My son had to do a book report on one of our presidents. All the kids literally drew a name from a hat in the front of the class. My son drew, completely by chance, the 40th President, Ronald Reagan. My wife took my son to the local library to pick out 2 sources needed for the report. Mind you, this is 3rd grade. They picked 2 big picture type books with 2 page summaries of every President. If you have kids, you know the type of books I'm talking about.
Now, if I were to ask you to summarize the greatest achievement of each President and we got to Ronald Reagan what might you say? First thing that pops in your mind if you're honest? That's right - the Cold War. Maybe, the famouse speech in Berlin, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down that wall!" The collapse of communism in the face of a strong U.S. foreign policy and new found freedom and human rights for millions of people. I posted this picture lest you forget.
Each book hinted in one small paragraph that Reagan worked with Gorbachev to reduce nuclear weapons. Neither book had the words "Cold War." Hmmm?
However, each book spent 3 to 5 paragraphs bashing "trickle down economics" (tax breaks for the rich and the cutting of welfare programs) and the Iran Contra Affair. One even had a big old picture of Ollie North testifying in front of Congress (one of my favorite surf spots is named after Ollie). Each book only had 10 paragraphs. Now, I admit that Iran-Contra was scandelous but that this dominates the discussion on Reagan in these books is scary.
Oh yeah, it also mentioned that he was the first President to be divorced and remarried.
Thankfully, my son was most excited about the fact that Reagan starred in "Bedtime for Bonzo" and that the co-star in the movie was a chimpanzee.
P.S. By contrast, there is one paragraph in one book and a sentance or two in the other about Clinton having sex with Monica Lewinsky in the White House. "But the "Comeback Kid" survived even that ordeal." and "...but even this (Lewinsky sex scandal) failed to diminish Clinton's favorable job-perfomrance ratings in opinion polls."
Hmm? I wonder who's writing these texts? I wonder?
Posts
