Everybody's talking about it, so here's my two cents.

The passing of Ronald Reagan is an important thing to a lot of people. Myself, I'm not mourning a great president. I didn't agree with his economic policies(although I do have a place in my heart for his challenge to Gorbachev), I hated him for Iran-Contra, and I spent my pre-teen years in a nihilistic fear that the world was going to end any minute in a nuclear war.

For me, and my little neck of the world, it's a strange feeling. It's a local boy does good story which makes my family and their neighbors very proud. I was born in Sterling, IL, some 15 miles from his hometown of Tampico. I've had lunch at Dutch's Diner, named after him. I went to his boyhood home in Dixon with my brother and grandmother.

I might not have liked his politics, but I have to admit being proud of him.

Enough of my two cents.