I’m filing this under “memories” — not “politics” — because Ronald Reagan was my President when I was too young to consider checks and balances, doctrine and dissention. I was almost 8 when he was inaugurated in 1980. I watched it on television. Two months later, I watched him frown and fall, shoved into a limousine with a bullet in his side. On television, I did. I was home from school, sick for one reason or another. During the chaos that followed, they reported he was dead, then quickly reversed and retracted. The frustration on the anchorman’s face and in his voice was painful.
He recovered, of course, and would return again and again to my television set. Sometimes he’d be walking from Air Force One, or sitting with Nancy, or standing in the Rose Garden with Margaret Thatcher. But I liked it best when he spoke just to me and the rest of us watching. The sunshine in the Garden was friendly to his lined face and slant hair, but television cameras loved him. And he had that voice, that timbred rumble with measured hesitation. Comedians used it to make him sound doddering, but the real thing was full of just what we needed at the time. Confidence. Optimism. And assurance.
When I heard the news on Saturday, one speech in particular came to mind. Six years into his life in the White House, President Reagan found himself delivering a speech of condolence and sympathy instead of the State of the Union he’d prepared.
We’ve grown used to wonders in this century. It’s hard to dazzle us. But for 25 years the United States space program has been doing just that. We’ve grown used to the idea of space, and perhaps we forget that we’ve only just begun. We’re still pioneers. They, the members of the Challenger crew, were pioneers.*
It’s shorter than I remember. Just under 700 words. But there he was, our television President, using a simple box to convey a much needed message. He knew, he understood, he was sad, but he still had hope. He even directed a portion of it just to us, to the kids that watched it unfold that morning. For all of the decisions made before and the controversy to be revealed after, I will always be grateful to him for that speech, if nothing else.
Goodnight, Mr President.
Comments are disabled for this post