Ronald Reagan’s Quest to Preserve Liberty
Foundations of Freedom
Audio By Carbonatix
By Lynette Kittle, Crosswalk.com
What must every generation do to preserve liberty? William J. Federer, Historian and author of Prayers and Presidents, writes how on March 30, 1961, America’s future 40th President, Ronald Reagan, answered this question while speaking to the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce, addressing the importance of passing on our gratitude for the history, lessons, and sacrifices of freedom to our future generations:
"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it on to our children in the bloodstream. The only way they can inherit the freedom we have known is if we fight for it, protect it, defend it, and then hand it to them with the well-taught lessons of how they in their lifetime must do the same. And if you and I don't do this, then you and I may well spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it once was like in America when men were free."
Reagan’s Voice for Freedom
Although Reagan’s life began on a small family farm in Illinois, his voice would become a powerful influence in preserving not only America’s liberty but also in promoting freedom worldwide. Rising to become a beloved film and television star, made his face recognizable around the world, helping him to be loved and admired long before becoming the 33rd Governor of California and the 40th President of the United States of America. Early on in his political career, Reagan recognized the high cost of freedom and the priceless worth of liberty. Federer notes that Reagan stated in 1961:
“In this country of ours took place the greatest revolution that has ever taken place in the world’s history—every other revolution simply exchanged one set of rulers for another…Here for the first time in all the thousands of years of man’s relation to man…the Founding Fathers established the idea that you and I had within ourselves the God-given right and ability to determine our own destiny.”
In 1964, Reagan stated, “If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on Earth. And this idea that government is beholden to the people, that it has no other source of power except to sovereign people, is still the newest and most unique idea in all the long history of man’s relation to man. This is the issue of this election. Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves.”
Historian and Providence Forum Executive Director, Dr. Jerry Newcombe, co-author of Thomas Jefferson and The God Who Gave Us Liberty, describes how Reagan always reminded us to remember God, the ultimate source of America’s liberty as he saw it. He said, “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.”
Reagan’s Heart for Worldwide Freedom
On June 12, 1987, in an address at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany, President Reagan made the following bold statement.
“Behind me stands a wall that encircles the free sectors of this city, part of a vast system of barriers that divides the entire continent of Europe…Standing before the Brandenburg Gate, every man is a German, separated from his fellow men. Everyman is a Berliner, forced to look upon a scar…As long as this gate is closed, as long as this scar of a wall is permitted to stand, it is not the German question alone that remains open, but the question of freedom for all mankind….General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Easter Europe, if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”
Although his words rang around the world, far and wide, the Berlin Wall didn’t come down until 2 year later, in November 1989. President Reagan was credited with having a great influence in East Germany, issuing a decree for the wall to be opened, allowing its citizens to travel freely into West Berlin, reuniting some families that had been separated by it for decades. By 1990, the wall was completely torn down, ending the Cold War and seeing the end of Communism in Eastern Europe and also Soviet Russia.
Reagan’s Hope for America’s Freedom
Bishop E.W. Jackson, Founder and President of STAND, and Author of Sweet Land of Liberty, writes, “Ronald Reagan continued the long legacy of those who prized freedom more than life itself. He was passionate and patriotic. He inspired us, but also reminded us that freedom is not free. When he was almost killed by an assassin’s bullet, he found even greater courage and faith to continue fighting.”
In 1989, at the end of Reagan’s second Presidential term, he stated, “Whatever else history may say about me when I’m gone, I hope it will record that I appealed to your best hopes, not your worst fears; to your confidence rather than your doubts. My dream is that you will travel the road ahead with liberty’s lamp guiding your steps and opportunity’s arm steadying your way.”
“He is a constant reminder,” writes Jackson, “that as Americans we are not only fighting to preserve our own liberty, but to pass the legacy of freedom on to the next generation.”
Photo credit: ©Getty Images/Handout
Lynette Kittle is married with four daughters. She enjoys writing about faith, marriage, parenting, relationships, and life. Her writing has been published by Focus on the Family, Decision, Today’s Christian Woman, kirkcameron.com, Ungrind.org, StartMarriageRight.com, and more. She has a M.A. in Communication from Regent University and serves as associate producer for Soul Check TV.
