born in east LA is a funny movie.

there's one scene in that movie in which INS agents are rounding up some darker hued types suspected of taking up residence in sunny southern california illegally to send back (ostensibly) across the border. in the hubbub they get cheech, i think his character's name in the movie is rudy, who's phenotypically similar, but speaks perfect english, saying all the time that he was born in east LA. the INS agent, of course, doesn't believe him and asks him who the president of the united states in order to corroborate his assertion. cheech, rightful, though ignorant citizen he is, says something to the effect "uh, that actor, he used to be in 'death valley days', uh john wayne!" which seals his fate as he ends up getting deported. i suspect there are countless *ahem* phenotypically unsuspect people who either don't know who the president is or couldn't identify a picture of him, but that's neither here nor there.

in any case, the answer cheech gave was wrong, not because it wasn't a hollywood actor who'd been in some B-level westerns, it was, it just wasn't john wayne. the guy i'm sure cheech meant to identify was ronald reagan who, i'm told recently died. i don't remember much about reagan as president, he was first elected the year i was born, 1980, so i really wasn't at all in the mode of thinking politically for any of the period of time during which he was the president, i was all of eight when his second term ended.

so like i said, i don't remember much of him. i do remember that my mom absolutely adored him or seemed to anyway, but then she adored jimmy swaggart and wanted me to go to his bible college and we all know what happened with him. his death seemed to affect quite a large number of people, as he came across as the sort of man who incited a high level of affection one way or another, having so slight a recollection of him as president i didn't really feel affected all that much. although over the weekend while i was watching some of his funeral proceedings i noticed his epitaph and really appreciated the words that were on it.

it read:
i know in my heart that man is good
that what is good will always and eventually triumph
and that there is purpose and worth in each and every life.

getting down on people is exceedingly easy in a world where you have constantly to deal with them, see how cynical i am? and i wasn't even trying right then. i know that he wasn't as heroic as his devotees believe him to have been, and that he wasn't as evil as his detractors suspect he was, but that quote conveys the optimism and faith in people that characterized him and that i think so many people admired about him.

well, they either admired that or the fact that he got rid of the commies.

feeling: encouraged
thinking of: the first point of calvinism, the T in TULIP
music: "ghost riders in the sky" the highwaymen