passing through Cornell on today’s errands driving by the Cayuga Fire Department just an ordinary building-I see it all the time But today I looked at it "In Memory of President Reagan" read the sign The flag at half staff leaning against the gray building and all I could think of was history class fall semester, and the causes of that bitter and bloody war 140 years ago travel and I bet you would find that same sign in Macon, Mississippi or Chicago, Illinois or Lincoln, Nebraska or Charlotte, North Carolina or San Francisco, California, and isn’t that a wonder? And so even I, as one who despises probably all of the policies of the 40th President, can smile and find comfort because it once again shows we all share a degree of common ground, even if at times it is a space of land barely large enough on which one person can stand, you can find it if you look we fly the same flag, criticize or praise the same President, watch the same tv shows, belong to the same clubs, shop at the same stores, you can find the beauty in our similarities and preserve our individuality simultaneously The man who said government was the "problem" and not the solution, was proven wrong in his own passing our very government along with our society makes, and keeps, our country they connect strangers across state, gender, race and political lines and I find peace in that