Tag Archives: Ronald Reagan

THAT EMPATHY THING

One of the dominant themes of the Democratic Convention has been Joe Biden’s natural empathy. It flows from his faith, his humanity, the grief he has suffered in his life, and it’s been evident throughout his political career. A big

OUR RENDEZVOUS WITH DESTINY

  I was 11 years old when I first heard my father’s speech, A Time For Choosing. Unbeknownst to me, he had been perfecting it out on the road when he was a spokesperson for General Electric. He was out

NAZIS IN AMERICA

August 15, 2017 is now a date that will go down in history: the day an American President defended neo-Nazis and the KKK. Donald Trump, who won the electoral college but failed to win the popular vote, endeared himself to

THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING

It’s well known that my father was quite focused on anti-communism long before he entered politics. Ronald Reagan’s time as president of the Screen Actors Guild was often used in speaking out against the threat of communism as he (and

PIECES OF MY FATHER

On this day in 2004, my father died. Each year, the day is, for me, one of reflection and reverence. A journey back through memories. My father had a scar on his thumb, a dent really, from a childhood accident.

MY FATHER, RONALD REAGAN

This is one of the stories that I used to ask my father to tell again and again: He was a young actor, filming a movie in England. He always began the story with a funny anecdote about trying to

JOHN HINCKLEY

In 2000 I wrote a piece for Time magazine about John Hinckley’s first attempt to get unsupervised visits into Williamsburg, Virginia. He was already allowed supervised day trips off the grounds of Saint Elizabeths Hospital. It was a lengthy article

THINGS I WISH I COULD ASK MY FATHER

To my father on Father’s Day: I wish I’d asked you more about the young nearsighted boy you once were, who took refuge in books, who learned to read  at a startlingly young age. Who spent hours on the river,

excerpt from THE LONG GOODBYE

Twelve years ago, on June 5, my father died. This is an excerpt from my book The Long Goodbye which was published in 2004. The book chronicled the journey of losing him to Alzheimer’s, and this passage is about the

STEALING REAGAN

This morning, I took a walk in my old neighborhood, where the house I grew up in has been leveled and a new house is being built. I  hadn’t been there for a while, so I was surprised at how