Regarding Reagan

I am unsure as to precisely what to say about the passed President. There's been so much said about the man in the past few days. I reckon I'll try to keep it simple and hyperbole-free by just saying this:

President Reagan taught me to feel good about my country. He was virtually unwavering in his zeal to highlight what was right about America in a time when, like today, there were so many who seem driven to highlight what was wrong. I remember with stark clarity what "tonic to the parched" that was following the doubt-inducing scandal of Watergate and the optimism-devoid Carter Years.

I was eighteen was Reagan was elected. His eight years in office shaped my politics, and my views beyond politics, forever. He did so in two ways.

Reagan believed, as I do today, that America is the greatest invention in the history of the world, an invention that far surpasses any vaccine or machine ever created in terms of its benefits to mankind. Perfect? No. But marvelous, nonetheless.

Secondly, Reagan believed, as I do, that American government derives its greatness only insofar as it empowers the American people to utilize their guts, their sweat, their innovative fervor, their intrepid spirit, and their balance of team and self-ambition to do good for their families, their communities, their Nation, and the world. And Reagan believed that those were the properties born into all men, not just Americans; that all men so endowed with Liberty would expend their energies on those endeavours that create good, not evil.

I lack the words required to describe how that ideal influences how I live my life as a father, as a husband, as a son and brother and neighbor and coworker and citizen.

Ronald Reagan is likely to be the last President old enough to be my dad. He is likely to be the last President to influence me as much as my father has. Like my dad is, Ronald Reagan was just a man, an imperfect man. And like my dad (though to an extent neither as wide nor as deep as my dad), Ronald Reagan helped shape who I am today.

I love America. I revel in Her past accomplishments, and Her vast promises for the future. I believe Her government governs best when it frees people to achieve what the human spirit in all of us makes possible. I believe Her people will ply that spirit into greatness in the future as they have in the past.

These things I learned from President Ronald Reagan. His legacy will not be the mere economic or geopolitical achievements of his Presidency. His legacy is the millions of Americans, and millions of freed Eastern Europeans, who learned about the gift of freedom from a man for whom the proliferation of freedom was a near-obsessive aim.

Rest in Peace, Mr. President.