Ronald Reagan at 100
All week I've found myself asked the same question: What was Ronald Reagan really like?
From my book, How Ronald Reagan Changed My Life:
The incident I always considered the best illustration of Reagan’s regard for ordinary individuals took place in a North Carolina parking lot. “It was during the 1976 primary fight,” says Dana Rohrabacher, who then worked on the Reagan campaign as an assistant press secretary. “We were getting ready for a rally in this gigantic parking lot at a shopping mall. I was in the staging area behind the podium, and a lady called me over to the side and said, ‘I’ve got a group of blind kids here. Since they can’t see him, I was wondering if you could have Governor Reagan come over and tell them hello.’”
Dana passed the request on to Mike Deaver, and Reagan, who was standing nearby, overheard. “He said he’d do it, but he didn’t want any photographers,” Dana explains. “Can you imagine that? He was in the middle of a presidential campaign, and the press would have gone wild for a photo of him with a group of blind kids. But Reagan wanted this to be between him and the kids.”
Deaver came up with a plan. When the speech ended, Deaver told Dana, he’d begin walking Reagan back to the campaign bus. Concluding that the candidate was about to leave for the next event, all the reporters and photographers would hurry back to their own buses. And then, when the press had cleared out, Deaver would double back with Reagan, returning the candidate to the area behind the podium, where Reagan would meet the blind children.
“It worked,” Dana says. “The press guys all went back to their buses, and I brought the lady with the blind kids back behind the podium. There were six or seven kids, real sweet little kids about eight or nine or ten years old. Since there was a lot of background noise, Reagan bent down, close to the kids, to talk to them. But somehow I could see him thinking that that wasn’t enough. So after the kids had asked him a couple of questions, he said, ‘Well, now I have a question for you. Would you like to touch my face so you can get a better understanding of how I look?’ The kids all smiled and said yes, so Reagan just leaned over into them, and one by one these little kids began moving their fingers over his face to see what he looked like.
“The only picture of that scene is the picture in my mind,” Dana says. “But I can still
see those kids, touching Ronald Reagan’s face and smiling these really big smiles.”
“The Declaration of Independence,” G. K. Chesterton writes, “dogmatically bases all rights on the fact that God created all men equal; it is right [to do so].... There is no basis for democracy except in a dogma about the divine origin of man.” Although in nearly every way you could ever imagine, in other words, we humans are not equal but unequal — some rich and some poor, some bright and some dull, some healthy and some sick — in one way we enjoy perfect equality all the same. Did the 40th chief executive ever read Chesterton? I can’t say. Yet Ronald Reagan demonstrated an implicit belief in the sacred and equal importance of all men as children of God.
- Comment (24)
- · Quote
- · UnfollowFollow (1)
- Pages:
- 1
- 2
- Pages:
- 1
- 2
Comments :
Aug '10
Re: Ronald Reagan at 100
It may be 8 degrees where I am ,but there are warm tears coursing down my face. Thanks and Thanks to the Gipper .
Sep '10
Re: Ronald Reagan at 100
Curses Peter, you've got me tearing up too. I've been meaning to get your book and now I definitely will.
Thanks!
Jun '10
Re: Ronald Reagan at 100
Ditto flownover's comment. Deeply moving. The man who was a master of dealing with the press demonstrates that some things are too important to be the grist of mere politics.
Jun '10
Re: Ronald Reagan at 100
There was a lot of discussion in the past about adding Reagan's face to Mount Rushmore but I've come to believe that he deserves a mountain all to himself.
Thanks Peter!
Nov '10
Re: Ronald Reagan at 100
Sigh...What creates such men? Is the whole book a tearjerker?
May '10
Re: Ronald Reagan at 100
It's a great book, Peter. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Thanks.
Jun '10
Re: Ronald Reagan at 100
Brian, I'm all for a Mt. Reagan. Love, love, love him. Be sure to check out the 100 photos over at NRO. When I see shots of him with JPII or Thatcher, I get weepy.
I never tire of hearing the story about his kindness to the blind children.
Jul '10
Re: Ronald Reagan at 100
Beautiful.
I curse My Parents daily, and They know it, that They didn't get Me Here in time to vote for President Reagan.
Brian, which Rock would it be?
Nov '10
Re: Ronald Reagan at 100
Jimmy Carter: Beautiful.
I curse My Parents daily, and They know it, that They didn't get Me Here in time to vote for President Reagan.
Brian, which Rock would it be? · Feb 4 at 7:55am
How about El Capitan in Yosemite?
May '10
Re: Ronald Reagan at 100
I need to go reread your book Peter.
Let me share an anecdote about that. One thing you talked about was how Reagan always thanked people at dinner, etc. It might be a small thing, but I took that away as a new habit. That example has changed my life. If I feel better, and the person serving me feels better.
My family went to the opening of the GA. Aquarium in Atlanta on Thanksgiving day. I made a point of telling everyone "Happy Thanksgiving". The response was phenomenal (to use a Peter word). Faces came alive with smiles, and they wished it back.
Thanks for sharing that example, Peter. It enriches my life.
Sep '10
Re: Ronald Reagan at 100
Not to take any well deserved attention away from your book, Peter, but did you read the book written about William Clark, The Judge?
Re: Ronald Reagan at 100
I did, and I loved it. Bill Clark played a major role in the administration--and in Ronald Reagan's life. As Lyn Nofziger once told me, Reagan looked on Clark as "almost like a son." But Judge Clark is so modest--and, now, in ill health--that few knew his story. This book provides a wonderfu remedy.
Sep '10
Re: Ronald Reagan at 100
Peter Robinson
I did, and I loved it. Bill Clark played a major role in the administration--and in Ronald Reagan's life. As Lyn Nofziger once told me, Reagan looked on Clark as "almost like a son." But Judge Clark is so modest--and, now, in ill health--that few knew his story. This book provides a wonderfu remedy. · Feb 4 at 8:38am
Excellent. So much for my New Year's resolution about profligate spending on books!
May '10
Re: Ronald Reagan at 100
Peter, obviously the new book belongs on paper, being based around illustrations. But is there any chance of getting How Ronald Reagan Changed my Life in a Kindle edition? Or should I just ask for the paperback for my birthday :)
Aug '10
Re: Ronald Reagan at 100
Last night, I had the pleasure of dining with (a table away) and hearing Michael Reagan speak at a local Republican women's commemoration of his father's 100th birthday. What stuck out for me was Micheal talking about how his father was consistent in his principles in all areas of his life, including giving allowances to his children.
Micheal also spoke about his father's assurance that all things happened in God's time, not man's.
Very enjoyable evening.
Oct '10
Re: Ronald Reagan at 100
Great anecdote. That story alone is worth the price of your book.
Re: Ronald Reagan at 100
I hadn't thought to look until you asked, Robert, but, lo, there is indeed a Kindle edition.
Re: Ronald Reagan at 100
Matthew Lawrence: Last night, I had the pleasure of dining with (a table away) and hearing Michael Reagan speak at a local Republican women's commemoration of his father's 100th birthday. What stuck out for me was Micheal talking about how his father was consistent in his principles in all areas of his life, including giving allowances to his children.
Micheal also spoke about his father's assurance that all things happened in God's time, not man's.
Very enjoyable evening. · Feb 4 at 8:50am
Mike's a wonderful guy--and really the only of the Reagan children to appreciate their father's views. Patti and Ron are both unabashed liberals, and, Maureen, if I understood her views correctly, would have described herself as fiscally conservative but socially liberal. Mike shares his father's views all the way through.
Oct '10
Re: Ronald Reagan at 100
Peter Robinson
I hadn't thought to look until you asked, Robert, but, lo, there is indeed a Kindle edition. · Feb 4 at 9:08am
Excellent! Done and done, right next to my Kindle edition of "There Is No Alternative." Peter and Claire, please thank your publishers for making Kindle editions available—there's far too much good writing out there that I can't yet take with me.
Peter, I'll bet you'll appreciate this: in Peter Woit's "Not Even Wrong: The Failure of String Theory and the Search for Unity in Physical Law," he recounts President Reagan's signing of the bill to fund the construction of the Superconducting Supercollider (SCSC). "Mr. President, you're going to make a lot of physicists very happy." "Well, that's probably fair. I made two high school physics teachers very miserable." Priceless.
May '10
Re: Ronald Reagan at 100
Paul Snively
Excellent! Done and done, right next to my Kindle edition of "There Is No Alternative." Peter and Claire, please thank your publishers for making Kindle editions available—there's far too much good writing out there that I can't yet take with me.
And with John O'Sullivan's "The President, The Pope and The Prime Minister", one has it covered!