State Funeral

[TonyC]

As Americans, we should all pause and reflect on the life of a fellow American. Political leanings aside, we can all acknowledge the impact he had on the world we live in today.

I listened to the Eulogy offered by Lady Thatcher. I believe it would benefit every American to hear the same. I am eager to find the entire text of the speech, or even a video of the presentation. So far, this is all I have been able to find.



Thatcher: Reagan was great American

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Washington, DC, Jun. 11 (UPI) -- Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher celebrated former President Ronald Reagan's great patriotism and fight against Communism at his state funeral. "We have lost a great President, a great American and a great man," Thatcher said in a recorded eulogy played Friday at the U.S. National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.

"His politics had a freshness and optimism that won converts from every class and every nations," Thatcher said. "He won the cold war not only without firing a shot, but also by inviting enemies out of their fortress and turning them into friends."

Thatcher and Reagan shared similar conservative philosophies and worked closely during the last decade of the Cold War, which ended just after Reagan left office.

Thatcher's was the first of four eulogies to be delivered at Reagan's funeral. She preceded former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, Former President George H.W. Bush and current President George W. Bush.

 

[Resume Writer]

Tony,


I most certainly agree. The words of Margaret Thatcher were very moving - and this from a woman who is not even an American!

I was also touched by the tears and choked up speech that former President George Bush delivered.

For the past few days, I have asked that my son watch the procession to the Capitol and explained to him the significance of each part. I also had him watch the funeral today because he was witnessing history and the importance of people like President Reagan in our country's history.

God Bless President Reagan and his family. I am certain that he is having a conversation with God, interjecting his wonderful sense of humor!

Kathy

 

[Timebuilder]

Amen, Kathy.

 

[:-)]

Lady Thatcher's eulogy

Here you go Tony.


Reagan Won the Cold War by Turning Enemies Into Friends
Margaret Thatcher
Friday, June 11, 2004
A text of Baroness Margaret Thatcher's eulogy at the funeral of former President Ronald Reagan:

We have lost a great president, a great American, and a great man. And I have lost a dear friend.

In his lifetime Ronald Reagan was such a cheerful and invigorating presence that it was easy to forget what daunting historic tasks he set himself. He sought to mend America's wounded spirit, to restore the strength of the free world, and to free the slaves of communism. These were causes hard to accomplish and heavy with risk.

Yet they were pursued with almost a lightness of spirit. For Ronald Reagan also embodied another great cause - what Arnold Bennett once called "the great cause of cheering us all up." His politics had a freshness and optimism that won converts from every class and every nation - and ultimately from the very heart of the evil empire.

Yet his humour often had a purpose beyond humour. In the terrible hours after the attempt on his life, his easy jokes gave reassurance to an anxious world. They were evidence that in the aftermath of terror and in the midst of hysteria, one great heart at least remained sane and jocular. They were truly grace under pressure.

And perhaps they signified grace of a deeper kind. Ronnie himself certainly believed that he had been given back his life for a purpose. As he told a priest after his recovery, "Whatever time I've got left now belongs to the Big Fella Upstairs."

And surely it is hard to deny that Ronald Reagan's life was providential, when we look at what he achieved in the eight years that followed.

Others prophesied the decline of the West; he inspired America and its allies with renewed faith in their mission of freedom.

Others saw only limits to growth; he transformed a stagnant economy into an engine of opportunity.

Others hoped, at best, for an uneasy cohabitation with the Soviet Union; he won the Cold War - not only without firing a shot, but also by inviting enemies out of their fortress and turning them into friends.

I cannot imagine how any diplomat, or any dramatist, could improve on his words to Mikhail Gorbachev at the Geneva summit: "Let me tell you why it is we distrust you." Those words are candid and tough, and they cannot have been easy to hear. But they are also a clear invitation to a new beginning and a new relationship that would be rooted in trust.

We live today in the world that Ronald Reagan began to reshape with those words. It is a very different world with different challenges and new dangers. All in all, however, it is one of greater freedom and prosperity, one more hopeful than the world he inherited on becoming president.

As Prime Minister, I worked closely with Ronald Reagan for eight of the most important years of all our lives. We talked regularly both before and after his presidency. And I have had time and cause to reflect on what made him a great president.

Ronald Reagan knew his own mind. He had firm principles - and, I believe, right ones. He expounded them clearly, he acted upon them decisively.

When the world threw problems at the White House, he was not baffled, or disorientated, or overwhelmed. He knew almost instinctively what to do.

When his aides were preparing option papers for his decision, they were able to cut out entire rafts of proposals that they knew "the Old Man" would never wear.

When his allies came under Soviet or domestic pressure, they could look confidently to Washington for firm leadership.

And when his enemies tested American resolve, they soon discovered that his resolve was firm and unyielding.

Yet his ideas, though clear, were never simplistic. He saw the many sides of truth.

Yes, he warned that the Soviet Union had an insatiable drive for military power and territorial expansion; but he also sensed it was being eaten away by systemic failures impossible to reform.

Yes, he did not shrink from denouncing Moscow's "evil empire." But he realised that a man of goodwill might nonetheless emerge from within its dark corridors.

So the President resisted Soviet expansion and pressed down on Soviet weakness at every point until the day came when communism began to collapse beneath the combined weight of these pressures and its own failures. And when a man of goodwill did emerge from the ruins, President Reagan stepped forward to shake his hand and to offer sincere cooperation.

Nothing was more typical of Ronald Reagan than that large-hearted magnanimity - and nothing was more American.

Therein lies perhaps the final explanation of his achievements. Ronald Reagan carried the American people with him in his great endeavours because there was perfect sympathy between them. He and they loved America and what it stands for - freedom and opportunity for ordinary people.

As an actor in Hollywood's golden age, he helped to make the American dream live for millions all over the globe. His own life was a fulfilment of that dream. He never succumbed to the embarrassment some people feel about an honest expression of love of country.

He was able to say "God Bless America" with equal fervour in public and in private. And so he was able to call confidently upon his fellow countrymen to make sacrifices for America - and to make sacrifices for those who looked to America for hope and rescue.

With the lever of American patriotism, he lifted up the world. And so today the world - in Prague, in Budapest, in Warsaw, in Sofia, in Bucharest, in Kiev and in Moscow itself - the world mourns the passing of the Great Liberator and echoes his prayer "God Bless America."


Ronald Reagan's life was rich not only in public achievement, but also in private happiness. Indeed, his public achievements were rooted in his private happiness. The great turning point of his life was his meeting and marriage with Nancy.

On that we have the plain testimony of a loving and grateful husband: "Nancy came along and saved my soul." We share her grief today. But we also share her pride - and the grief and pride of Ronnie's children.

For the final years of his life, Ronnie's mind was clouded by illness. That cloud has now lifted. He is himself again - more himself than at any time on this earth. For we may be sure that the Big Fella Upstairs never forgets those who remember Him. And as the last journey of this faithful pilgrim took him beyond the sunset, and as heaven's morning broke, I like to think - in the words of Bunyan - that "all the trumpets sounded on the other side."

We here still move in twilight. But we have one beacon to guide us that Ronald Reagan never had. We have his example. Let us give thanks today for a life that achieved so much for all of God's children.



© 2004 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2004/6/11/123141.shtml

 

[Blue Dude]

Wow .

 

[skyking1976]

Here, here. Eloquent words spoken by an eloquent lady. Well said Mrs. Thatcher.

SK

 

[EagleRJ]

Did anyone else see the shot of Bill Clinton during the service? He appeared to be sleeping!!!!

 

[datafox]

There must be some mistake. Are we talking about Ronald Reagan, the former American president who just had a funeral? Are we talking about the same Ronald Reagan who considered The Taliban "liberators" in the 1980s? Are we talking about the same Ronald Reagan who threw support and money towards Afghanistan Islamic fundamentalists who rolled out the red carpet for Al Qaeda and Osama, who . . . well, you know the rest of the story.

Are we talking about the same Ronald Reagan who is quoted as saying Nelson Mandela was a terrorist? (For those of you that don't know, Mandela is one of the main figures in the end of apartheid in South Africa, and has since received a Nobel Peace Prize for his work)

Are we talking about the same Ronald Reagan who fired thousands of PATCO Air Traffic Controllers and left the entire aviation industry in chaos all because they wanted better benefits and better equipment for a failing ATC system?

It's fine to pay respects, but let's not revise history so we can feel good about everyone that dies.

 

[:-)]

I don't record much TV anymore, meaning that I screwed up the funeral taping. Does anyone know if the entire State funeral will be replayed? I've looked at the onscreen Directv guide and can't find a replay. Please help if you discover a repeat.

Thanks in advance,

 

[datafox]

CSPAN would be your best bet. If I were you, I'd check out their website.

Datafox