GROUND ZER0, New York, N.Y.--Nov. 5, 2003-- I hired Ronald Reagan when he was making his bid for President of the United States.

      I didn't know then that he would become the target of Entertainment Terrorism, or that pre-emptive strikes against a mini-series produced by CBS would shadow the current battle America is facing in trying to contain Terrorism.
     My relationship with Ronald Reagan began in the late 70's when I was planning a national convention for more than 100,000 of our brokers and salespeople.  I was the senior vice president of marketing for Century 21 International Real Estate.   We boasted over 7,500 franchises throughout North America at the time, and enjoyed a sales force of one-tenth of a million people.   Adding their families to the population count--mothers, fathers, uncles, aunts, children, the political impact of our real estate army soared into the millions.
       Political seekers were eager to use our forums to espouse their views, and, to win both economic as well as voting support for tough elections.   The Presidential race of 1980 was roosting on the horizon, so Ronald Reagan's staff was eager to accept our invitation to speak.   So was Gerald Ford.
       We decided to split the speakers, a former President and would-be President.   Our conventions were so large at the time we had to split them into two halves, bringing in one half and then the other.   Facilities in Las Vegas, where we held the conventions, could only handle us if we divided our group.     

         I remember meeting President Reagan when he arrived to speak.   He was a pleasant man, engaging, and strikingly common.   By that, I mean he was easy to talk with.   He had little airs about him, and unlike other prominent people I had rubbed shoulders with, made you feel more important than he.    He was, as the expression goes, "of the earth."
      He spoke from a well of truth, or, at least what sounded like the truth.  It is always hard to use the word "truth" when referring to politicians, for compromise is the key to their success, and something said one day may shift the next.  
      Reagan, it appeared, seemed to speak from rocks of belief.   There was an air about him of credibility, a sense in your guts you believed he believed what he was saying, and that the words he spoke were not scripted to appease the sound bites.

       After his election, and his subsequent battles with communism, he became a legend for crumbling the Berlin Wall, for shaking the foundations of a enemy that had put the world on the brink of nuclear war.
      His presidency was akin a movie script.   An actor rising to lead the free world and then smashing as David did Goliath the castle of communism and, to top it off, to start the long and still unraveling process of reducing the nuclear war threat posed by America's and Russia's High Noon standoff.
      Of course, there were other issues he brought to the table, such as "trickle down economics" which eventually trickled down to the benefit of President Clinton and resulted in a long era of prosperity that started years before.

      Many might argue this point, but if you historically look up the word "trickle" and then the word "gush" there are a number of words, and metaphorically time, that exist between the two.   I have always believed the "gush" enjoyed by the "trickle" fell upon the Clinton legacy, and that the wealth of the United States during that time came from the "trickle down economics" of the Reagan administration, 1981-1980.
       But, this story is not about trying to justify the greatness of a President who stopped Nuclear Terrorism in its tracks, and was the singular cause for the disrobing of the Soviet Empire's Beast of Terror that suffocated so many countries under its tyranny and oppression            
       In 1982 when Ronald Reagan, in a speech to the British House of Commons, called Russia an "evil empire," the die was cast for the removal of Terrorism from the world.   At the time, the Soviet Empire enjoyed a population of nearly 300 million, including Russia as well as Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.
      Today, the Russian population is 145 million as a result of nations, once ruled by the Soviet Empire, seeking their freedom.
      The CBS Network, scheduled to release the Reagan mini-series this month, has decided to shovel the show over to its sister network, Showtime, a pay-for-view channel often called "television's Siberia."
      The reason for the retreat by CBS of the mini-series comes from accusations that it was produced to discredit President Reagan's legacy, and, that it was historically inaccurate.

      One of the more prominent claims by conservatives who lobbied against the airing of the show was it portrayed Ronald Reagan as anti-Aids, and treated his character as a cartoonish buffoon, reeking of bigotry and prejudice against certain groups.
      Conservative media blasted the mini-series as "left-wing propaganda" and launched a major campaign that put pressure on advertisers to withdraw support of the show.
      Reagan, once more, was in the middle of the Terrorist battle.  On one side stood an army of rock throwers seeking to bash his image, and, on the other, another army bashing the bashers.
      Anyone caught in the middle ground of Complacency was forced to take sides.  There was no ducking or weaving.
      The issue of the Reagan Legacy is more today about the Right vs. the Left.
       The Right is screaming "debauchery" and the Left is screaming "defacto censorship."    Both have their rights to scream, but the louder Voice seems to have won.    

      At this moment, CBS is moving the show from prime time to Showtime.   Fox News is lobbying as this is written to have CBS shelve the show, to pull it from Showtime.
       Whether the mini-series will see the light of day or not is still up for question, but what is not subject to debate is the resolve the American public has for its Sentinels of Vigilance.
       Few can challenge the massive impact that Ronald Reagan created in America and the world.   He called the Soviet Empire's bluff.   He positioned himself as the Sentinel of Vigilance, not unlike Franklin Delano Roosevelt did when he elected to support England in the battle against Nazi Germany, or George Washington when he led his rag-tag army across the frozen Delaware to prove America's resolve against the British Empire.
       Millions of people owe their freedom and their national sovereignty to Ronald Reagan, and, countless millions of Americans owe their safety from Russia's nuclear threat to what he did.
       There are also millions of people, left and right, who owe their fortunes during the Clinton Era to the trickle-down economics that filled their purses with gold.

       But all that will eventually be washed ashore when the final history books are written on President Reagan.
        In his own way, our fortieth President, Ronald Reagan, was our modern-day Sentinel of Vigilance.   Besmirching his image as a leader--especially while he is alive and dying of Alzheimer's disease, a slow, degeneration of the mind that renders its victim senile, virtually mindless--can be construed an act of Terrorism against what he really stood for.
        While we live in a world where free thought and free press is cherished, we also live in a world of responsibility and duty to our children, and to their Children's Children's Children.
         Today, President George Bush is following the legacy of Ronald Reagan.   He is tackling Terrorism in a much more difficult forum.    His job is like trying to nail Jell-O to the wall, for as soon as one Terrorist fire is put out another pops up, and another.
         While Reagan attacked the Elephant of Terrorism (the Soviet Empire), President Bush is chasing the Ants of Terrorism (the guerrillas, the underbrush of Terrorism who slip in and out of Vigilance's grasp.)
          As a Parent of Vigilance, I look back through history for those who stood up to the biggest threat our children face.   In Reagan's time, that threat was tens of thousands of nuclear missiles aimed at the heart of America, capable of reducing millions of people into ash.
         I find it hard to imagine airing a film that denigrates that role and the character of the man responsible or in keeping with our duty to our children to present to them images and historically sound data of those who protected them from harm.   
           Ronald Reagan dedicated his job as the Commander-in-Chief of the United States to the role of Sentinel of Global Vigilance.  He rose above all the flaws he had a person to stand as a statesman for the security of the children.  Unfortunately, the mini-series CBS has booted over to Showtime had little to do with his role as a Parent and Grandparent of Vigilance, and, instead, focused on painting him as a Beast of Aids Terror, a bigoted and prejudiced persona wishing ill on the sick and helpless.
        This, I don't believe, is censorship.  The decision by CBS is one more of Vigilance than compromise.   Each of us has the right at any time in our thinking and actions to shift away from personal agendas to selfless ones.
        I would like to think CBS, after hearing the roar of dissent, elected to see their mini-series not as an art form, but as a slap in face, a piece of propaganda isolating rather than balancing the character of a man who changed the history of the world.
       Now, we face the same scenario with President Bush.   He is beating the Ants of Terrorism with a hammer.   Daily, his critics do their best to smear his efforts, to turn him into a mini-series of ineptitude, of irresponsible acts.

        So far, President Bush has not given up on exterminating the Ants of Terrorism.   He continues to hammer at them.  He knows they will come out of their hiding places if and when we withdraw.  He knows they will return to haunt us and our children if we waver, if we fold our tents.
       Hopefully, the support given by the American public to rid the airways of a mini-series designed to shrink a Sentinel of Vigilance and transform him into a Beast of Terror will send a signal to all those eager to attack President Bush's efforts that America is smarter than those who try to demean great leadership.
    

      Maybe those who are attacking President Bush will step back and think about it, and perhaps see him as a Sentinel of Vigilance protecting their children and grandchildren, and not as a buffoon stumbling about with his chest puffed trying to bully the world.
      Great men have great enemies.
      Fortunately, for Ronald Reagan, and hopefully for George Bush, those great enemies will be brought down to size after the mini-series confrontation.  The size?   About that of a Terrorist Ant, I think.

Nov 4--Israel:  The Greatest Threat To World Peace?

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