I believe that Ronald Reagan gave us more of the best quotes about our country than any other president. As I was thinking about President’s Day, I remembered a quote by him, “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same or one day, we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States when men were free.”
The best example of Reagan’s quote are the two presidents we recognize every year on the third Monday in February. Our country owes an incredible debt to the two presidents who were born just ten days and 77 years apart: George Washington (b. February 22, 1732) and Abraham Lincoln (b. February 12, 1809 ).
George Washington was known as the “Indispensable Man” and deserved that recognition starting with his role as general of the Colonial Army to fight against arguably the greatest army in the world at that time, the British Army. Washington’s “army” would better be described as a guerrilla group than an actual army. Most of their victories were raids rather than face-to-face battles. Keeping this ‘army’ together could not have been done by anyone other than George Washington. When he was offered a monarchy, he quickly denied understanding and embracing true democracy. As the first president, he set precedents that are still with us today.
President Abraham Lincoln was the complete opposite of our first president. Washington was very rich, Lincoln was very poor. Washington was a poor public speaker, Lincoln was one of the greatest orators in American history. But what they had in common was a rock-solid stand on freedom and democracy. Both of these men had to fight for it on the field of battle and among those who disagreed with their stand for democracy and freedom.
Which brings us back to President Reagan’s quote above. I believe it gives us a guideline for where we are now and what we need to do in the future. Consider each sentence from President Reagan’s quote:
Reagan: “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.”
Response: Do our schools really teach our founding principles, the role of each branch of government, our electoral process, policy making of government, checks and balances in the branches of government, etc? If not, why not?
Reagan: “We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream.”
Response: Are we taking for granted that the next generation will just discover our country’s core values and principles by osmosis? What are they learning about our country’s foundation?
Reagan: “It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same…”
Response: Martin Luther King believed that the “arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” President Reagan would agree on that point but also recognized that it would not come without diligence. The Trump Administration is discovering billions of wasted dollars yet is being blocked in every way to present changes in these practices. Truth does come out eventually, but often many years too late.
Reagan: “…or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”
Response: That would be the endgame for the United States of America if we failed to hold up our country’s foundation.
Pause and consider President’s Day, even if it has passed when you got your Webb Weekly. Can we just take a few moments to thank God that we are where we are, on the precipice of a two-hundred-and-fifty-year anniversary of a country that is truly the envy of the world? Can we be more active in telling our elected officials how important it is to secure our foundational principles? They did not come about, nor did they survive till now without struggle. Our freedoms have been delivered to us today from those men and women who served and fought and sacrificed in the past. We must never forget — freedom is not free.
