Good morning, it's Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, and the day of the week when I share a quote meant to be enlightening and uplifting. Today's words come from the 40th U.S. president, and I felt moved to reprise them after attending the second Republican presidential debate of the season Wednesday at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library & Museum.
"You know, down the hall and up the stairs from this office is the part of the White House where the President and his family live," Reagan said at the outset of his speech. "There are a few favorite windows I have up there that I like to stand and look out of early in the morning. The view is over the grounds here to the Washington Monument, and then the Mall and the Jefferson Memorial. But on mornings when the humidity is low, you can see past the Jefferson to the river, the Potomac, and the Virginia shore. Someone said that's the view Lincoln had when he saw the smoke rising from the Battle of Bull Run. I see more prosaic things: the grass on the banks, the morning traffic as people make their way to work, now and then a sailboat on the river."
"I've been thinking a bit at that window," he continued. "I've been reflecting on what the past eight years have meant and mean. And the image that comes to mind like a refrain is a nautical one -- a small story about a big ship, and a refugee, and a sailor."
Picking back up the narrative of Ronald Reagan's Jan. 11, 1989, farewell speech, the president returned to the sea …
"It was back in the early eighties, at the height of the boat people. And the sailor was hard at work on the carrier Midway, which was patrolling the South China Sea. The sailor, like most American servicemen, was young, smart, and fiercely observant. The crew spied on the horizon a leaky little boat. And crammed inside were refugees from Indochina hoping to get to America. The Midway sent a small launch to bring them to the ship and safety. As the refugees made their way through the choppy seas, one spied the sailor on deck, and stood up, and called out to him. He yelled, ‘Hello, American sailor! Hello, freedom man!'
"A small moment with a big meaning, a moment the sailor, who wrote it in a letter, couldn't get out of his mind. And, when I saw it, neither could I. Because that's what it was to be an American in the 1980's. We stood, again, for freedom. I know we always have, but in the past few years the world again -- and in a way, we ourselves -- rediscovered it.
"It's been quite a journey this decade, and we held together through some stormy seas. And at the end, together, we are reaching our destination."
Reagan went on to describe some of the ups (negotiating arms reductions with the Russians) and downs (massive deficit spending) of his presidency. He said he'd been called "The Great Communicator" for a long time, but deflected the compliment back to the American people. In Reagan's telling, his gift was articulating what most Americans already believed.
"And that's about all I have to say tonight, except for one thing," he added. "The past few days when I've been at that window upstairs, I've thought a bit of the ‘shining city upon a hill.' The phrase comes from John Winthrop, who wrote it to describe the America he imagined. What he imagined was important because he was an early Pilgrim, an early freedom man. He journeyed here on what today we'd call a little wooden boat; and like the other Pilgrims, he was looking for a home that would be free.
"I've spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don't know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my mind it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, wind-swept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity. And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here. That's how I saw it, and see it still.
"And how stands the city on this winter night? More prosperous, more secure, and happier than it was eight years ago. But more than that: After 200 years, two centuries, she still stands strong and true on the granite ridge, and her glow has held steady no matter what storm. And she's still a beacon, still a magnet for all who must have freedom, for all the pilgrims from all the lost places who are hurtling through the darkness, toward home.
"We've done our part. And as I walk off into the city streets, a final word to the men and women of the Reagan revolution, the men and women across America who for eight years did the work that brought America back. My friends: We did it. We weren't just marking time. We made a difference. We made the city stronger, we made the city freer, and we left her in good hands. All in all, not bad, not bad at all.
"And so, goodbye, God bless you, and God bless the United States of America."
And that's our (very long) quote of the week.
Carl M. Cannon is the Washington bureau chief for RealClearPolitics. Reach him on Twitter @CarlCannon
