In some ways I feel as though a sterling light, a great shining beacon on a hill has gone out...even though his administration ended years ago. Despite that, his influence has remained...and it is now up to us to ensure it continues.
I understand, Jeff. Certainly I understand your love and respect and sense of shared honor with our late President Reagan. Heaven knows I love him, too, and mourn his loss.
The people who love Ronald Reagan seem to love him at least in part for his seemingly native qualities -- his natural rapport or "personal touch" with others, and his keen, lively sense of humor.
Yet this was a man who had the personal courage to carry through initiatives that he thought and believed were right and just, ever serving the interests of the United States and more generally, the interests of the free world. He believed that. You believe that. I believe that.
Certainly he has been the greatest president in my lifetime, in terms of his ability to literally change the world in support of providing greater scope to liberty, opportunity, and justice, in the former Soviet bloc and elsewhere.
Now we must carry the vision, the human project, forward from there.
That's all. May God bless President Reagan, and comfort his family -- especially his beloved Nancy -- in this time of sorrowful loss.