Editorial: Rest in peace, Mr. President

Posted: Sunday, June 13, 2004

A nation bade farewell to a former president amid all the appropriate - and richly deserved - expressions of love and respect.

Ronald Wilson Reagan was laid to rest on a hillside overlooking the Pacific Ocean. His burial came at the end of an extraordinary week of remembrance and reflection. Most of it has been fond. Much of it, indeed, has been reverential.

The history of Ronald Reagan's eight years as president will be written more completely long after we're all gone. That is at it should be.

President Reagan clearly was a polarizing figure in some circles. Those who opposed his policies from 1981 until 1989 did so with as much passion as those who endorsed them. Was he a perfect man? No one can make such a claim. The president had his missteps, his failures and his controversies during his long public career as president and governor of California.

But the country has just gone through a week in which most Americans remember the good things. What precisely is wrong with that?

Ronald Reagan brought good will to his battles with his opponents. He fought them hard, but with a smile. So many political leaders have lamented the lack of civility in the current debate. They are right.

The president brought an unshakeable commitment to certain principles. He said communism was evil and fought to end it. He said government shouldn't tax people too much and fought to reduce Americans' tax burden.

President Reagan believed that America's best days always were ahead of it and never wavered from that optimism.

History should not ignore the negatives that occurred on Reagan's presidential watch. Iran-Contra, as well as the deaths of those gallant Marines in Beirut, will smudge the president's legacy over time.

Just not now.

The outpouring of affection toward President Reagan is a nation's way of giving thanks to one man's dedicated public service.

Rest in peace, Mr. President.