Dear Blog Visitors:
I was both fascinated and delighted with the cover photo on the latest edition of Time Magazine. It depicts former President Reagan and current President Obama standing together in a friendly pose. If Ronald Reagan were alive today, my sense is that he would have eagerly posed for such a photo with our current president.
As mentioned in a prior blog post, I have become somewhat of a centrist in my politics, whereby I tend to favor conservative fiscal policies and liberal social policies.
When I ran for public office in 1983, I was endorsed by both the local Republican and Conservative parties. Since then, I have become a Democrat, but still hold onto conservative fiscal principles.
I wonder how much of what recently occurred in Arizona was fueled by the lack of civility in our public discourse. When we turn on our television set, we are bombarded with what amounts to hate speech and vicious verbal attacks from the left and right of the political spectrum.
In this blog post, I am appealing to those in political office to embrace the virtues of both former President Reagan and President Obama. We need more compassion and less hatred in American politics.
I have included the referenced Time Magazine photo above, in addition to a newspaper photo that goes back to 1983 (the year I ran against Rochester's popular mayor). Although Mayor Ryan and I had some differences, we treated each other with civility and respect throughout the campaign. In fact, I attended his victory party, and he in turn sent me a very nice letter.
Peace to all,
Ray
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