SLIPPED THE SURLY BONDS OF EARTH: Ronald Reagan, requiescat in pace.

Reason magazine coverage here.

Full-bore National Review coverage here.

Lou Cannon obituary here.

Some quotes:

“Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”

“Communism is neither an ec[onomic] or a pol[itical] system–it is a form of insanity–a temporary aberration which will one day disappear from the earth because it is contrary to human nature. I wonder how much more misery it will cause before it disappears.”

“My family is from the Former Republic of Yugoslavia. They left that nation in order to come to America for a better life. They hated Communism almost as much as President Reagan.

“I remember when I was 7 years old, in 1984, attending a speech by President Reagan in NJ. I don’t remember any of the speech, or many images from that day, other than the view of the backs of people’s legs…. I do remember that my family was extremely proud to be there, to see a speech by President Reagan. Growing up I learned why. Conservatives and moderates in America weren’t the only people on Earth that truly loved Ronald Reagan. People who lived behind the Communist Iron Curtain also loved the man. He was hope and freedom personified. Words fail me at this point. All I can think of is: Rest in peace President Reagan.

Michael Dobric”

“Early 1980: Scroll back to a moment twenty-four years ago in Brussels, Belgium. I’m on a university field trip to NATO headquarters. Someone asks whether there is any hope of rolling back communism.

“An official laughs. Dumb question.

“Summer 1988, just over a year before the fall of the Wall: on a train rolling through Poland on its way to Warsaw. ‘You’re American?’ ‘English.’ Smiles, handshakes, out come the beers, and then the toasting starts. ‘Thatcher. Reagan. Thatcher. Reagan.’ Hours later we all pour out onto the railway platform.

“And no, it’s no longer a dumb question.

“Thank you, President Reagan.”

“Arise, ye prisoners of starvation,

Arise, ye wretched of the earth,

For justice thunders condemnation,

A better world’s in birth.”

–Why, that’s “The Internationale,” yo. Funny how things don’t go according to plan.

“We’ve grown used to wonders in this century. It’s hard to dazzle us. But for 25 years the United States space program has been doing just that. We’ve grown used to the idea of space, and perhaps we forget that we’ve only just begun. We’re still pioneers. They, the members of the Challenger crew, were pioneers.

“And I want to say something to the school children of America who were watching the live coverage of the shuttle’s takeoff. I know it is hard to understand, but sometimes painful things like this happen. It’s all part of the process of exploration and discovery. It’s all part of taking a chance and expanding man’s horizons. The future doesn’t belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave. The Challenger crew was pulling us into the future, and we’ll continue to follow them.”

—the Challenger speech–this is, as for most Americans my age, my first strong memory of a public event.