Posted on 06/10/2004 11:29:55 AM PDT by ambrose
Article Posted: 06/10/2004 7:49:53 AM
Ronald Reagan: The American Spirit by U.S. Senator Chuck Hagel
June 10, 2004
On January 20th, 1981, Ronald Reagan, after being sworn in as the 40th President of the United States, looked out over the Mall and addressed the nation. He told us that the challenges of our day required:
"Our best effort, and our willingness to believe in ourselves and to believe in our capacity to perform great deeds; to believe that together, with God’s help, we can and will resolve the problems which now confront us. And, after all, why shouldn’t we believe that? We are Americans."
I remember the celebrations that evening like they happened yesterday. It was a bitterly cold evening. As our nation celebrated a new beginning, it was as if the cold January winds swept away a nation’s doubts and fears and replaced them with a renewed American spirit.
Ronald Reagan was a unique American leader who understood the greatness and the goodness of America. He knew who he was and what he believed. Over the last century, no American President was as well grounded as Ronald Reagan. He had faith and confidence in the people of America, and that trust was reciprocated.
As much as anyone who came before or after him, Ronald Reagan possessed an innate understanding of the significance of the American presidency. Ronald and Nancy Reagan set the gold-standard for grace, dignity and class in the White House. Reagan understood the weight and consequences of his office beyond the borders of the United States. The world looked to him as a standard bearer of freedom. Reagan also understood the importance of the presidency to young people. The responsibility of being a role model to a nation’s youth rested easily on his shoulders.
Ronald Reagan is known as the great communicator. While he certainly was one of the best communicators ever to hold the presidency, he was far more than just a talented communicator. Reagan was a thinker and a writer. He was constantly writing beautiful letters and his speeches in long-hand. Today, these speeches and letters are national treasures. Reagan thought deeply about the great issues of his time without getting drug down into the underbrush of detail and trivia. He was not a superfluous man. Our nation was guided by his clarity of purpose, understanding of the purpose of power and the limitations of government.
Since Reagan left the American political stage, we have missed his imagination and creativity. Since his days of sitting in a radio studio doing play-by-play broadcasts for baseball games from news wire service copy, Reagan had a genuineness that served him well. He was a masterful story-teller. In today’s age of processed politics and politicians, Reagan’s candor and humor are sorely lacking.
Ronald Reagan was a child of humble beginnings who never forgot the little guy. He believed every American had something special to contribute. Reagan let people know that each thread of the American fabric mattered.
In late September of 1980, I was working as an adviser on the Reagan-Bush campaign. One evening, I was part of a group invited to an estate near Middleburg, Virginia where then-Governor and Nancy Reagan were staying. They wanted to thank us for the work we had done for the campaign with a wonderful dinner. As the evening was ending, an aide to Governor Reagan asked me to remain after the dinner because Governor Reagan wanted to speak with me. I was taken into the house where Governor Reagan was staying. He sat down next to me and told me he wanted to talk about Vietnam. He wanted to know about my experience and what I thought about the war. That was the kind of man he was. He wanted to understand things. He wanted to know things and he wanted to make the world better than it was.
Though his individual accomplishments are great, Ronald Reagan will be remembered for something far greater than the sum of his individual accomplishments; he will be remembered for renewing the American spirit. He was a true American original. We will never see one like him again.
Over the last decade as we struggled to meet the challenges of our time, Ronald Reagan slipped away from us. He now belongs to the warmth of eternity and the pages of history. However, he has not left us to meet our challenges alone. The lessons of his leadership and the strength of his spirit, that swept across our country on a cold day in January twenty-four years ago, guide us still today.
Too bad Mr. Hagel has chosen to be a thorn in President Bush' side rather than part of meeting the challenges of today.
Hagel- Smagel. Chuck, just shut up you worthless RINO.
Couldn't have said it better...
While Chuckles is trying to be such an admirer of Ronald Reagan now that he's gone, why dosen't this sour puss learn RR's eleventh commandment? 'Thou shall not criticize fellow Republicans.'
We don't have a Republican majority in the Senate, we have bunch of semi-right leaning political weather vanes. The profligate Ted Stevens' praising Reagan's smaller government philosophy was quite the paradox. I hope remembers his words at the next Appropriations Committee meeting.
Stranger still is that Chuck Hagel's rating by the American Conservative Union is 100% -- http://acuratings.com/acu.cgi?ACT=3&STATE=NE&YEAR=2003
God Bless RR but I can't figure Hagel out to save my life.
I would say that his proposed bill to bring back the draft and make it indiscriminate, as in including even the children of politicians, is a good one in theory, although it never will make it to law.
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