America remembers our beloved 40th president today! In honor of
President Reagan’s 101st birthday, Americans For Prosperity put together
this great video reminding us of the time-tested truths Reagan stood for.
at the Reagan Ranch in Santa Barbara, CA
Last
year at this time, I had the honor of speaking at the Young America’s
Foundation’s Reagan Centennial dinner at the Reagan Ranch Center in
Santa Barbara. You can watch or read the speech
here; it was an homage to Reagan’s famous “Time for Choosing” and a discussion of the state of our nation today.
During
the Illinois leg of the One Nation Tour, we got to visit Reagan’s
hometown of Dixon, as well as his alma mater, Eureka College. It was a
very moving experience, which I wrote about
here,
here and
here.
As I wrote in an
op-ed last year on Reagan’s centennial:
I
had the privilege of coming of age during the era of Ronald Reagan. I
like to think of him as America's lifeguard. As a teenager, Ronald
Reagan saved 77 lives as a lifeguard on the Rock River, which ran
through his hometown of Dixon, Ill. The day he was inaugurated in 1981, a
local radio announcer famously declared, "The Rock River flows for you
tonight, Mr. President."
The image of the
lifeguard seems to represent what Reagan was to America and to the
freedom-loving people of the world. He lifted our country up at a time
when we were in the depths of economic, cultural and spiritual malaise.
We were told that we must accept that the era of American greatness was
over; but with his optimism and common sense, President Reagan held up a
mirror to the American soul to remind us of our exceptionalism.
at the Rock River in Dixon, IL
We
are all so grateful for his courage and leadership; and like President
Reagan, we believe that our best days are yet to come because “there
will always be a bright dawn ahead” for America.
- Sarah Palin