Great Dialogue....And A Welcome Relief....If Only For Two Hours

               Younger people today have no way of knowing what it was like with Ronald Reagan as president. Eight years is a long time....and there are going to be issues like Iran/Contra....but overall America had a hard time not liking this man....even loving him. There is a story about his last day....as he left the Oval Office for the last time as president. He left some peanuts and a Beware of the Dog sign....and a note for the squirrels to "beware....the new guy has a dog?" Reagan just set us at peace. What a blessing it was to have a God-fearing leader like that.
               The White House Correspondents Association Dinner was in the news this year over some very serious issues of life and death. Even the rescheduled event was not a fun thing to watch. Sometime at your leisure you might want to Google...."George W. Bush White House Correspondents Association Dinner"....and it will come right up....a skit with W. and Steve Bridges....a Bush impersonator. And as you watch this....look around at the press corps seated at the dinner tables....and see their genuine smiles as they looked up on the dais at Bush whom otherwise they were not kind to.
                It was a different age....and a different America. As much as I vigorously differed with Barack Obama....and I posted a lot on his presidency....on that day of his inauguration I could not help but feel a portion of great joy in imagining all of the black faces around America....especially the children....as they saw someone like them....take on such a great and important position! No....we are not the same country anymore. Anger is now ingrained into us....to fight....and even to hate. Every day is another slur....or another threat....another churning in the stomach. 
                This film that I just returned from watching....The Brink Of War....on the 1986 Reykjavik meeting between President Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev....was a welcome relief....if only for two hours....a trip back into the past. It was probably 95% dialogue around a table....a screenwriter's dream I would think....and that screenwriting was truly great.....otherwise it might have been a boring movie.   
                 Reagan and Gorbachev were sane men. JFK and Khrushchev were sane men. Khruschev Remembers was the first book that I read after getting out of the army in 1972. In the film that I watched today....Reagan and Gorby bantered back and forth quite a bit....and pounded the table a couple of times....although they also smiled at each other a fair amount....but it was the dialogue that hit the spot every time....legitimate questions....from both sides. There was no great victory in that Reykjavik meeting....for either side....but neither was there defeat....rather a victory of sorts for both....for hope....vain in the long run though it truly is. The following quote appeared twice in the film....of the ancient Chinese philosopher Laozi....from Gorbachev once....and once from Reagan....(if I remember correctly)...."A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."