Reagan

“ We think of a man advancing in years with the sweetness and sincerity of a Scout saying the Pledge. We think of that grave expression that sometimes came over his face, the seriousness of a man angered by injustice — and frightened by nothing. We know, as he always said, that America's best days are ahead of us, but with Ronald Reagan's passing, some very fine days are behind us, and that is worth our tears. ”

“ Having one of the biggest bodies I ever saw, King Reagan certainly had the largest hands. And they, like the rest of the man's physique, were nothing short of beautiful. They gave you, just as his eyes did, a sense of power. And after seeing his eyes and his hands I was not surprised that the man loved music and played the violin like a virtuoso. Well, be he whatever else you please, King Reagan is a man. And a man is many-sided.
“Why are you so certain that I am going to San Francisco?” ”

“ Reagan continued, “I did you the honor to ask you to come in with me. In many things, in most things, you are a wise man; in that matter you were an arrogant fool. You had always been master; you could not see when a bigger man than yourself came. I might have let you go your own way; I don't know. But then you dared take this bank case into your own hands, you dared use the same method you knew I was using with other banks! Because the police thought you dead you thought that I would believe it, too. ”

“ We’re Americans and we have a rendezvous with destiny. We spread across this land, building farms and towns and cities, and we did it without any federal land planning program or urban renewal.
Indeed, we gave birth to an entirely new concept in man’s relation to man. We created government as our servant, beholden to us and possessing no powers except those voluntarily granted to it by us. Now a self-anointed elite in our nation’s capital would have us believe we are incapable of guiding our own destiny. They practice government by mystery, telling us it’s too complex for our understanding. ”

“ Ronald Reagan spent decades in the film industry and in politics, fields known, on occasion, to change a man. But not this man. From Dixon to Des Moines, to Hollywood to Sacramento, to Washington, D.C., all who met him remembered the same sincere, honest, upright fellow. Ronald Reagan's deepest beliefs never had much to do with fashion or convenience. ”

“ Ronald Reagan never feared anyone who came here to earn a piece of the American dream by his or her industry, talent and loyalty to our ideals. Patriotism in this country is more than nationalism. It has never been about blood or soil. It is a shared commitment to an ideal - that all people are given by their Creator inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. As long as people pledged their sincere allegiance to that sublime ideal, Ronald Reagan did not denounce them as alien, he called them his countrymen. ”

“ He came to office with great hopes for America, and more than hopes — like the President he had revered and once saw in person, Franklin Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan matched an optimistic temperament with bold, persistent action. President Reagan was optimistic about the great promise of economic reform, and he acted to restore the reward and spirit of enterprise. He was optimistic that a strong America could advance the peace, and he acted to build the strength that mission required. ”

“ When the sun sets tonight off the coast of California, and we lay to rest our 40th President, a great American story will close. The second son of Nell and Jack Reagan first knew the world as a place of open plains, quiet streets, gas-lit rooms, and carriages drawn by horse. ”

“ There was something emanating from the man which you felt rather than saw, which defied analysis, which was like nothing else than an electrical force that gave him his personality. It is possible to look at his picture and fail to understand in a flash why men should call him King Reagan. It is not possible to be in his presence two seconds and fail to understand. ”

“ I would like to go to Washington. I would like to be president, because I would like to see this country become once again a country where a little six-year old girl can grow up knowing the same freedom that I knew when I was six years old, growing up in America. If this is the America you want for yourself and your children; if you want to restore government not only of and for but by the people ”

“ This week, America mourned the passing of President Ronald Reagan. We remembered a gentle, decent man, and one of the greatest leaders our nation has known. He was a courageous patriot whose leadership transformed the country and the world he leaves behind. ”

“ Only twice in our history-during the dark days of our Civil War-has anyone dared to question the wisdom of the American people as they chose their President, dared to deny the validity of the selection. In other nations, a disgruntled group of defeated politicians might try to stage a coup d'etat or might even follow our disastrous mistake from the 1860's and go to war-brother against brother-rather than consent to the will of the people. But here we Americans are, just 4 days after one of the most important nights in our history, working or playing or just enjoying our weekend. ”

“ Ronald Reagan believed that everything happened for a reason, and that we should strive to know and do the will of God. He believed that the gentleman always does the kindest thing. He believed that people were basically good, and had the right to be free. He believed that bigotry and prejudice were the worst things a person could be guilty of. He believed in the Golden Rule and in the power of prayer. He believed that America was not just a place in the world, but the hope of the world. ”

“ Now we hear again the echoes of our past: a general falls to his knees in the hard snow of Valley Forge; a lonely President paces the darkened halls, and ponders his struggle to preserve the Union; the men of the Alamo call out encouragement to each other; a settler pushes west and sings a song, and the song echoes out forever and fills the unknowing air. ”

“ I don't buy the idea that this is the last year of anything, because we're not talking here tonight about registering temporary gains but ways of making permanent our successes. And that's why our focus is the values, the principles, and ideas that made America great. Let's be clear on this point. We're for limited government, because we understand, as the Founding Fathers did, that it is the best way of ensuring personal liberty and empowering the individual so that every American of every race and region shares fully in the flowering of American prosperity and freedom. ”

“ In our Constitution, we the people tell the government what it can do and that it can do only those things listed in that document and no others.
Virtually every other revolution in history has just exchanged one set of rulers for another set of rulers. Our revolution is the first to say the people are the masters, and government is their servant. (Applause.)
And you young people out there, don't ever forget that. Some day, you could be in this room — but wherever you are, America is depending on you to reach your highest and be your best because here, in America, we the people are in charge. ”

“ They did not love it because of its government but because of its people; not because of the role its government played in world affairs but because of the inspiration the very idea of America gave to every person, great and small, who made this blessed land his home, and to every person in the less fortunate lands of the world who, amid oppression, tyranny, and injustice-as in Poland today-looked to America as the land of freedom. ”

“ It's easy to forget just what a revolution these Americans made. It's easy to forget how they amazed the world and how many hopes they raised. President George Washington, in the very first Inaugural Address, warned Americans that they had a new responsibility. He said, "... the preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government are justly considered, perhaps, as deeply, as finally, staked on the experiment intrusted to the hands of the American people." ”

“ At the start of this decade, I suggested that we live in equally momentous times, that it is up to us now to decide whether our form of government would endure and whether history still had a place of greatness for a quiet, pleasant, greening land called America. Not everything has been made perfect in 7 years, nor will it be made perfect in seven times 70 years, but before us, this year and beyond, are great prospects for the cause of peace and world freedom. ”

“ And yet neither Graydon nor Anderson ever fully appreciated King Reagan.
I have never seen a handsomer man. I have seen him stripped in his little gymnasium. I knew that he was one of the biggest men I had ever seen. A sight of his naked body, the muscles that slipped like Damascus steel under satin skin, made me gasp. I had seen many beautifully built men in old college training quarters, but I had never seen a man like this one. ”

“ Just as those who created this Republic pledged to each other their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor, so, too, America's leaders today must pledge to each other that we will keep foremost in our hearts and minds not what is best for ourselves or for our party, but what is best for America. (Applause.) In the spirit of Jefferson, let us affirm that, in this Chamber tonight, there are no Republicans, no Democrats, just Americans. ”

“ I would like to talk with you this evening about what we can do together--not as Republicans and Democrats, but as Americans--to make tomorrow's America happy and prosperous at home, strong and respected abroad, and at peace in the world.
As we gather here tonight, the state of our Union is strong, but our economy is troubled. For too many of our fellow citizens--farmers, steel and auto workers, lumbermen, black teenagers, working mothers--this is a painful period. We must all do everything in our power to bring their ordeal to an end. ”

“ As he showed what a President should be, he also showed us what a man should be. Ronald Reagan carried himself, even in the most powerful office, with a decency and attention to small kindnesses that also defined a good life. ”

“ And if we can recapture that, that's when we recapture the Reagan spirit. It's that spirit that has a can-do attitude about America's futures and that makes us love our country whether we're Democrats or Republicans. And that's what I believe Ronald Reagan did – he brought this country back together and made us believe in ourselves.
And whether he believes in us, I hope we still believe in those things which made him a great leader and a great American.
[applause]
COOPER: Gentleman, good luck to you all. Thank you very much for attending this debate tonight. And that concludes this debate. ”

“ That we, too, worked together to bring America through difficult times. Let us so conduct ourselves that two centuries from now, another Congress and another President, meeting in this Chamber as we are meeting, will speak of us with pride, saying that we met the test and preserved for them in their day the sacred flame of liberty—this last, best hope of man on Earth. ”

“ Don't let anyone tell you that America's best days are behind her—that the American spirit has been vanquished. We've seen it triumph too often in our lives to stop believing in it now.
One hundred and twenty years ago, the greatest of all our Presidents delivered his second State of the Union message in this chamber: "We cannot escape history," Abraham Lincoln warned. "We of this Congress and this administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves." The "trial through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor to the latest generation." ”

“ Americans saw death approach Ronald Reagan twice, in a moment of violence, and then in the years of departing light. He met both with courage and grace. In these trials, he showed how a man so enchanted by life can be at peace with life's end.
And where does that strength come from? Where is that courage learned? It is the faith of a boy who read the Bible with his mom. It is the faith of a man lying in an operating room, who prayed for the one who shot him before he prayed for himself. It is the faith of a man with a fearful illness, who waited on the Lord to call him home. ”

“ Fellow Americans, we can achieve whatever task we set for our country, and whatever task we set for our party, as long as we remember why we came to Washington in the first place. We came to honor Ronald Reagan's and Mike Christian's faith in America, the greatest nation and greatest force for good on earth. ”

“ But certain I am that his face and Reagan's showed less emotion than mine must have done.
“Excepting for me,” went on Reagan with the bold frankness that was characteristic of him, “there is not a stronger man in the world than you, Waldron. ”

“ Reagan laughed that deep, softly musical laugh of his.
“Have you thought,” he suggested, “how simple a matter it would be for us to have a little scuffle here? For you to be killed? Don't talk nonsense, Waldron. It's one of two things for you; one of two things.”
Waldron looked up quickly. I heard a deep breath and knew that he understood and that he had decided.
This time it was Reagan who opened the door. Malley, Forster, the man Sharkey, and Gaudy Kelley came in promptly.
“I don't think you ever saw this man before, did you, Malley?” asked Reagan. ”

“ Tonight we look out on a rising America, firm of heart, united in spirit, powerful in pride and patriotism. America is on the move! But it wasn't long ago that we looked out on a different land: locked factory gates, long gasoline lines, intolerable prices, and interest rates turning the greatest country on Earth into a land of broken dreams. Government growing beyond our consent had become a lumbering giant, slamming shut the gates of opportunity, threatening to crush the very roots of our freedom. What brought America back? ”