Final Tribute to Ronald Reagan

by John McClaughry

When impartial future historians write the history of the twentieth century, they will pay tribute to the greatness of Ronald Reagan and what he did for his beloved America.

Coming into office when this country's morale was at a depressing low point, his sunny optimism, his belief in freedom and opportunity, his courageous leadership, and his simple but strong faith in his God and his country revived America's flagging spirits, and gave new purpose to its role in the world. His policies set off an eight year boom that took America's economic strength to new heights, and brought increased prosperity to rich and poor alike.. Thanks to his steadfast moral and political opposition to communism, by the time he departed office our nation's most menacing foe had fallen into a state of terminal collapse.

More so than any president of the 20 th Century, the constellation that guided Ronald was his deeply held belief in freedom. As he said in a memorable address to the students of Moscow University in 1988, "Freedom is the recognition that no single person, no single authority or government has a monopoly on the truth, but that every individual life is infinitely precious, that every one of us put on this earth has been put here for a reason and has something to offer... Because [Americans] know that liberty, just as life itself, is not earned, but a gift from God, they seek to share that gift with the world."

Ronald Reagan believed in freedom for every person everywhere - the freedom to work at a calling of one's choice, the freedom to enjoy the fruits of one's labors, the freedom to own and control one's property, and the freedom to participate in a free market. He believed in restraining the heavy hand of government in the lives of our people, because as he often said, as government grows, liberty shrinks. "The issue is not one of left and right", he once observed. "The real issue is how to reverse the flow of power to ever more remote institutions, and to restore that power to the individual, the family, and the local community."

There is not a man or woman who treads the earth with the spirit of the free who does not thank God that Ronald Reagan lived, and that his life goes marching on. He has at last passed from the dark shadow of his final years into the sunlight, to that little corner of heaven reserved for those who spoke and acted to preserve liberty and advance the rights of mankind. All Americans, and all men and women anywhere in the world who yearn for freedom and human rights, would do well to pluck a flower from Ronald Reagan's life, and wear it in their soul forever. May he rest in peace and honor.

-- John McClaughry was a speechwriter for Ronald Reagan from 1977 through the successful Presidential campaign of 1980, and vice chair of the Vermont Reagan for President Committee of 1980. He served as Senior Policy Advisor in the Reagan White House from January 1981 to April 1982, and by President Reagan's appointment on two presidential advisory commissions. McClaughry later served two terms in the Vermont Senate, and since 1993 has been President of the nonpartisan Ethan Allen Institute. McClaughry was a Heritage Fellow from 1982-83.