Reagan’s Final Lesson
By Patrick Rooney (06/14/04)
I learned more from Ronald Reagan than from anyone I encountered in all my years of public life. I learned kindness; we all did. I also learned courage; the nation did. - George H.W. Bush
His timing was perfect. Not Ronald Reagan’s timing—God’s.
The Gipper died on a Saturday, and He knows the news cycle better than any of us. It set up a full week dedicated to Reagan’s memory—the early show of love at the Santa Monica funeral home, the body lying in repose for public viewing at the Reagan Library, the flight to D.C. for more viewing, funeral services, culminating in the last homecoming—landing at Pt. Mugu, his hearse and family driving through miles of well-wishers to the final resting place.
All of it played out for America and the world to see—a week-long outpouring of love from ordinary Americans to their President.
The week was a welcome respite from the political haters. But it was so much more than that. It was, first of all, a fantastic history lesson. We saw vintage Reagan, and heard his potent words.
The week obliterated the revisionists’ version of the Reagan years. Some muted their barking—temporarily—but already they are beginning to surge forward again, in all of their glorious ugliness.
The week brought back grace, and humility, and tradition. The choice of music, the poetry, images we’ll never forget—the riderless horse, the missing-man formation. And religion—old and pure and true.
The heart broke and broke and broke some more. Bittersweet. The mourning of one of the greatest men of ours or any time. And the celebration of a life lived with such moral clarity and panache!
When it was all done, when the Gipper was through conspiring with the Big Guy to wrench every possible bit of inspiration, drama, pathos, and even humor out of the final act up on that hill in Simi Valley, the sun set a brilliant California red on cue, and Nancy’s tears—and ours—could no longer hold back. He was gone.
It has been pondered by many and asked by some—what did we witness, the burial of the America we knew and so loved, or it’s rebirth?
It is related to a question I asked myself as I looked at Nancy this week. “Ronnie” was everything to her. He was, understandably, her world, and it left her with the setting of the sun Friday evening.
Nancy’s great challenge will be to expand her world. And so it is our challenge too. Ronald Reagan was indeed a great man, particularly because of his great love. He was not an idol for us to worship, but an example for us to follow.
This is the great lesson of Reagan. And I believe that our Father placed him here on earth to lead this country during one of its darkest periods. And He decided to take him home—publicly—in the midst of another critical moment in our history, when once again our faith wavers. For just as Reagan faced down a great evil in Soviet Communism, our nation must now face another painful truth and gird its loins against a new evil, the evil of radical Islam.
The great sage Sun Tzu once said that “if you know the enemy and yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.” This past week has given America the opportunity to again know itself, through the life of America’s favorite son. It has also given our current President the opportunity to meditate on this knowledge, and the true identity and nature of our enemy.
The Berlin Wall did not come down until President Reagan boldly identified and called out the enemy. And in this present crisis, the wall of terror will not fall until we accurately identify and call out this enemy—by name.
The time has now come for us to wipe away our tears and seek the truth among the silence. For ultimately, we are not here to merely bury and praise the dead, but rather to learn from their exquisite example, and to make it our own.
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