Thursday, July 27, 2006

 

Calendars

I often receive calendars in the mail. They come from various charitable organizations that I have given money to, such as the Cystic Fibrosis Society, the Alzheimers Society, the National Wildlife Federation, and Veterans of Foreign Wars. The calendar comes with an invitation to send more money. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. The result is that we have more calendars than we can use. I don't know what to do with all of them. Some of them have nice pictures of animals or beautiful places. I can cut out the pictures of the calendars after they are out of date and give them to my granddaughter who likes to draw pictures of animals. The problem is, she may no longer be in the animal drawing phase.

Yesterday I received a package from the REAGAN RANCH of Santa Barbara. Inside was a calendar with pictures of President Reagan doing various things and an invitation to contribute money to help preserve Ronald Reagan's ranch. For twenty-five dollars or more, the sponsoring organization, Young America's Foundation will enroll my name in the official Reagan Ranch Registry of Members. The letter of invitation is signed by Michael Reagan, a son of Ronald Reagan.

I am flummoxed. I don't know what to do with the package and the calendar. I've never been a fan of Ronald Reagan. I suffered through sixteen years of his rule, eight as Governor of California and eight as President. I never met the man, so I can't say that I disliked him, but I disliked many of the things that he did. I know he was very popular, both as Governor and as President, but I never understood why. I can say this much for him: I thought just as highly of him the day he left office as the day he was inaugurated as President. I can't say the same for some of our recent Presidents. Of course, I didn't think very highly of him the day he took office.

My first instinct was to throw the package away without opening it. Now that I've seen the calendar, it occurs to me that there are probably millions of people, former admirers of Mr. Reagan, who would like to have such a calendar. I've thought of sealing the package and sticking a label on it, "REFUSED, RETURN TO SENDER." However, that sounds rather small, making the organization pay the return postage on the package. The honest and generous thing to do is to readdress the package, insert a short note explaining to Michael Reagan that I am not one of his father's admirers, and suggest that he offer the calendar to someone else.

I wonder how the Young America's Foundation people got my name. They evidently don't know that I am a Democrat.
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