Remembering Reagan and Patriotism

A week ago last Sunday, Jen and I went to church with my Uncle W and heard a good sermon about how Christians are to be encouragers. Then we met Caltechgirl and DH at the Reagan library. It was the first of many memorable and beautiful days in California. And it’s good to remember the Reagan Years.

The library presents Reagan’s story very well from early Hollywood days dealing with communiststhrough his presidency, from dealing with riots on college campuses as a new Governor, to dealing with striking air traffic controllers and refusing to give up SDI in negotiations with Gorbachev. He knew what to do.

Reagan is known as the Great Communicator. I suppose for some that appellation only means he could read a speech well, but I think he was the Great Communicator because he understood what his job was and how to get it done. Of course, he understood that he could only do so much; the people have work to do. But who likes being told what to do? to be bossed around? and by a subordinate? He didn’t boss us, but he knew how to lead us, “We the People,” to encourage us, to inspire us. Just take a look again at a couple of his speeches.

He helped to inspire us by reminding us about ourselves. He reminded us about people, heroes, like Martin Treptow. After reminding us of our better nature, he ended his First Inaugural:

“The crisis we are facing today does not require of us the kind of sacrifice that Martin Treptow and so many thousands of others were called upon to make. It does require, however, our best effort, and our willingness to believe in ourselves and to believe in our capacity to perform great deeds; to believe that together, with God’s help, we can and will resolve the problems which now confront us.

“And, after all, why shouldn’t we believe that? We are Americans. God bless you, and thank you.”

For a bit about the hero Treptow, see here.

In his farewell he speaks of a “new patriotism” and says, “This national feeling is good, but it won’t count for much, and it won’t last unless it’s grounded in thoughtfulness and knowledge.”

He continued:

An informed patriotism is what we want. And are we doing a good enough job teaching our children what America is and what she represents in the long history of the world? Those of us who are over 35 or so years of age grew up in a different America. We were taught, very directly, what it means to be an American. And we absorbed, almost in the air, a love of country and an appreciation of its institutions. If you didn’t get these things from your family, you got them from the neighborhood, from the father down the street who fought in Korea or the family who lost someone at Anzio. Or you could get a sense of patriotism from school. And if all else failed, you could get a sense of patriotism from popular culture. The movies celebrated democratic values and implicitly reinforced the idea that America was special. TV was like that, too, through the mid-‘60s.

But now, we’re about to enter the ‘90s, and some things have changed. . . . Our spirit is back, but we haven’t reinstitutionalized it. We’ve got to do a better job of getting across that America is freedom–freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of enterprise. And freedom is special and rare. It’s fragile; it needs protection.

So, we’ve got to teach history based not on what’s in fashion but what’s important: Why the Pilgrims came here. . . . I’m warning of an eradication of the American memory that could result, ultimately, in an erosion of the American spirit. . . .”

Read the rest—it’s all good.

I pray I can keep the faith.