With only a few precious hours until former Screen Actors Guild (and American) president Ronald Reagan is finally laid to rest, Flak Magazine finally addresses a hole in the media's first-person accounts of how Ronnie touched people's lives. They bring us the ruminations of Family Ties' number one Republican son, Alex P. Keaton, allowing everyone some peace in knowing that even fictional sitcom characters have had their say.

"Alex," I remember him saying, "I know you love your parents, and that's good. But you're just the kind of bright young man we need. Don't become a liberal. Stay the course."

Those words always stuck with me. "Stay the course." It was more than a campaign slogan; it was a philosophy. You stick to your principles. You do what you know is morally right. And that, to me, is what President Reagan was all about, and why it's so heartening that, as he passes into a better world, "stay the course" still resonates with so many people in this great land of ours. Why do you think we're still sticking to our guns in a just war in Iraq? Stay the course.

• Me and Dutch [Flak Magazine]

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