Ignoring the Newspeak to remember my past

Jun 13, 2004

During the 1980s I grew from 6 to 16. Remembering them now I felt oppressed by the world around me. I followed presidential politics but did not go much beyond that for many of those years. I remember my shock at the S&L scandals, Iran-Contra, Libya bombing, the assassination attempt, book burnings, the fantasy of SDI, Pat Roberts presidential bid, and the stock market crash. I remember excitement about the Berlin Wall coming down but disappointment at Gorbachev being ejected and Yeltsin taking over. It was deeper than just domestic/foreign policy. I felt like American culture took a big hit as movies, music and books were recycled pabulum for the most part. As a result of that I’ve felt lost in the Reagan hagiography of the past week.

It was nice to see my rememberances somewhat echoed in a letter to Salon. Even if the majority of media was tripping over themselves with unabashed praise.

What Reagan did give me was cynicism toward my government. At 14, I watched the Iran-Contra hearings with a creeping sense of mortification: What if you had a national scandal and nobody came? How could Americans forgive Reagan’s obdurate shredding of the Constitution – no matter how much they adored his “aw shucks” attitude liberally smeared with “give ’em hell” impulses?

It made me sick to see this goofball get softball treatment from everyone, especially the media. His “I can’t recall” mantra, repeated an astounding 340 times regarding his actions in Iran-Contra, sliced though the faith I had in America as a philanthropic, altruistic entity.

– Sarah Kelleher