President Reagan achieved peace through strength and restoration of the American dream. He believed in individual liberty and the natural rights of all men as endowed by our Creator.
And more. Ronald Reagan was a decent, winning, humble, and honorable man who practiced the politics of principled compromise and personal courtesy, rooted in his religious worldview.
In his farewell address, he recalled his major political theme, that America would forever be a Shining City on a Hill.
This symbolic image was first imagined by John Winthrop, the Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, who, in citing the Sermon on the Mount, asserted back in 1620 that he was founding a new Zion, in the new world.
“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in Heaven.”
Ronald Reagan was inspired by this thread of connection to the seekers of light, to the leaders of new paths lit by reverence for the good, and to the glorious spirit that inspires Americans, still, to be a blessed nation, in a blessed land.
Michael Reagan, son of Ronald Reagan, and Larry Greenfield, are President and Founding Executive Director, respectively, of the Reagan Legacy Foundation.