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June 07, 2004
40
...slipped the surly bonds of earth to touch the face of God...
On Sunday, the Wall Street Journal reprinted the speech that Ronald Reagan gave at the 1964 Republican convention. There was much wisdom regarding limited government, individual liberty, and economics, but I struck most by Reagan's conclusion:
Those who would trade our freedom for the soup kitchen of the welfare state have told us that they have a utopian solution of peace without victory. They call their policy "accommodation." And they say if we only avoid any direct confrontation with the enemy, he will forget his evil ways and learn to love us. All who oppose them are indicted as warmongers. They say we offer simple answers to complex problems. Well, perhaps there is a simple answer--not an easy answer--but simple.
If you and I have the courage to tell our elected officials that we want our national policy based upon what we know in our hearts is morally right... Let's set the record straight. There is no argument over the choice between peace and war, but there is only one guaranteed way you can have peace--and you can have it in the next second: surrender.
Admittedly there is a risk in any course we follow other than this, but every lesson in history tells us that the greater risk lies in appeasement, and this is the specter our well-meaning liberal friends refuse to face--that their policy of accommodation is appeasement, and it gives no choice between peace and war, only between fight and surrender. If we continue to accommodate, continue to back and retreat, eventually we have to face the final demand--the ultimatum. And what then?
...You and I know and do not believe that life is so dear and peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery. If nothing in life is worth dying for, when did this begin--just in the face of this enemy? Or should Moses have told the children of Israel to live in slavery under the pharaohs? Should Christ have refused the cross? Should the patriots at Concord Bridge have thrown down their guns and refused to fire the shot heard 'round the world? The martyrs of history were not fools, and our honored dead who gave their lives to stop the advance of the Nazis didn't die in vain. Where, then, is the road to peace? Well, it's a simple answer after all.
You and I have the courage to say to our enemies, "There is a price we will not pay." There is a point beyond which they must not advance. This is the meaning in the phrase of Barry Goldwater's "peace through strength." Winston Churchill said that "the destiny of man is not measured by material computation. When great forces are on the move in the world, we learn we are spirits--not animals." And he said, "There is something going on in time and space, and beyond time and space, which, whether we like it or not, spells duty."
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 last step into a thousand years of darkness.
When he spoke these words, Reagan was talking, of course, about Soviets and communism, not Al Qaeda and terrorism. Twenty years later, his opponents, favoring appeasement of the Soviet Union, derided him as a reckless, foolish cowboy. For the next week, these same opponents will respectfully acknowledge Reagan as the man who brought an end to the communist threat. Forty years later, Ronald Reagan's words remain remarkably relevant and poignant. Let's hope that people are still listening.
Posted by Pat at June 7, 2004 04:20 PM
Comments
"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. It is a weapon that we as Americans do have. Let that be understood by those who practice terrorism and prey upon their neighbors."
-- Reagan's 1980 inaugural address.
Check out my blog for more from that speech.
Posted by: Different Dan at June 7, 2004 04:40 PM
Thanks for posting that on here, btw, from someone old enough to remember what it was like when he took office.
Posted by: Different Dan at June 7, 2004 04:50 PM
Dittos here from another person who remembers those days well. I lived in Denver and MaryLou Halliburton of THE Halliburtons was my landlord. I stuffed envelopes for Reagan's campaign in her lovely basement.
I am so encouraged by you young people who GET IT. Who didn't get sucked into the postmodern lies.
And thanks for doing your patriotic duty for free speech by blogging the truth!
Posted by: Kathy at June 7, 2004 09:19 PM
I guess I was lucky to grow up in a home that respected him as a president. Looking back now though, I have a hard time seeing what is not to respect about him and his policies.
Opponents of his policies need only look back those policies success's to have their mind changed. But for some reason, even success doesn't convince some people...
Posted by: matt at June 8, 2004 09:46 AM
"Freedom is not something to be secured in any one moment of time. We must struggle to preserve it every day. And freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction." -RR
To me, the Reagan era was my childhood -- the first 8 years of my life -- stable and carefree. I too hope that the passing of Reagan is not also the passing of the values and ideals for which he fought.
Posted by: Megan at June 8, 2004 11:31 AM
To me, the politics of ridicule began with Reagan and have continued against Bush. If you can't successfully argue with a person's point of view or his policies, you ridicule the man for having an occasional lapse of memory, or mispronouncing a word, or for taking naps.
Posted by: Different Dan at June 8, 2004 11:51 AM