their asses handed to them when they tried and fled to Utah because of "persecution" - the idea that the laws of civilization apply to Mormons.
Burned buildings vs. slaughtered non-Mormon people.
Hmm. I don't see the moral equivalence.
I wasn't talking about the pyrotechnic attack on the Branch Davidian compound by Janet "Meth Use Causes Parkinson's" Reno and Wesley "I get to kill Americans? Cool!" Clark. You can humor yourself with the myth of the BATF burning alleged child molesters to death for not paying taxes on a semi-automatic rifle, but I was refering to your favorite leftist penis-waver Johnson's napalming of Vietnam and your idol Hitler's Jews First affirmative action program for the ovens at Auschwitz.
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