[Darris McNeely] Today, April 8th (2013), saw the death of Margaret Thatcher, former prime minister of Great Britain. She was 88 years old. Lady Thatcher, also known as the "Iron Lady" was the prime minister of Great Britain from 1979 to 1990. She was in office nearly 3 terms of an American president, over 11 years. She became prime minister when Jimmy Carter was president through the time of Ronald Reagan into that of George Herbert Walker Bush. She was quite a prime minister. She came in at a time when Great Britain was suffering a period of decline. She said she could not stand to see Britain declining and the state that it was, and through her reforms, her governance, and her leadership, at great cost and at great opposition, she did experience a turnaround for Great Britain through militarily, politically, and economically through these years. And when she left office, it can be said by many that Great Britain was better off than before she became prime minister.

It was about a year ago that I wrote a review for our United Church of God webpage after watching the movie that Hollywood had done called, "The Iron Lady," a not so flattering review and treatment of her life. They told her life from a backwards point of view of a woman in dementia, and they really didn't focus upon the triumphs, the leadership, the resolve that she did show. It was almost as if they didn't want to portray that to a modern audience in the type of atmosphere we have today. Strong leadership is not always admired as it should be. And so when we think about a life of Lady Thatcher, Margaret Thatcher, what she did politically, what she did on the world scene, along with President Ronald Reagan and standing down the Soviet Union of that time, standing for freedom, and not only politically but also in an economic sense. But we do look back at a time when leadership was quite strong. It does remind me of a Proverb in Proverbs 29:18 where it says, "Where there is no revelation, the people perish." Revelation there is speaking of a vision, a prophetic vision, being able to look into the future and see how one's actions today can, if done right can impact in a positive way the future.

And by the leadership that she showed, she had the vision to turn around certain segments of the British society and also set a remarkable example of leadership. So, on a day when this lady dies I think that it's important that we look at her because of the relationship between America and Britain. As she once said, she felt that fate put her in that leadership role at a unique time because of the relationship of those two countries, and I think that she demonstrated a very strong visionary leadership. So we comment on that. We remark on that here as we note the death of Margaret Thatcher.

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