To the editor:
The Trump Putin lawn signs and T-shirts remind me of a time when some American people, not politicians, were ready to rally for a Russian president. In the 1980s President Ronald Reagan was media-depicted as bumbling and needing to be scripted before he opened his mouth – well before his Alzheimer’s was revealed. General Secretary of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, visited the U.S. for the first time in December, 1987.
The media opened their arms wide and he was always smiling, erudite and charismatic. At one public meeting he strolled the aisles and captured his audience. Seeing that on TV, we were quick to say, “If only he could run for president here, we would vote for him.” Oh, if only – Gorby was our guru. Let him stay here. Surely we needed him more than the USSR did.
In our Houlton High School class some of the boys – David Hogan, Sonny McIntosh, Clyde Drew and others – coined their own words, encouraging all to use them. The word gorby meant jerk, as in “Don’t be a gorby!” Another word was riggit, merely a mispronunciation of right. Thus, some 30 years later, in my own little world, I could say, “Riggit, riggit, Gorby’s no jerk.”
We have long since lived through the presidency of George W. Bush, who often seemed to need a script, and are now used to President Barack Obama, who can do well without one. It may seem strange that we wanted for our president Gorby, who spoke little or no English, but somehow, we hardly noticed.
