Posted on 08/01/2004 8:14:45 PM PDT by doug from upland
Edited on 08/01/2004 9:05:09 PM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
HEROES
Hello. First, I wanted to point out that my last name is spelled wrong on the program. It is “from Upland.”
I have had two heroes in my life. One of them was shared with my two brothers, sister, and mom. He was, of course, my dad. The other was shared with hundreds of millions of people around the worldn who value freedom. He was, of course, Ronald Wilson Reagan.
My dad was a ordinary guy who worked hard for his family. He taught us the lessons of honesty, hard work, decency, compassion, and trying to do the right thing. I try to live what he taught me.
Ronald Wilson Reagan started out as an ordinary guy. He was born in Tampico, Ilinois but soon moved to Dixon, which is considered his home town. He was an average student. But a set of circumstances would all come together and he went much further than even he had ever dreamed. Preparation, hard work, and determination came together with an opportunity and an ordinary man did extraordinary things.
I wish I could have met him during his lifetime. I only had the opportunity to see him on the silver screen and the small screen.
While he was the head of the Screen Actors Guild, Reagan was a bad word that deserves a timeout. He was a Democrat. He learned in his Hollywood days the danger and insidious nature of communism. He would make that the focus and fight of his life. Well, that along with a little thing that affects all of us called taxes.
In 1948, Reagan supported Harry Truman. Then came the change. He campaigned as a Democrat for Eisenhower in 1952 and again in 1956. He campaigned for Richard Nixon in 1960. Finally, he registered as a Republican in 1962.
In 1964, Reagan made an impressive television speech for Barry Goldwater entitled "A Time for Choosing." From that speech came the following: “You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we will sentence them to take the first step into a thousand years of darkness.” Businessmen took note and convinced him to run for governor in 1966.
So here was this actor, somewhat famous after 53 movies and labeled the “Errol Flynn of B movies,” running for governor of California. The Democrats mocked him. Yep, here was a guy who did a movie with a chimp. They gave him no chance. But in 1966, he trounced Governor Pat Brown and was re-elected in 1970.
After a couple tries, including a very good showing in 1976 against the eventual nominee, Gerald Ford, 1980 was Ronald Reagan's year. After the national malaise that was Jimmy Carter, the conservative revolution dreamed by Barry Goldwater finally came to national prominence.
His platform called for "a new consensus with all those across the land who share a community of values embodied in these words: family, work, neighborhood, peace, and freedom."
It was fitting that American hostages held in Iran were released on the day he was inaugurated.
One of his first tests was the air traffic controller strike. Reagan gave those illegally striking 48 hours to return to work. Then didn't. He fired them. It set the tone and taught a lesson to his adversaries and enemies.
The actions taken by Reagan to bring the nation out of the Carter malaise not only worked, but they fueled an economy that still works today. He cut taxes and government. Wherever he could, he made the government get out of the way so that business could work. So that more jobs could be created. So that the economy could expand. Reagan knew well that you don't help the poor by hurting the rich.
In 1984, Reagan defeated Walter Mondale in an election in which Mondale only carried his home state of Minnesota and the center of the known universe for pork, Washington, D.C. The electoral count was 525-13. Mondale finally completed his dubious record by losing the state of Minnesota when he ran for the Senate in 2002.
The passion that guided Ronald Reagan for most of his adult life was belief that the right of men was to live free. The greatest evil of the 20th Century was communism. In terms of deaths, it was worse than Nazism, primarly because it lasted so long. Some estimates are as high as one hundred million human beings dead because of that evil system.
Reagan went after the great purveyor of communism, the Soviet Union. They were causing trouble and attempting to expand their empire arounde the world. Barry Goldwater had earlier set the stage -- "I ask your help, and the help of all Americans, so that an American president can tell Nikita Khrushchev: 'You are wrong! Our children will not live under communism--your children will live under freedom!'"
Ronald Reagan used every effort, overt and covert to accomplish that goal of defeating the evil empire. The political left hated that term. It was too confrontational. He sounded like a cowboy, as if that was something bad. He sees things in black and white. He is going to blow up the world!
He systematically did damage wherever it could be done. He attacked their currency. He attacked their economic interests. He convinced Saudi Arabia to dramatically increase oil flow to seriously harm the price the Soviets got for oil -- a major source of hard currency. He escalated the arms race, knowing that the Soviets could never keep up. And he had his CIA pull a great dirty trick. He allowed the Soviets to steal software that would run their pipelines. Unfortunately for the Soviets, it had a nice little bug in it. When the pipeline blew, it was the largest non-nuclear event ever seen from space, and it caused them serious economic damage.
The leftists and peaceniks thought it was the end of the world when Reagan threatened to install Pershing II missiles in Western Europe to answer the Soviet SS20s. There was a call around the world for a nuclear freeze. There were massive demonstrations. Reagan would have none of it. The Soviets knew that this cowboy meant business. And Reagan knew that they knew this cowboy meant business. Well, the Soviets blinked and the SS20s were removed.
As part of his defense doctrine, President Reagan oversaw the development of the most advanced weapons systems ever deployed by the US military, such as MX ICBMs, Pershing II IRBMs, cruise missiles, strategic bombers and nuclear submarines. The Soviet Union conducted similar modernization of its arsenals, further stressing a system that could not keep up.
It was a shame that the Berlin Wall did not fall while he was still in office because that wall fell because of him and because of a great partner he had in Great Britain. Lady Thatcher was a giant in the fight against communism. He called for that wall to come down when he spoke in front of the Branderburg gate on June 12, 1987. I will start part of his famous words, and when I give you the cue, I want you to join me.
“General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate!” Okay, are you ready………….. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!
Reagan didn't just go after the Soviet Union. After a 1986 bombing of a discoteque in Germany that killed American citizens, he want after Muammar Khadafi. Khadafi was almost killed, and he did not cause us trouble for a long period of time thereafter.
In our own hemisphere, because of Ronald Reagan, free elections were held in Nicaragua, much to the chagrin of many in the Democratic Party. And our military rescued American medical students in Grenada and kept the Soviets from putting into operation a landing strip that would have accommodated their largest cargo planes.
Hundreds of millions of people live in freedom because of this great man. Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, the Balkans, Central Americans.
They made me promise not to sing but I wanted to read some lyrics I had written to the stirring tune of “Do You Hear the People Sing” from Les Miz.
Ronald Reagan we love you and you are loved around the world
Thanks to your vision flags of freedom everywhere have been unfurled
We will all raise up our glass...here's a salute from one and all
Long live your legacy...the many who brought down The Wall.
One of my heroes is buried about an hour and 45 minutes from here in Loma Linda. I have missed my dad for over 25 years. My other hero is right here. Ronald Wilson Reagan, you did good work while you were on this earth. May the Lord be taking care of your soul.
Errrrr...hehehhe. Did the edchoomuhkated spell your freepname wrong?
Hi Doug! You did a GREAT job!!! Gramps and I were VERY impressed. Did you happen to notice the crowd behind us, just watching?
They put my real last name in the program.
I put up "embargoed" as an attempt at humor. The other night, Drudge had released Kerry's embargoed speech early.
FMCDH(BITS)
Thanks. I knew there were others besides FReepers but really didn't pay a lot of attention as to how many were there. I heard that a few complained because our program created a delay in their visit up to the gravesite.
Good work.
A beautiful speech DFU.
I don't understand the "embargoed" reference though. Did you deliver this the musuem? What problems were/are there concerning the text?
Reagan was the finest President I'll likely ever see in my lifetime.
I had missed it, Luis. Thanks for sharing it.
The "embargoed" was just being funny after Drudge had released the embargoed Kerry speech.
I must tell you, for me at least...BEING there, RIGHT THERE where all of America watched for that long week was a sobering and awesome experience.
If any of you is out here, and can drive that road he drove, walk through those doors he walked, look up at the office where he worked...and then the same places we saw during the viewing after he died... PLEASE do it.
The Library is REALLY nice. Standing in the "Oval Office"...all of it...GOOD GOOD STUFF!!!
Folks, here's Doug delivering his powerful speech:
And here's FReeper Ironclad "Tearing down this wall!"
Oh, and here's Henchster with another American hero, our host Jim Robinson:
It was a FABULOUS day, and thanks to you Doug, and to RabidDog for doin' the party!
I envy you guys.
In 1984, Reagan defeated Walter Mondale in an election in which Mondale only carried his home state of Minnesota
I want it noted for the record that in the 84 election if 1 person in each precinct had changed their vote Mondull wouldn't have won Mn.
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