Posted on 06/06/2004 8:23:10 AM PDT by kattracks
He began his tenure in the White House as one of the nation's most underrated presidents. Just an aging actor, playing the part of president, his critics insisted.But Ronald Reagan left the White House as its most beloved occupant, beloved because he came to personify the best of this nation's spirit.
Even when tragedy struck, his words lifted us up and gave us hope. As they did in the wake of the Challenger disaster when he spoke directly to the school children of America: ``It's all part of taking a chance and expanding man's horizons,'' he said. ``The future doesn't belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave.
``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 were those who despised his conservative ideology, his economic policies, his tough-as-nails foreign policy. But they could not dislike the man - a man who was a compassionate conservative before the concept had a name.
Those who did battle with him whether in Washington, such as House Speaker Tip O'Neill, or across the globe, including Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, eventually came to call him friend.
And as he once said of John F. Kennedy, conceding he had voted for ``the other fellow,'' ``When the battle's over and the ground is cooled, well, it's then that you see the opposing general's valor.''
Today the world can look back and see the valor that was Ronald Reagan's. Here was a man with the courage to travel to Berlin, stand in front of the Brandenburg Gate and demand, ``Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.'' Reagan would be out of office less than a year when the Berlin Wall crumbled, the Soviet empire collapsed and the Cold War ended.
Even in his later years Reagan would display that same kind of personal courage as he disclosed to a sympathetic nation the disease that would eventually claim his life. In doing so he shared his strength with others coping with Alzheimers.
It is one of those ironies of history that as the nation mourns the passing of its 40th president, the world marks the 60th anniversary of D-Day. For the 40th anniversary of that battle was Reagan's finest hour.
And his words are as true today as they were then.
``We in America have learned bitter lessons from two World Wars: It is better to be here ready to protect the peace than to take blind shelter across the sea, rushing to respond only after freedom is lost. We've learned that isolationism never was and never will be an acceptable response to tyrannical governments with an expansionist intent. But we try always to be prepared for peace; prepared to deter aggression. . .''
This nation surely can count among its lasting blessings that once this fine man held its highest office.
From the Boston Herald?
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