"I Am Always Remembering..."

Happy Birthday Mr. President

Today would have been President Ronald Reagan's 103rd birthday.  And although there are many who still point out his flaws, especially his administration's response (or non-response) to the HIV/AIDS crisis, I have always been willing to forgive him for that.  Sadly, it seemed he could never quite grasp the gravity of the situation and those he depended upon for advice on the matter had other agendas to pursue.  Nevertheless, Ronald Reagan was special to me.  He was the first president that I ever voted for and he was the first public figure that I took note of as my own political awakening began to come into its own when I was still a young man just trying to find my place in the world.

The truth is that I loved Ronald Reagan.  I believed in the things that he said were important to America, her people and me.  He had a profound effect upon my young life.  I looked up to him as the father-figure that I craved so badly when my own father was absent from my life.  I esteemed him to be a great man not just publicly, but personally.  I modeled my beliefs about not only politics, but life itself after his.

Beginning when I was just eighteen, he and I exchanged a few notes over the course of his eight years in office.  I even once met him in person, and I immediately felt that indeed he was the man that back then we all felt we knew.  He was a man that even if you disagreed with him, you believed he truly cared about you.  He inspired me.  He gave me hope when at times my struggles seemed insurmountable.  When he died, I mourned his loss as a man who had lost a dear friend.

Once upon a time, not so long ago, I proudly called myself a Republican and I believed in what Ronald Reagan said that meant.  I even ran for office as a Republican and served in the party organization.  When he died, I travelled to Washington that sweltering June of 2004 to pay my respects to the man who helped me believe in my country and myself.  I had just come out of the closet and as I got dressed in my hotel room on the morning of his funeral, I wondered what he would have thought of me then and I believed he would have approved.

I don't call myself a Republican anymore.  Not because what I believed in then is so different from what I believe in now, but because the Republican party is not what it was then.  They've lost their way and are no longer the party of Lincoln and of Reagan.  The Republicans have become the party of hate, fear, greed, division and obstruction.  They've become the party of "Us vs. Them."  They are now the party of scared old men desperate to hold onto the mantle and the levers of power despite the cost of giving up all the values that have made our country strong.  I am truly convinced, that if Ronald Reagan were with us today, he'd disavow the people who now call themselves "Republicans" too.

Time will prove what Ronald Reagan's real legacy will be, but I am convinced now, as I was then, that he was the right man at the right time and that we were and we still are a better country because of him.  If he were here today, I know he would be our strong supporter and a conscientious ally of equality... He would have evolved as he always did.  And so, I pause today, to remember a great man that I'll someday tell my grandchildren about, a great man who I can say lived in my lifetime, and made a difference in my life...

"Happy Birthday Mr. President!"