Happy Birthday Ronald Wilson Reagan

BTTT

Thank you for this thread.

May God bless President Reagan. I thank God we were fortunate enough to have him for 8 years as our leader. Thanks to him I am a conservative for life.

A people free to choose will always choose peace.

Abortion is advocated only by persons who have themselves been born.

Above all, we must realize that no arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women. It is a weapon our adversaries in today's world do not have.

All great change in America begins at the dinner table.

All the waste in a year from a nuclear power plant can be stored under a desk.

Approximately 80% of our air pollution stems from hydrocarbons released by vegetation, so let's not go overboard in setting and enforcing tough emission standards from man-made sources.

Before I refuse to take your questions, I have an opening statement.

But there are advantages to being elected President. The day after I was elected, I had my high school grades classified Top Secret.

Concentrated power has always been the enemy of liberty.

Don't be afraid to see what you see.

Double, no triple, our troubles and we'd still be better off than any other people on earth. It is time that we recognized that ours was, in truth, a noble cause.

Entrepreneurs and their small enterprises are responsible for almost all the economic growth in the United States.

Facts are stubborn things.

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.

Freedom prospers when religion is vibrant and the rule of law under God is acknowledged.

Going to college offered me the chance to play football for four more years.

Government always finds a need for whatever money it gets.

Government does not solve problems; it subsidizes them.

Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.

Government's first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives.

Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.

Governments tend not to solve problems, only to rearrange them.

History teaches that war begins when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap.

How can a president not be an actor?

How do you tell a communist? Well, it's someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It's someone who understands Marx and Lenin.

I am not worried about the deficit. It is big enough to take care of itself.

I call upon the scientific community in our country, those who gave us nuclear weapons, to turn their great talents now to the cause of mankind and world peace: to give us the means of rendering these nuclear weapons impotent and obsolete.

I couldn't help but say to Mr. Gorbachev just think how easy his task and mine might be in these meetings that we held if suddenly there was a threat to this world from another planet. We'd find out once and for all that we really are all human beings here on this earth together.

I favor the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and it must be enforced at gunpoint if necessary.

I have left orders to be awakened at any time in case of national emergency, even if I'm in a cabinet meeting.

I have wondered at times what the Ten Commandments would have looked like if Moses had run them through the US Congress.

I know I'm not in government anymore. In fact I'm out of work.

I know in my heart that man is good. That what is right will always eventually triumph. And there's purpose and worth to each and every life.

I never drink coffee at lunch. I find it keeps me awake for the afternoon.

I will stand on, and continue to use, the figures I have used, because I believe they are correct. Now, I'm not going to deny that you don't now and then slip up on something; no one bats a thousand.

I've never been able to understand why a Republican contributor is a 'fat cat' and a Democratic contributor of the same amount of money is a 'public-spirited philanthropist'.

I've often said there's nothing better for the inside of a man than the outside of a horse.

If the federal government had been around when the Creator was putting His hand to this state, Indiana wouldn't be here. It'd still be waiting for an environmental impact statement.

If we love our country, we should also love our countrymen.

If you've seen one redwood, you've seen them all.

In Israel, free men and women are every day demonstrating the power of courage and faith. Back in 1948 when Israel was founded, pundits claimed the new country could never survive. Today, no one questions that. Israel is a land of stability and democracy in a region of tyranny and unrest.

Inflation is as violent as a mugger, as frightening as an armed robber and as deadly as a hit man.

Information is the oxygen of the modern age. It seeps through the walls topped by barbed wire, it wafts across the electrified borders.

It has been said that politics is the second oldest profession. I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first.

It's difficult to believe that people are still starving in this country because food isn't available.

It's silly talking about how many years we will have to spend in the jungles of Vietnam when we could pave the whole country and put parking stripes on it and still be home by Christmas.

It's true hard work never killed anybody, but I figure, why take the chance?

Let us ask ourselves; "What kind of people do we think we are?"

Let us not forget who we are. Drug abuse is a repudiation of everything America is.

Life is one grand, sweet song, so start the music.

Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall!

My fellow Americans, I am pleased to tell you I just signed legislation which outlaws Russia forever. The bombing begins in five minutes.

My philosophy of life is that if we make up our mind what we are going to make of our lives, then work hard toward that goal, we never lose - somehow we win out.

No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth!

No mother would ever willingly sacrifice her sons for territorial gain, for economic advantage, for ideology.

Of the four wars in my lifetime, none came about because the U.S. was too strong.

Our forbearance should never be misunderstood. Our reluctance for conflict should not be misjudged as a failure of will. When action is required to preserve our national security, we will act.

Peace is not absence of conflict, it is the ability to handle conflict by peaceful means.

People do not make wars; governments do.

Politics is just like show business. You have a hell of an opening, coast for a while, and then have a hell of a close.

Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed there are many rewards, if you disgrace yourself you can always write a book.

Protecting the rights of even the least individual among us is basically the only excuse the government has for even existing.

Recession is when a neighbor loses his job. Depression is when you lose yours.

Republicans believe every day is the Fourth of July, but the democrats believe every day is April 15.

Status quo, you know, is Latin for 'the mess we're in'.

Surround yourself with the best people you can find, delegate authority, and don't interfere as long as the policy you've decided upon is being carried out.

The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would steal them away.

The most terrifying words in the English langauge are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help.

The neutron warhead is a defensive weapon designed to offset the great superiority that the Soviet Union has on the western front against the NATO nations.

The problem is not that people are taxed too little, the problem is that government spends too much.

The taxpayer - that's someone who works for the federal government but doesn't have to take the civil service examination.

The thought of being President frightens me and I do not think I want the job.

The ultimate determinant in the struggle now going on for the world will not be bombs and rockets but a test of wills and ideas - a trial of spiritual resolve: the values we hold, the beliefs we cherish and the ideals to which we are dedicated.

The United Sates has much to offer the third world war.

There are no easy answers' but there are simple answers. We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right.

There are no great limits to growth because there are no limits of human intelligence, imagination, and wonder.

They say the world has become too complex for simple answers. They are wrong.

Thomas Jefferson once said, 'We should never judge a president by his age, only by his works.' And ever since he told me that, I stopped worrying.

To paraphrase Winston Churchill, I did not take the oath I have just taken with the intention of presiding over the dissolution of the world's strongest economy.

To sit back hoping that someday, some way, someone will make things right is to go on feeding the crocodile, hoping he will eat you last - but eat you he will.

Today we did what we had to do. They counted on America to be passive. They counted wrong.

Today, if you invent a better mousetrap, the government comes along with a better mouse.

Trust, but verify.

Unemployment insurance is a pre-paid vacation for freeloaders.

We can not play innocents abroad in a world that is not innocent.

We can't help everyone, but everyone can help someone.

We have so many people who can't see a fat man standing beside a thin one without coming to the conclusion that the fat man got that way by taking advantage of the thin one!

We might come closer to balancing the Budget if all of us lived closer to the Commandments and the Golden Rule.

We must reject the idea that every time a law's broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions.

We should measure welfare's success by how many people leave welfare, not by how many are added.

We will always remember. We will always be proud. We will always be prepared, so we will always be free.

We're in greater danger today than we were the day after Pearl Harbor. Our military is absolutely incapable of defending this country.

Welfare's purpose should be to eliminate, as far as possible, the need for its own existence.

Well, I learned a lot - I went down to Latin America to find out from them and their views. You'd be surprised. They're all individual countries.

What makes him think a middle aged actor [Clint Eastwood], who's played with a chimp, could have a future in politics?

What we have found in this country, and maybe we're more aware of it now, is one problem that we've had, even in the best of times, and that is the people who are sleeping on the grates, the homeless, you might say, by choice.

Whatever time I've got left now belongs to the Big Fella Upstairs.

While I take inspiration from the past, like most Americans, I live for the future.

Within the covers of the Bible are the answers for all the problems men face.

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.

You can tell alot about a fellow's character by his way of eating jellybeans.

You know, if I listened to Michael Dukakis long enough, I would be convinced we're in an economic downturn and people are homeless and going without food and medical attention and that we've got to do something about the unemployed.

You are missed, President Reagan!
Rest in peace.

bttt

ping - and thanks for the ping - just didn't want ot put this big thing in your comments page! :o)

BTTT

"My plan is simple - We win,they lose!"

Simple, perfect logic.

BTTT

This is your brain.

This is your brain on drugs.

Any questions?

Here's remembering the Gipper...

bump!!

Happy Birthday, Mr. President and best wishes Mrs. Reagan.

I was in school when Mr. Reagan was president (and coincidentally too young to vote for him in either election). But I remember the comments made about the 70s by my parents as well as watching the evening news with my grandmother and hearing her commentary on the state of things.

I don't think that, given how bad things had gotten back then, that his presidency saved this nation.

Wish we had someone like that in office today.

Happy Birthday, Ronnie!

Thanks for the ping, HP. Your description of the legacy of Ronald Reagan is among the most moving I have read here. I attempted to excerpt parts of it for comment, but was unable to do so. Every word is as powerful and meaningful as the rest. Bless you for so beautifully describing the hope he inspired in us when we were searching for a leader of character.

And now, a mere seventeen years after he left the White House, that title, ‘a leader of character’, seems, once again, to have become dangerously oxymoronic. We have returned to the pre-Reagan era of leadership-by-compromise, and the evils with whom we are compromising are far more deadly, and less well-confined, than those we faced in the eighties.

Below is a tribute that I have included in my personal profile here. Thank you for the opportunity to post it again. (No response necessary. Will be off-line for a while.)

It was the ‘Rendezvous With Destiny’ speech that introduced me to Ronald Reagan. My Dad, more than anyone else I have ever known, embodied the noble qualities that defined ‘the greatest generation’ – and, from the time my sisters and I were very young, he steadfastly attempted (with varying degrees of success :) to instill in the four of us a sense of civic responsibility and involvement. To that end, he urged us to read and listen to a certain amount of news and commentary (which, in those more honest days, was clearly labeled ‘editorial’). My Dad was a staunch Goldwater supporter and he suggested that I watch the Reagan speech on that fateful autumn evening in 1964. At that time, I wasn’t terribly impressed with Barry Goldwater (although I became significantly more so later on), and I had never heard of Ronald Reagan, other than in echoes of conversations when people would occasionally discuss movies, etc.

I fell in love the evening of October 27, 1964 and haven’t been the same since.

Sixteen years later, during Reagan’s first presidential campaign, my husband and I and our two very young children went to Millersville University to hear him speak. His words were electrifying. His faith, wisdom, decency, honesty, and love of this country were awe-inspiring … and his sincere, unabashed passion literally filled the auditorium, wall to wall, floor to ceiling. Afterwards I was fortunate enough to make my way up to the stage and shake his hand. I am not, and never have been, starry-eyed about any public figure, so it was not the reaction of a ‘groupie’ when I felt an unmistakable strength and warmth run through me as his hand gripped mine. And the indescribably kind, knowing, optimistic twinkle in his eye is something I have never witnessed in the eyes of anyone else, before or since. Not ever.

My tribute to …

America's Greatest President

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He enunciated his words deliberately, so that the last four words, each a monosyllable, sound like hammer blows:

'Mr. Gorbachev! Tear down this wall!' ... 12 June, 1987

incomparable leadership embodied in faith, integrity, dignity, decency, character, intelligence, compassion and love of country in the Oval Office
(1981-1989)

There is no question that we have failed to live up to the dreams of the founding fathers many times and in many places. Sometimes we do better than others. But all in all, the one thing we must be on guard against is thinking that because of this, the system has failed. The system has not failed. Some human beings have failed the system ... 21 June, 1973

The work of volunteer groups throughout our country represents the very heart and soul of America. They have helped make this the most compassionate, generous, and humane society that ever existed on the face of this earth ... 16 October, 1973

We have every right to dream heroic dreams. Those who say that we're in a time when there are no heroes, they just don't know where to look ... 20 January, 1981

...peace is the highest aspiration of the American People. We will negotiate for it, sacrifice for it, we will never surrender for it, now or ever ... 20 January, 1981

The house we hope to build is not for my generation but for yours. It is your future that matters. And I hope that when you are my age, you will be able to say as I have been able to say: We lived in freedom. We lived lives that were a statement, not an apology ... 18 May, 1984

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On The Eve Of The 2000 Republican Convention, An Open Letter To Ronald Reagan

by joanie-f

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America Says A Grateful Goodbye, In Stirring Music and Moving Images ...
Photographs (Souza), 'Mansions of the Lord' (Smith/Wallace)

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11 June, 2004:

Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others,
faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms … 1 Peter 4:10

The Lord graced and blessed us with your presence during the time when we, and the world, needed you most. He has declared an end to your pain and suffering and now envelopes you in His own loving arms. Your beloved Nancy, your family, and your countrymen, who know that we will never again be the same without your precious presence, must also seek His strength and comfort, for the void that is left by your passing can never be filled.

May we prove to have been deserving of your leadership, by never relinquishing those convictions that you held sacred – the ultimate importance of, and reliance on, Divine direction, and the sanctity of human life, liberty and dignity. May we never abandon the exquisite example you have set for us. Through it, your spirit must remain forever alive in America, and your legacy must prevail, so long as humanity places value on righteousness.

A reluctant and tear-filled good bye, Ronald Reagan.

Precious Lord, take my hand.
Lead me on, help me stand.
I am tired, I am weak, I am worn.
Through the storm, through the night,
Lead me on to the light.
Take my hand, precious Lord,
Lead me home.

When my way grows drear,
Precious Lord, linger near –
When my life is almost gone.
Hear my cry, hear my call,
Hold my hand, lest I fall.
Take my hand, precious Lord,
Lead me home.

Viewing the Caisson, Bidding Farewell

... and the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father ... Mat 13:43

Certainly the greatest President of our time, bar none.

My only regret is I will not live to see another one and our country needs one VERY BADLY.

Happy birthday to you, my daughter shares this day with you and our wonderful Prez Reagan.

Mr. Gorbachev! Tear down this wall!

Happy Birthday President Reagan and God bless!

/salute to the best president and a great man.