Why I Love Ronald Reagan--Part 3

This is my 3rd and final post on Ronald Reagan. I hope you have been as inspired by his life as I have been to learn and be a better person as a result. When it comes to his humor and optimism I aspire to be more like him. 

Reagan was by no means perfect since none of us are. It was actually encouraging to see that he was human. In my opinion his biggest failure was in his role as Dad. I think most of it was a generational thing and that he just didn't know how to be a great dad. His own father had been an alcoholic. But one only needs to look at Ron Jr. and the way he carries himself (like he has a chip on his shoulder) to see that Reagan was not able to translate some of his powerful lessons to his own kids. And thus we see he was only human. Now back to the positive stuff :-).


His Convictions: One of the most inspiring things to me is a person with convictions who doesn't compromise on their core principles. This is the essence of Ronald Reagan. He didn't care if he was criticized for something he believed in. If he believed in it he did it no matter what the polls said. 

Reagan refused to give into Gorbachev's early deals even though he was pressured by many to do so. If he hadn't stuck to his convictions the cold war may still be going on today and the Berlin Wall might never have come down.

One of my very favorite stories is one that Bill Bennett likes to tell because it involves him. Bennett was the Secretary of Education in Reagan's administration and right from the start he became controversial because he was blunt in how he presented his views. He had been getting a lot of bad press and was under a tremendous amount of heat for things he had said. There were even papers calling for his resignation. When the next cabinet meeting came Bennett was very nervous and even felt that the others in the meeting were distancing themselves from him. Here is Peggy Noonan quoting Bennett's account of what happened:

"And we finally got to the last item: Bennett. And the president--I was pretty isolated at this point, and the president started to read aloud just the headlines. 'BENNETT, A DUNCE IN THE CLASSROOM,' 'BENNETT, THE JAMES WATT OF THE SECOND TERM,' 'BENNETT MUST BE FIRED.'

"And I was sinking farther and farther in my seat as the president read aloud. And my colleagues were drawing farther away. Reagan put the last clipping in and folded it up, and he said, 'Now, that's Bill Bennett's first three weeks in office. What's wrong with the rest of you?'

"It was a great moment--it was an exhale moment, too .... But it was also one of the kindest and most considerate things anybody ever did for me .... It was a moment I'll never forget, and it taught me what a leader can do, and what it can mean to the morale of people to have done that."

When the meeting was over, Bennett went to the president and said, "Boss, thank you. Thank you very, very much."

And Reagan told him, "You know, they like to criticize me for being in show business. But one thing you learn in show business, there's a difference between the critics and the box office. Don't worry about the critics; just keep doing your job."

Bennett later summed up Reagan this way: "He was a man in possession of his own soul."

Reagan didn't care that Bennett was getting attacked and how that would reflect on his administration. He didn't ask him to tone things down because he agreed with Bennett and knew he was doing the right thing. So Bennett was unpopular with the papers, Reagan didn't care because they were doing what was right.

His faith: Reagan was a great man of faith. He admitted that he wouldn't have gotten through his presidency without the help of prayer. "I've prayed a lot throughout my life. Abraham Lincoln once said that he could never have fulfilled his duties as president for even fifteen minutes without God's help. I felt the same way."


Mike called Margaret Thatcher Reagan's "conservative soulmate" and I couldn't think of a better way to describe their relationship. I am posting this picture and a quote of hers from his funeral to set up my last topic. "We have lost a great president, a great American, and a great man. And I have lost a dear friend." Margaret Thatcher was Reagan's soulmate when it came to their belief in freedom.


His belief in freedom: Peggy Noonan said that Reagan's foreign policy could be boiled down to 3 words: "Peace through strength." That sounds a lot like Teddy Roosevelt's famous saying of "Speak softly and carry a big stick." If you show strength and resolve and that you mean what you say you sometimes avoid war. 

The Reagan doctrine was described like this: "Commitment to support 'those fighting for freedom and against communism wherever we found them.'"
Here are some quotes from his "Westminster Speech" that he made on June 8, 1982:

"It would be cultural condescension, or worse, to say that any people prefer dictatorship to democracy. Who would voluntarily choose not to have the right to vote, decide to purchase government propaganda handouts instead of independent newspapers, prefer government to worker-controlled unions, opt for land to be owned by the state instead of those who till it, want government repression of religious liberty, a single political party instead of a free choice, a rigid cultural orthodoxy instead of democratic tolerance and diversity?

...given strong leadership, time and a little bit of hope, the forces of good ultimately rally and triumph over evil.

I've often wondered about the shyness of some of us in the West about standing for these ideals that have done so much to ease the plight of man and the hardships of our imperfect world.

So, let us ask ourselves, ``What kind of people do we think we are?'' And let us answer, ``Free people, worthy of freedom and determined not only to remain so but to help others gain their freedom as well.''

For the sake of peace and justice, let us move toward a world in which all people are at last free to determine their own destiny."

Here are some from his "Evil Empire Speech" that he made on March 8, 1983:

"At the same time, however, they must be made to understand we will never compromise our principles and standards. We will never give away our freedom. We will never abandon our belief in God. And we will never stop searching for a genuine peace.

But if history teaches anything, it teaches that simpleminded appeasement or wishful thinking about our adversaries is folly. It means the betrayal of our past, the squandering of our freedom."

And of course Reagan's famous words: "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"

As you can see by these quotes George W. Bush is truly Reagan's "Conservative Son". W carries Reagan's torch for freedom and he does it well. W isn't the "great communicator" like Reagan but he has the same heart and ideas which are making this world safer and freer.

And speaking of W it is fitting to conclude my series on Reagan with a quote from him. This is a little of what W had to say about Reagan: "Some achievements fade with the years. Ronald Reagan's achievements grow larger with the passing of time." 

Sources:
"When Character Was King" by Peggy Noonan

"Westminster Speech"

"Evil Empire Speech"

Why I Love Ronald Reagan--Part 2

I will always remember the day that Ronald Reagan died. I usually have Fox News on 24/7 because you never know when a "breaking news" story might happen and I wouldn't want to miss it :-). But on this saturday I had been gone all day. I came home and got on the computer and thats when I saw the headline. Tears started streaming down my face and I went to turn on the TV to watch the coverage. I cried off and on the whole week after his death as I watched the people who knew him tell their stories and as I witnessed his funeral. It hit me how much I had grown to love him through my odyssey of learning about him. I realized the world was losing a great man but his message would live on. Here is some of that message:


His Humor: Peggy Noonan said, "I think he thought everyone was too serious." Ronald Reagan was always known for his jokes and his ability to make people laugh. Its not that he wasn't a man of depth or that he didn't understand the seriousness of life. He had a lot of setbacks in his life. He just realized that nothing was accomplished by being a negative and unhappy person.

Two months into his presidency an assassination attempt was made on his life. He almost died and yet his response was that he forgot to duck and he hoped all the Doctors were Republicans.

The biggest and most impressive way he used humor was to deflect criticism from his critics. To me it is awe-inspiring. I'm trying to get better but when someone criticizes me my natural response is to get angry and lash back. But it is so much more effective to use humor and beat them at their own game. And thats one of the reasons why Reagan was so successful.

When he was continually attacked for being too old during his run for re-election he said this to Mondale in a debate, "I want you to know that also I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and inexperience." When reporters criticized him for not getting his facts straight he admitted in a speech that even though he was quoting George Washington he hadn't actually heard him say it. And according to Peggy Noonan one of his ways of dealing with criticism was, "not to get mad but to undermine his critics by agreeing with them. When they said he was lazy he didn't deny it, he said, 'I know hard work never killed anyone, but I figure why take a chance?'"

To me it takes a strong person to laugh at yourself and agree with your critics when you know what they are saying isn't true. To be above the fray and to use humor to do it takes a strong person. And Ronald Reagan was just that.


His Optimism: The more I live life the more I see how important it is to be optimistic. Ronald Reagan was known for being an optimist and everyone loves to spend time and be around an optimist. One of his favorite stories he loved to tell was about 2 boys. One was too optimistic and the other was too negative. In order to cure them they were each put in a different room. The negative one was put in a room full of brand-new toys. This didn't cure him and he started to cry because he was sure that somehow he would break all of them. The positive one was put into a room full of dung. The boy started happily jumping in and digging through the dung. When asked what he was doing he said that with all this dung there was sure to be a pony in there somewhere.

His optimism never let him give up. When he barely lost the Republican nomination in 1976 he gave a speech to his loyal, teary-eyed supporters. He said: "Don't give up your ideals. Don't compromise. Don't turn to expediency. And don't for heaven's sake, having seen the inner workings of the watch, don't get cynical." Think of what could've happened had Reagan given up or compromised. Ford may have won the nomination that year but it wasn't because he was a better person or had better ideas. Reagan was right in his message not to give up.


His heart: Michael W. Smith sang a song in the 80's that had Reagan's voice interspersed throughout it with his words that he spoke the day the Space Shuttle Challenger crashed. The words were always very comforting and inspiring to me. They showed his heart and that he cared. Here they are: "The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and "slipped the surly bonds of earth" to touch the face of God."

There are many stories of Reagan doing things for people and specifically making sure the cameras were turned off while he was doing it.

Peggy Noonan tells a story that shows his heart and that wasn't done for the cameras about a woman named Frances Green. She was an 83 yr. old lady that had very little money but gave small amounts to the Republican party because she loved Ronald Reagan. She was invited to the Whitehouse but needed to RSVP. She spent all she had to take a 4 day train trip to the Whitehouse. When she got there they wouldn't let her in because she hadn't rsvped. A Ford executive was in line behind her and heard her story. He talked to the right people and had it set up for her to meet the President the next day. But the next day some serious events were taking place and it looked like she would only get to take a tour. While she was taking the tour the Ford Executive passed by the Oval Office and Reagan urged them to come in.

This is what Noonan had to say about the encounter: "This," I said in the speech about Reagan's character, "is why Reagan is Reagan. He knows Mrs. Green is a little old lady all by herself in the world, she's no one, with nothing to give him, and Reagan is behind his desk and he rises and calls out, 'Frances!' He says, 'Those darn computers, they fouled up again! If I'd known you were coming I would have come out there to get you myself.'" He asked her to sit down and they talked about California and he gave her a lot of time, and if you say on a day like that it was time wasted, there are a lot of people who'd say, Oh no it wasn't. No it wasn't. He had a big heart, a kind of liquid heart that flowed out to others."

Stay tuned for the 3rd and final part tomorrow. It would've been too long to get it all in today. This has been a labor of love for me. I hope it is inspiring to others and please share any Reagan stories that you have in the comments.

Sources:
"When Character Was King" by Peggy Noonan
"How Ronald Reagan Changed my Life" by Peter Robinson
"Challenger Disaster" Speech

"Let Freedom Ring"

I had a neat day today homeschooling my kids. First of all we read a book about Martin Luther King, Jr. and talked about who he was and why he was so great.

Then we read his famous speech "I Have a Dream" that he gave on August 28, 1963. I was so inspired as I read it. I realized that one of the bonds that brings all people together is the yearning for freedom. William Wallace fought and died for it in Scotland, the Colonists fought and died for it so we could have the United States of America, the Civil War was fought in part so African Americans could be free and Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks and many others fought and died so African Americans could achieve freedom and equality. We will fight and die for freedom. It is an inspiring cause!!
I remember the Elian Gonzalez controversy. Many people had different takes on what should happen to the little boy. His mother died bringing him to a country so he could be free. I couldn't fathom sending him back to the prison that would be his life in a communist country.

Martin Luther King's speech was about Freedom and dreams. It was and is an inspiring cause. We have not achieved perfection in this country but we have come a long way. For the most part men and women no matter their color or station in life are free to pursue the American Dream. So much so that we have an immigration problem of people wanting to flood into our country to experience this dream.

One of my very favorite stories of all time is Alex Haley's story of his family in his book "Roots". When I was in junior high my whole family stayed up late during the summer and watched the re-airing of the mini-series "Roots". I don't know what it was about that but it is still one of my favorite family memories. Because of that I sought it out on video once I was an adult. Since then I've watched both series many, many times. Then I read the book and found it to be easy reading even though it was a huge book.

I was fascinated by the story of his family and especially Kunta Kinte. Kunta never gave up on freedom. He was whipped, he had part of his foot caught off and he lost a lot but he knew what it was like to be free and he didn't give up on it. He passed that on to his children and they passed it on to their children after him and generations later Alex Haley was able to trace his roots and his family's fight for freedom.

The cause of Freedom is inspirational. As I write this George W. Bush's voice echoes in my head as I remember a speech he gave to the troops. He thanked them for their "sacrifice for the cause of peace and freedom".

Why I Love 24

I'm going to diverge a little from politics today and talk about the TV show 24. Although as always, politics is interwined. If you are a fan of the show you will relate and if you aren't, you need to be. Rush says he hardly watches any TV and he loves this show. He says he doesn't think liberals would like it and I would tend to agree. But my favorite liberal, James, is a fan of the show too which goes to show you it is popular across all demographics.


The show is about a place called CTU (Counter Terrorism Unit). Jack (Kiefer Sutherland) is an agent who has run CTU before but is usually out in the field getting the bad guys. I highly recommend the show. The season starts this sunday night where they will have a special 2 hour episode followed by another 2 hour episode on monday night.


First of all it needs to be said I love 24 because Kiefer Sutherland is hot!!  A lot of it is how Sutherland portrays the main character Jack Bauer. He protects his family and the country from terrorists and the bad guys at all costs.

He always does the right thing when it comes to justice (although that doesn't mean he always does things by the book :-)). He doesn't wait for warrants, he doesn't believe in political correctness and he kicks butt! No one gets past him. He is awesome!! The men that are like him in real life are the ones who keep our country safe. A guy from Blogs4Bauer said: "Jack Bauer is the hero that this nation desperately needs." And I agree!!

Second, I have loved the show because one of the other main characters is a black president named David Palmer. In the first 3 seasons he works hand in hand with Jack Bauer to save the country from the bad guys. He is portrayed as a man of integrity who almost always makes the right choices. Even though he is surrounded by people who are trying to pressure him to do the wrong thing. In season 4 although he is no longer the president he is called in to save the day and I cheered when they brought him back :-). If we could have a man like that in real life I would vote for him in a heartbeat.

To sum it all up I love the show because justice prevails. You have flawed men and women who are dedicated to protecting our country and standing up for what is right. There are casualties along the way and they aren't perfect but they fight for a cause that is worth pursuing. That is the essence of what we hope that most of our men and women in public service are trying to do.

I have mentioned it before but make sure you check out the Blogs4Bauer site. It has been a lot of fun discussing the show before it has even started. Happy viewing!!

P.S. I snagged my quote of the week from Mark's blog.