28 Days of Ronald Reagan – Day 28

“The poet called Miss Liberty’s torch ‘the lamp beside the golden door.’ Well, that was the entrance to America, and it still is. And now you really know why we’re here tonight. The glistening hope of that lamp is still ours. Every promise, every opportunity, is still golden in this land. And through that golden door our children can walk into tomorrow with the knowledge that no one can be denied the promise that is America. Her heart is full; her torch is still golden, her future bright. She has arms big enough to comfort and strong enough to support, for the strength in her arms is the strength of her people. She will carry on in the ’80s unafraid, unashamed, and unsurpassed. In this springtime of hope, some lights seem eternal; America’s is.”

August 23, 1984 — in his speech to the Republican National Convention

Ronald Wilson Reagan
February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004
40th President of the United States

February 6, 2011 marks the Centennial of Ronald Reagan’s birth.  Reagan was unquestionably the greatest President of my lifetime, and in my opinion, the greatest President of the 20th Century.  For the month of February, 2011, we present “28 Days of Ronald Reagan” featuring a daily tribute.  We’ll include his wit, and his wisdom and some of our favorite stories.

February 28, 1991: The End of Operation Desert Storm and the 20 Years After

 

 

Twenty years ago tomorrow marks the anniversary of one of the most stunning victories ever achieved by the Armed Forces of the United States (or any nation, as far as that goes). As George Herbert Walker Bush so beautifully and movingly observed at the time, they did so with great honor, and with great valor. Their sacrifice and power stands to this day as an exemplary light to our nation.

via February 28, 1991: The End of Operation Desert Storm and the 20 Years After | RedState.

I was working in Washington, DC as the Meetings and Conventions Director for the American Legislative Exchange Council.  During the Reagan and George H.W. Bush years we were privieleged to take a select group of state legislators to the White House each year to hear the President.  In 1991, our meeting was just shortly after the end of Operation Desert Storm.  Those were exciting times, and it was in that speech that President Bush first declared:

“By God, we’ve kicked the Vietnam syndrome once and for all!”