American Minute: Ronald Reagan

February 6, 1911

Ronald Reagan was born FEBRUARY 6, 1911.

A graduate of Eureka College, IL, 1932, he worked as a life guard and then announced for radio stations in Iowa.

He became a sports announcer for Chicago Cubs baseball games and traveled with the team.

While with the Cubs in California, Ronald Reagan auditioned with Warner Brothers, landing a contract doing “B films.”

He was a Captain in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II.

During his career as an actor Ronald Reagan appeared in over 50 films, including Dark Victory; Knute Rockne, All American; This is the Army, and Kings Row.

He married Jane Wyman and had children Maureen, Christine (died a day old), and Michael (adopted).

Ronald Reagan was elected President of the Screen Actors Guild, switched from Democrat to Republican, and eventually became Governor of California.

His second marriage, to Nancy Davis, 1952, gave them children Patti and Ron.

At age sixty-nine, he was the second oldest person elected U.S. President, and sixty-nine days after his inauguration, he survived an assassination attempt.

Ronald Reagan stated at St. John’s University in New York, March 28, 1985:

Government that is big enough to give you everything you want is more likely to simply take everything you’ve got.

Reagan remarked to the Heritage Council, Warren, Michigan, October 10, 1984:

Henry David Thoreau was right:  that government is best which governs least.

In his 1964 speech, “A Time for Choosing,” Ronald Reagan stated:

I suggest to you there is no left or right, only an up or down. Up to the maximum of individual freedom consistent with law and order, or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism;

and regardless of their humanitarian purpose, those who would sacrifice freedom for security have, whether they know it or not, chosen this downward path.

Ronald Reagan in 1976 at his home at Rancho del Cielo (Public Domain)

Ronald Reagan stated in Beijing, China, April 27, 1984:

I have seen the rise of fascism and communism. Both philosophies glorify the arbitrary power of the state … But both theories fail.

Both deny those God-given liberties that are the inalienable right of each person on this planet, indeed, they deny the existence of God.

On March 20, 1981, at the Conservative Political Action Conference Dinner, Mayflower Hotel, Washington, DC, Ronald Reagan stated:

Evil is powerless if the good are unafraid.

That’s why the Marxist vision of man without God must eventually be seen as an empty and a false faith—the second oldest in the world—first proclaimed in the Garden of Eden with whispered words …’Ye shall be as gods.’

The crisis of the Western world … exists to the degree in which it is indifferent to God.

In his autobiography, An American Life (Simon & Schuster, 1990, p. 409), Ronald Reagan wrote:

Radical fundamentalist sects … have institutionalized murder and terrorism in the name of God, promising followers instant entry into paradise if they die for their faith or kill an enemy who challenges it.

Twice in recent years, America has lost loyal allies in the Middle East, the shah of Iran, and Anwar Sadat, at the hands of these fanatics.

I don’t think you can overstate the importance that the rise of Islamic fundamentalism will have to the rest of the world in the century ahead—especially if, as seems possible, its most fanatical elements get their hands on nuclear and chemical weapons and the means to deliver them against their enemies.

On May 17, 1982, in a proposed Constitutional Amendment on Prayer in Schools, President Ronald Reagan stated:

Our liberty springs from and depends upon an abiding faith in God.

President Reagan proclaimed:

Now, therefore, I, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States of America, in recognition of the contributions and influence of the Bible on our Republic and our people, do hereby proclaim 1983 the ‘Year of the Bible’ in the United States.

I encourage all citizens, each in his or her own way, to reexamine and rediscover its priceless and timeless message.

Ronald Reagan wrote in his article, “Abortion and the Conscience of the Nation,” The Human Life Review, 1983:

Lincoln recognized that we could not survive as a free land when some men could decide that others were not fit to be free and should be slaves …

Likewise, we cannot survive as a free nation when some men decide that others are not fit to live and should be abandoned to abortion.

At the Alfred M. Landon Lecture Series, 1982, Ronald Reagan stated:

We can’t have it both ways. We can’t expect God to protect us in a crisis and just leave Him over there on the shelf in our day-to-day living.

I wonder if sometimes He isn’t waiting for us to wake up, He isn’t maybe running out of patience.

Ronald Reagan, 40th President of the United States (Public Domain)

At Reunion Arena in Dallas, 1984, Ronald Reagan stated:

Without God there is no virtue because there is no prompting of the conscience … without God there is a coarsening of the society; without God democracy will not and cannot long endure …

America needs God more than God needs America. If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a Nation gone under.

In 1961, Ronald Reagan stated:

One of the traditional methods of imposing statism or socialism on a people has been by way of medicine. It’s very easy to disguise a medical program as a humanitarian project …

James Madison in 1788 … said … ‘There are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachment of those in power, than by violent and sudden usurpations’ …

What can we do about this? … We can write to our congressmen and our senators … Say right now that we want no further encroachment on these individual liberties and freedoms … We do not want socialized medicine …

If you don’t, this program I promise you will pass … and behind it will come other federal programs that will invade every area of freedom as we have known … until, one day … we will awake to find that we have socialism.

And … you and I are going to spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children, what it once was like in America when men were free.