"He Kills Me"

When I first met my friend Eric Reda, he had a picture of Ronald Reagan on a wall in his home.

I immediately said...

"What's this son of a bitch doing here?"

Eric then told me about the opera he was writing ("Reagan's Children") based on the speeches that Ronnie's children gave at his memorial.

I replied...

"In the 80's and early 90's, this man killed half of my friends as if he had taken a knife and stabbed them in the heart."

It's true. Not saying the word "AIDS" until 1987, not doing anything to help those who were dying of this dreadful disease because it was only killing homosexuals, Haitians and hemophiliacs - - he killed my friends. Him and that horrific harpy of a wife of his, Nancy. When she dies, I will dance and sing, just like I did when Ronnie died.

Reagan is something of a saint to Republicans these days. Even though he couldn't win his party's nomination if he were to run for President today. Reagan wouldn't be conservative enough for all the Neo-Reaganites out there.

So, when I have to deal with the country's revisionist history about Reagan, I take some time to remember my friends, remember their names, their faces, their humor, their smiles.

Then, I watch this clip from the 1964 film, "The Killers." And I imagine myself as John Cassavetes.

And I punch Reagan right in his smug, cowardly face.




Interesting that, in Reagan's final film before entering into public service, he played his first and only bad guy. And by "interesting," I mean "telling."