Ronald Reagan diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, an incurable neurological disorder which destroys brain cells and ultimately causes death. In November of that year, he informed the nation of the diagnosis through a handwritten letter, writing in part: After his diagnosis, letters of support from well-wishers poured into his California home. But there was also speculation over how long Reagan had demonstrated symptoms of mental degeneration. Not long after the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan, at a reception for mayors, Reagan greeted his Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Samuel Pierce in 1981 by saying "How are you, Mr Mayor? How are things
Ronald Reagan in music America toward a fascist theocracy. And everything that's happened during the Reagan administration is steering us right down that pipe." Several songs on Zappa's 1988 album "Broadway the Hard Way" ridicule Reagan, notably "Promiscuous," which jabs at the Reagans' attempts to reduce sex education in public schools and replace it with abstinence-only propaganda as well as his slow response to the AIDS pandemic. On his 1989 album, "Big Daddy", John Mellencamp's song "Country Gentleman" is "a scathing indictment on Ronald Reagan". Written and recorded during Reagan's final year in office, the song's last line thanks God that "he went back