There’s a very interesting interview with Ron P. Reagan (President Reagan’s son) in the Times today. I like the way this man thinks.
Now that the country is awash in Reagan nostalgia, some observers are predicting that you will enter politics. Would you like to be president of the United States?
I would be unelectable. I’m an atheist. As we all know, that is something people won’t accept.
[…]
Do you and your wife, Doria, have children?
No. We have three cats. It’s like having children, but there is no tuition involved.
[…]
How do you account for all the glowing obituaries of [your father]?
I think it was a relief for Americans to look at pictures of something besides men on leashes. If you are going to call yourself a Christian — and I don’t — then you have to ask yourself a fundamental question, and that is: Whom would Jesus torture? Whom would Jesus drag around on a dog’s leash? How can Christians tolerate it?
It is unconscionable. It has put our young men and women who are over there, fighting a war that they should not have been asked to fight — it has put them in greater danger.
Did you vote for Bush in the last election?
No. I did not.
How did your mother feel about being ushered to her seat by President Bush?
Well, he did a better job than Dick Cheney did when he came to the rotunda. I felt so bad. Cheney brought my mother up to the casket, so she could pay her respects. She is in her 80’s, and she has glaucoma and has trouble seeing. There were steps, and he left her there. He just stood there, letting her flounder. I don’t think he’s a mindful human being. That’s probably the nicest way I can put it.
[…]
One thing that Buddhism teaches you is that every moment is an opportunity to change. And we will have a moment in November to make a big change.
Damn skippy.
iTunes: “Lazarus Raised” by Gabriel, Peter from the album Passion: Music for The Last Temptation of Christ (1989, 1:25).
