ERM - City On A Hill

 

Report By E.R. Mast

 

THE CITY ON A HILL   by Michael Reagan

 

 

Former President Ronald Reagan had a vision of America, that we should be like a “SHINING CITY ON A HILL,” with the eyes of all people on us. This is also how his son the author of this book sees America. Therefore Michael Reagan covers issues and events that the rest of the Media did not touch. He is trying to carry on His fathers dream presented as a practical Reaganesque agenda for shrinking government, and expanding freedom in our land, so that America can once again be the “Shining City on a hill’ that it was intended to be. A place of vital schools and safe streets. A place where families keep and enjoy the fruits of their labor. A place that thrives and prospers, but where the most important global export is 'FREEDOM.”

Former Ronald Reagan said in his farewell address to the nation:---(quote) "I have spoken of the Shining City all my political life. In my mind it was a tall proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, windswept, God bless, and teeming with all kinds of people living in harmony and peace. A City with free ports that hummed with Commerce, and creativity. And if there had to be a city wall, the walls then had doors and the doors were open to all who had the will and the heart to get here.” (Unquote). That is how President Reagan saw it.

Today the city is no longer built on rocks. The very foundation, our once great constitution is tramped on. Still God blessed to a certain extent, perhaps, but hardly anyone appreciating God's blessing. And another god is thought of instead of the ONE and ONLY Jesus the Christ. In fact today many gods now cause conflict. The free ports are being rented out to the communists countries. Yes, the doors are open but this rush to bring in people was only for the purpose of controlling an election so that we would slide further down the scale from this vision of THE SHINING CITY ON A HILL.

Michael Reagan is a radio talk show hosts. He is on the Internet, writes a monthly newsletter, and is the author of this book and others. He says that like his father----thanks to his dad for his vision and love for America. More than any other individual he knew, for he was able to see the greatness of this land and its people. Not merely as they are, but as they could be. He saw this SHINING CITY ON A HILL, and he drew up a blueprint for it. Now it is up to you and to me to go built it. We would say that the longer we wait the harder it will be without the help of the Almighty an impossibility.

Michael Reagan gives us sayings of his father that the regular media overlooked. He says that on the last day of the Reagan Presidency his father had this to say:--(quote) "It’s been quite a journey thru some stormy seas. From Grenada to Washington and Moscow summits, from the recession of 1981-1982, to the expansion that began in 1982, and which continues to this day. We made a difference. There are two things I am most proud of, one is the economic recovery, in which the people of America created, and filled 19 million new jobs. The other is the recovery of our moral fiber. America is again respected around the world, and looked at for leadership. Ours was the first revolution in the history of mankind that truly reversed the course of government with three little words:--"We the people.” For We the people are the driver and government is the car. We decide where it shall go and by what route, and how fast. It was from John Winthrop that Reagan received his vision for this SHINING CITY ON A HILL. John Winthrop was an early pilgrim. He had journeyed here on what today, we would call a little wooden boat, but he was looking for a home that would be free.

Thus the last day of his Presidency then Ronald Reagan stood at the window of the Oval Office and looked out at the city, more prosperous, more safe than it had been eight years before. And after 200 centuries she still stood strong and true, on a granite ridge. The glow has held steady, no matter what storm. And she still has a beacon, still a magnet for all who must have freedom, for all the pilgrims from all the lost places who are hurtling thru the darkness toward home. We have done our part, and as I walk off into the city streets, a final word to the men and women of this Reagan Revolution. The men and women across America who for eight years did the work that brought America back. To them we say God Bless, for 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. (Unquote).

Michael Reagan then declares that this was the legacy left for George Bush. And instead of building on that Foundation, George Bush began to distance himself from it. He called the Ronald Reagan 'supply side' theory---”voodooism" economics. Bush had been there and he had seen how it had worked. Yet he supported a massive tax hike because he thought that higher taxes would help close the gap in the huge deficit. In the end Bush's tax hike didn't close the federal deficit at all but it did contribute to a lot of middle-income families budget deficits. Worse, it produced the recession that hurt American businesses and families and corroded Bush's lead in the polls, and gave Bill Clinton his winning campaign issue.

To make matters worse, Mr. Bush also betrayed the defense agenda of Ronald Reagan. Immediately after using the military might which President Reagan had restored in the Desert Storm activity. He proceeded to slash defense spending, supposedly in response to a reduced threat from the forces of the Soviet Union following the collapse of communism. The came the election of 1996. At the Republican National Convention in San Diego it was as tho the Contract with America never existed, but at the Democrat convention Bill Clinton ran on virtually every achievement of this “CONTRACT WITH AMERICA." It was ludicrous.---Bill Clinton ran on the CONTRACT WITH AMERICA, and the Republicans ran away from it.

A Diagram is provided in this book showing what is wrong with America. It is of a chair with four legs, but one leg is much longer than the other. And that leg is the government with the other legs ---family, business, and Religion-civic, much shorter legs. Thus, a healthy society is a balanced one, built and setting on four sturdy legs each bearing an equal share of the load. This is the vision of Congressman Radanovich from California, and this is his vision for America.

Our author tells us that from the Reagan era to today one of the biggest roadblocks to shrinking government has been fear. The fear that if the government gets out of the welfare business, the poor and the needy will have no where to turn for help. Thus here at the brink of the new Millennium America now looks like a vast concrete fortress, on a hill surrounded by three squalid little slums, populated by bickering contentious factions. This is our federal government, huge and imposing, bureaucratic and impersonal, cold and forbidding, demanding and intimidating.

Ronald Reagan always warned that man is not free unless government is limited. Thus, the Washington bureaucracy represents force and control . . . not freedom.

Now; --A Shining City is divided into four parts:---

1. The Neighborhood where the American family lives free and grows strong.

2. The Corner of Faith and Charity, where the religious and civic institutions of a free city live out their beliefs, and carry on their compassionate work.

3. Main street, bustling, and prosperous, where business and industry of our city are freely conducted.

4. The city Square is where the city’s public servants govern. According to "WE THE PEOPLE.”

This would be the Shining city in all its glory, a golden and prosperous city, a beacon to all who seek freedom. A place of opportunity and compassion, of vital schools and safe streets and a place where people keep and enjoy the fruits of their labors. But where they also look out for the needs of their neighbors. This book says: Michael Reagan is a blueprint for that city.

Thus here in the pages that follow we will look at this SHINING CITY thru the eyes of Ronald Reagan and hear it described in his words. We will see how, by joining together to build the city, we can meet the challenges and solve the problems of today, and tomorrow. If we can restore this vision for America, and make it real again, our greatest days, our shining new millennium may be just around the corner.

(This makes me think of the entrance to the Kings Chamber in the Great Pyramid. Notice how low that entrance to it is. Maybe this is where we are today, almost on our knees.)

Now; Liberals love to quote the old African proverb:--"It takes a village to raise a child." There is a lot of wisdom in that if you mean neighbors helping neighbor, friends helping friends, and grandparents helping families, baby sitting, getting involved with the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, and so forth. These are all ways the local community can help. Unfortunately Liberals like Hillary Clinton mean that it takes a liberal government, and higher taxes, and more spending to raise a child. And they do not want your local neighborhood helping at all. They want a big spear toting village chieftain to make sure you raise your child according to political--correct village laws and taboos. So let’s understand one another. Get out of Washington, D.C. and most of the liberals want the same thing, as we for our children and our older folks. So let’s not call a Village a Village unless we understand what we are talking about.

The liberal intends for the 'village' for our children, to be the Almighty state, not parents deciding what is best for children, no they envision a brave new world in which children are protected from the love of nurturing of their own parents. It is hard to believe but time after time the government makes itself the enemy of the American family, by inserting itself into where it is not wanted. The author of this book gives instances where the so called child protection agencies have done this. CPS is thus out of control, a government bureaucracy with the power to rip children out of their homes. Every year this agency removes 100,000 to 150,000 kids from their homes. In Colorado a bill called the Children's welfare act, has been proposed which will require all Colorado parents to allow a government 'home visitor' into their homes to assess the parents as potential abusers.

Remember, it is in the family where children are to learn honesty, diligence, honor, self respect and respect for others. In other words the American family is under assault, and it is Uncle Sam who is kicking down the door. Michael Reagan tells of an incident involving his father and children, which is so different as to how it was handled from today. Once Ronald Reagan was speaking at a rally in North Carolina when he was running for President. A woman approached him and touched his arm, saying--'I have brought a group of blind children to this rally, would it be possible for them to shake hands with you after your speech?’ Think of the photo opt of today. As the speech was ended, then Governor Reagan said to his aides, on the Campaign bus: ---'Look, I do not want the press to get wind of this for I do not want anyone to think I'm trying to exploit children in this campaign. But just bring the children over here to the bus, and I will talk to them.’ So the kids, five of them, came into the bus and Governor Reagan talked to them for a few minutes and then he said to the blind children:-- “Would you like to touch my face?” For He knew that a blind child could not 'see' him unless they touched his face. Here was a very public man giving these blind children a private moment of his time.

And as he watched this scene, Mr. Rohrabacher, the California Congressman with the Campaign bus thought:--what politician would not give a million to have that picture on ‘Time or Newsweek?’

Just think of the picture with all of those small hands outstretched to touch his face. The difference here was that Ronald Reagan genuinely cared for kids, not as window dressing for a photo opt, but as people.

Once a woman wrote to Ronald Reagan saying she was having a hard time raising her son by herself. She was sure that she would never be able to send him to college. She had however sent a small check for his campaign and had asked that after cashing the check could she have it back to keep for a souvenir Mr. Reagan cashed the check and put it in an envelope and addressed it to the lady and then he wrote a check for several hundred dollars and put that in the envelope as well saying that here was a start on the money for her son’s college fund.

Thus we learn that President Reagan remembered the American family as he came into the Presidency. This feeling was behind his work for a tax cut. The family was the winner under President Reagan. The President Bush came along and broke the ranks and raised taxes, using a Democrat Congress. And that’s the first thing that President Clinton did as he came into office. As the Contract with America came into being and Congress passed the major plan for tax reform and tax relief, then Bill Clinton vetoed it. And used that money to buy votes, and pay off special interests. The center piece of this is the $500.00 per child tax credit. It is now passed but added taxes will cut it down some what.

Today the American family is taxed with both father and mother working until many things for the family cannot be afforded, even with the two pay checks. Economic fairness for families was the great guiding dream of Ronald Reagan. The press tried to tear down President Reagan saying he is a hypocrite because of his defense of the American family, because he was divorced, his children were mad at him. And yes he was divorced once and he had struggles in his relationship with his children. But here today, we have Michael Reagan, a son by his first wife, writing this book and now after being around his father more he now understands and loves and respects him more and more. This perhaps the results of growing up. Here at last Michael Reagan understands what his father has been meaning as he preached---The American family must remain free and morally strong.

One day Michael Reagan stopped to think and he said to himself:---I never hugged my dad, and he really never hugged me. And as he was thinking this about their early life and then the divorce he realized that his Dad had thought that men should be strong and not hug each other. Men just do not do that. But today as Michael goes to see his father, sometimes his father because of that dreaded disease does not remember his name, but he remembers that Michael is the one who comes to hug him when he arrives and when he leaves. And he looks forward to that. Thus, father and son finally understand each other. Michael is glad that finally he has stopped fuming and apologizing about the problem between him and his father. He sees the institution of Marriage in decline and now he is angry. But Anger is not enough. We have to take back out society and make it family friendly once more. America can become that SHINING CITY ON A HILL where families are nurtured and protected, where kids come and go to good schools with good teachers, and where parents can afford to be good parents.

Today beware of misleading child advocacy rhetoric. A good example of that was the massive child immunization program that Hillary Clinton, in 1994, proposes. This was a government program devised to fix a problem that never existed. Children were being immunized--vaccinated--96% of them, at least. Yet the Clinton administration in true Socialistic fashion sought to distribute vaccine nation wide, from a single, centralized, government run warehouse in New Jersey. The vaccine manufacturers found that the White House had not even supplied refrigeration enough for this project, thus, the vaccine could become dangerous to the kids. The result was that for months kids were not vaccinated where they would have been if left under the control of state and local facilities which had been seeing to the vaccination all the time before this government idea came into being. Thus as we have seen these programs for the destruction of our families, has been increasing, and we see a catastrophe growing for America. More teen pregnancies, the juvenile crime crisis, the drug crisis, the education crisis. Evidence points to show that these plagues on our society are actually sub-crisis in America--the crises of broken homes.

Today we find one group at least paying lip service to this problem by advocating a renewal of your commitment to your marriage and your family. Michael Reagan recalls that his dad said to him once:--(quote) “Mike, you know better than many what an unhappy home is, and what it can do to others. Now you have a chance to make it come out the way it should. For there is no greater happiness for a man approaching a door at the end of the day knowing someone is on the other side of that door waiting for the sound of his footsteps. P.S. You will never get in trouble if you say 'I love you' at least once a day.” (Unquote).

Michael Reagan himself went thru a divorce, but now married again is determined to relive his fathers dream, this marriage he says is for life, and it is for keeps and he means to work to keep it that way. For he realizes that the family is the foundation of our society. And when the family is finished then America will be finished. Only when the family is strong will the SHINING CITY ON A HILL be truly secure. To return to this path we need to return to the principals that this nation was founded on. We must stop dumping more money into the broken educational system. We must cut out that which does not work and rescue that which used to work.

Here is a quotation from a speech by Ronald Reagan before the Conservative Political Action Conference, March 20, 1981:----

"Just as sure as we seek to put our financial house in order, and rebuild our nation's defenses, so to we must seek to end the manipulation of our school children by utopian planners."

Today what they are teaching kids in school is to be more tolerant of the big bad wolf. Oops--scratch that---can't say bad---that is judgmental so call him the big Culturally deprived wolf. After all he is just misunderstood. He is confused and does not know any better. That is why he wants to eat all those little pigs. If we show him that we like him, he will learn to like himself.

The answer to his hogwash is to work for local control of public schools. Get involved---parents with your local schools. Keep communications open before you and the teachers. Stay involved with your kids, and keep your marriage strong. Teach your child virtues, values and character.

NEW WORLD ORDER, OR SHINING CITY ON A HILL. WHERE WOULD YOU RATHER RAISE YOUR CHILDREN?

As our author, Mike Reagan sat in his office March 30, 1981, where the name on the door said Vice President. One of the Secret Service men opened the door and reported that there had been an assassination attempt. One man is down but your father is O.K. Mike sat there as tho stunned for a few minutes or seconds, and then he called the White House, and being told that Nancy had left the White House then he knew that all was not well as he had just heard. He then called Mike Deaver's office and on learning that, he also had left the White House he was sure that things were going wrong. And he began to search for numbers for hospitals for he was sure now that his father had been shot. As you remember, Jim Brady, agent McCarthy and officer Delahanty had been shot as well as the President. Then he ran for an office which had a T.V. and watched the event unfold. And as those involved began to realize that Ronald Reagan had been seriously hurt.

At the hospital this was soon learned, and we all lived thru those early days of this assassination attempt. Jim Brady, the Bear, would never be the same. But Ronald Reagan would live to go back to the White House and to finish his term as President, and run again.

After this there came that great cry again, get rid of the guns in America. But Ronald Reagan was not in favor of this and he was to say. There was this right for Americans, to bear arms. He did not think that making it more difficult for law-abiding citizens to buy guns would, would not lower the crime rate, not when criminals can always find a way to get them. Today one half of those who commit crimes have not yet reached the age of 18, and half of those crimes are committed in a desperate frenzy to finance addiction to narcotics.

Nancy Reagan started the program of encouraging the children to just say "NO. Appealing right to the children of that age where the drugs were the problem. This had started working but after the Reagans left office things began to deteriorate once more. Look at the drug situation under this administration. To right this situation will take strong, natural leadership----moral leadership that can look the American youth in the eye and say with conviction and integrity---Drugs are wrong---don't do that. If you take them, you will regret it. We cannot afford any more leadership like that which says:--"I wish I had inhaled.”

How did America deteriorate until the criminal receives better treatment than the victim? What do you mean--3 strikes and you are out? Think of the victims before the three strikes are over. Is it not time to demand legislation that punishes criminals and defends victims?

In September of 1967, Ronald Reagan had this to say:---In America as no where in the world', we are established to provide the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order. BUT WHERE DO WE STAND TODAY?

The second cornerstone of a city on the hill is the civic and religious corner. Ronald Reagan said that he was raised to believe that God has a plan for everyone and that seemingly random twists of fate are all part of his plan. President Reagan's mother was a small woman with auburn hair and a sense of optimism that ran as deep as the cosmos, and she maintained that everything in life happened for a purpose. She said all things were a part of God's plan, even the most disheartening setbacks, and in the end everything worked out for the best. If something went wrong, you were not to let it get you down. Step away from it and step over it and move on. Later on something good will happen, and you will find yourself thinking----If I hadn't had that problem back there. Then this better thing would not have happened to me. Then after being shot then President Reagan said that after what had happened to him, now he owed his life to God and he would try to serve him from then on in every way that he could.

Michael Reagan was urged for the sake of the nation not to rush to Washington, not for his family to rush to Washington, but that was so hard not to do. It was thought better not to alarm the country, but he was searching for a plane, and one was found for his by the Secret Service and he was on his way to Washington, D.C. This attack on their father had a profound effect on the faith of all that family. They remembered later the words of President Reagan, how he had said that as he awoke he saw people dressed in white. But they knew that those people in emergency wore green. But their father was very definite about their being dressed in white. And Nancy and Patti then wondered if those people he saw first were Angels. Perhaps so. One thing to remember is that if we ever forget that we are one nation under God then we will be a nation gone under, and probably won't see Angels anymore.

As a boy President Reagan was taught as were all school children the truth about this nation being founded upon the faith of God. There was thus no gap between his faith and his belief that America should be a SHINING CITY ON A HILL. This idea that the first Amendment requires the complete exclusion of religion from all public life is heresy that only arose in this last century. This can only come to people who are ignorant of our history and our founding documents which are steeped in Christian philosophy, and principal.

Ronald Reagan was known to believe that there was some divine providence that placed this great land here between two oceans, to be founded by a special people from every corner of the world. A people who had a special courage that enabled them to leave their own land, leave their friends, and countrymen, and come to this new and strange land to build a new world of peace and freedom and hope.

Yes, America was no accident of history in Ronald Reagan’s mind. It was placed here by the hand of God, to be a SHINING CITY, ILLUMINATING THE WORLD. The early founders of America believed this. And as we turn to our inherited faith we believe that America is the last great nation of God's kingdom. And we know that the first Contract with America was not written by Newt Gingrich, in 1994, but by Thomas Jefferson in 1776 . . . That contract was the Declaration of Independence.

In a speech in 1981 Ronald Reagan had this to say:--(quote) "This is the real task before us; to reassert our commitment as a nation to a law higher than our own, to renew our spiritual strength. Only by building a wall of such spiritual resolve can we; a free people, hope to protect our own heritage, and make it someday the birthright of all men. (Unquote) He spoke these words just 10 days before a bullet came within a quarter of an inch of ending his life. Yes, after that Ronald Reagan committed his life and presidency unto God Almighty and Michael thinks that evidence in history demonstrates that he was faithful to that commitment thru out his eight years in office of the Presidency. With strong leadership the Soviet Union was brought to term.

Today we know that the last time the partial abortion bill was vetoed by President Clinton that as he and Hillary sat in church just before Christmas as people went forward to take communion they stopped to wish the President and first lady Merry Christmas. And a Reverend Schench, with very strong convictions, paused by the President’s side and said softly: 'You will be held accountable Mr. President.’ This infuriated the President and he gave some orders. And as Reverend Schench left the building he was stopped by the secret service men. And there before all the people they went thru all his pockets trying to find something which they could charge him with. Thus, you must not challenge this President. Ronald Reagan would never have felt threatened by those words. He already held himself accountable before God, and his conscious was clear.

Now; the Declaration of Independence mentions the Supreme Being no less than four times. "In God we trust" is engraved on our coinage. The Supreme Court opens its proceeding with a religious invocation. The Congress opens each session with a prayer. Why then is it wrong for school children to have the same privilege?

In a Dickson Country, Tennessee, Middle school, an assignment was given for the students to write a research paper on a topic they felt strongly about. One 9th grader wrote about the life of Jesus Christ. She received her paper back with a big Zero on the top of it and this instruction:---"It is not appropriate to write a paper on personal religious beliefs in public schools' ---her teacher explained. Find another topic and write another paper. As Brittany Settles parents went to the principal then to the school board and finally to the court and yes all the way to the Supreme Court, they would find that for Brittany Settles the first Amendment does not exist. Our children today are educated in an atmosphere of moral sterility and complete church-state alienation. The message this sends to the kids is that morality is meaningless and Faith is irrelevant to real life. This is an abuse of the mind and souls of our children.

If you try to raise children in a Godless, morals free, value-neutral environment, something else will rush into the souls of those kinds, filling up that space where Faith, Morality and Values should be. Could that be what has happened to the schools of America?

We grassroots conservative Americans believe in shrinking the welfare state which has done so much damage to our people. But that will not be enough to restore the damage done to our people, or this dream of that Shining City on a Hill. We must rebuild our compassion industry and our opportunity society at the same time. We must empower our religious and civic sector to rise to the challenge of doing what Government can no longer afford to do, and has never done well. We must make sure the engine of our economy is humming so that when people leave the welfare rolls, they can quickly land a payroll. If we do not do this the Liberal Press will play and replay the image of the needy people being cast out of government programs on to the street. And voters will demand a return to paternalistic big government. The Reagan revolution will then be all over and the SHINING CITY ON A HILL will be just a dream that never came true. The people elected the 104th and 105th Congress, but by slim margins so it is hard to stand up to the President. But we do not see a move either to empower our civic and religious charities.

To repair the damage done by decades of misplaced Welfare State Compassion, we must get out the truth about welfare and charities. That the truth of the matter is that Welfare is a failure and private sector charities are a success. The Liberal argument still is that America's social problems are so big that only big government can handle them, private charities aren't up to the job. WRONG.---The past decades of failure have proven that government isn't up to the job either. But to increase Charitable giving you have to cut taxes so people have something to give.

Texas is taking the course toward Faith based private charities and this is the course for the nation. Our American tradition of lending a helping hand to someone in need fulfills---"love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and all of your strength, and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself"

Today charities are bedeviled with all sorts of government regulations such as whether the doors are 36" doors or 34" inch doors and all sorts of government rules. The government clings to these regulations and kids who might be rescued are sleeping in crack houses or under underpasses. The source of America's problems is not a lack of funding or government programs, it is lack of spiritual and moral strength in our people. The very essence of what faith-based programs offer.

Look at how Bill Clinton muddied the concept of volunteerism with his big government Americacorp program. --VOLUNTEERISM --when each Americacorp volunteer receives a pay plus benefit package totaling $26,700.00 per volunteer for 10 months works. This would work out to about $32,000.00 per year. This program includes a complete health plan and a $4,725.00 College scholarship. That is not volunteerism, that’s a well-paid government job. Yes, they did some good work like cleaning up the beaches and planting some trees. But they in the end became simply entry-level government bureaucrats not charitable volunteers. How will that emphasize personal responsibility and show real compassion?

Now; the third cornerstone of the City on the Hill is business. The governments view of the economy can be summed up in a few short phrases. If it moves tax it. If it keeps moving regulate it, and if it stops moving then subsidize it. Our tax system today is so hopelessly flawed, there is no point in trying to improve it. The only solution is to scrap it and start fresh. Some suggestions are a flat tax, eliminate the capital gains tax, and eliminate Estate taxes, and block future tax hikes, or demand across the board not targeted tax cuts and of course defend small businesses and reduce federal regulations. And of course above all stop spending.

If Ronald Reagan had been given the line item veto as president, as he was as governor the success story of the 1980's would have been more astounding than it was. Now Congress has given it to a Democrat President who has no idea how it should be used.

Our task today is far from over as we try to rescue our great nation. Our friends in the other party will never forgive us our successes. And they are doing every thing in their power to rewrite history. Listening to the Liberals, you’d think the 1980's were the worst period since the great depression, filled with despair and great sufferings. I don't know about you but I am tired of the whining voices from the White House these days. They claim that the 80's was a period of greed and neglect. But you and I know better. ---We were there. But back in those days in 1986 the Governor of Arkansas claimed $2.00 for every pair of used underwear that he donated to charity, plus $1.50 for his used socks. Here I have been sitting on a literal gold mine in tax deductions as I have just tossed my skives in the trash when the elastic got too loose.

When you hear people talk about the greedy 80's don't let them get away with it. Call them on it. Tell them what the Reagan 80's were truly all about. Above all tell that we are once again going to build a society where life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are fostered and celebrated. We are going to build a SHINING CITY ON A HILL.

Now; the fourth cornerstone of the City on a hill is government. And here you must remember that evil is powerless if good is unafraid. As Ronald Reagan went to the Brandenburg gate he spoke to the Soviet Leader, General Secretary Gorbachev, --he said: --'If you seek peace and prosperity for the Soviet Union, and eastern Europe--then come here to this gate and open it. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.’

One day as President Reagan was preparing to go on the air with his weekly Saturday radio address, the engineer said: 'Let’s take a mike check, please, Mr. President. "O.K." said the President.

Now; most people do a check by saying one, two, three, testing. But not President Reagan, who grinned mischievously and said: "My fellow American's I have just signed legislation today that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes.’

Now; that was supposed to be funny. But it got leaked to the press and they did not laugh. But neither did the Russians. So President Reagan got the image of a 'trigger happy cowboy'. But that was O.K. with him. For he had gone to Washington with the goal of putting an end to the Soviet Union, and he always pursued that goal. But did he get the credit for it? No, it was Gorbachev, not Reagan that Time Magazine named 'man of the decade.' Supposedly he engineered the changes that led to the end of communism.

(We would remind you to see where Gorbachev is today. Living off your tax dollars while he plans to destroy you. How did this happen?)

Ronald Reagan believed in his foreign policy that we should give friendly nations the wherewith all to fight for their freedom. Today we send our young men all over the world to try to enforce our will. Our strategy as a free society and world power is not to be based on brute strength. Today the Chinese Communists have taken over the Historic Long Beach Ship Yard and converted it into a way station for the Chinese Merchant fleet. Bill Clinton did this after receiving $366,000.00 in suspicious Campaign finance contributions during those infamous White House fund raising 'coffee's'.

Ronald Reagan, as he left office, left a fleet of 600 ships. Today there are 350 ships the smallest fleet America has ever put to sea since 1938. The danger is that if we have to use America's fire power, once more, it will not be there.

President Reagan never bought the idea of ‘MAD’ where one party destroys the other. He dreamed the Star Wars program and the scientists came on board. Why not protect our nation with SDI? --Oh, the Soviets did not like it. It would not work, and on and on. In Geneva in 1985 and at Reykjavich in 1986, the Russians pressured, cajoled, charmed and offered concessions after concessions if Ronald Reagan would just give up SDI. Today under Bill Clinton only a shadow of SDI remains. The name has even been changed. Now it is BMDP, and the program is on the back burner. The money spent on botched nation-building missions like Somalia and Haiti, and now Bosnia.

Today the American people do not know the danger they are in for we are now totally and completely Nuke-naked! We have no defense against a missile attack. Today we have the technology, the know how to defend ourselves, but we choose not to. It is not technology, but leftist theology that keep us in a state of utter helplessness. Of all of the lies that Bill Clinton has told the American people, the most monstrous is the one he often repeats:---"For the first time since the beginning of the cold war, no Russian missile is pointed at America's children.” He has no way of verifying that. Missiles sit in silos and point into the sky. Why not forget where they point and protect the children of America.

Bill Clinton’s obsession with the ABM treaty and how he holds to the old MAD nuclear doctrine borders on treason. The MAD program died in the early Reagan years, but Bill Clinton has resurrected it.

We should be saying no more Vietnam's or Bosnia's. But Bill Clinton stands in line to listen to who has a check in hand. He has repeatedly sold U. S. foreign policy to the highest bidder. His message to the world is:--Show me the money.

Many publications list the people who stand in line to give illegal contributions in order to gain leverage over U.S. foreign policy. Michael Reagan lists them here in his book but since they are easily found I won't list them here. But Bill Clinton is in the midst of the biggest shake down, international operation in the history of mankind.

Storm clouds are on the horizon for America's strength is the bedrock of the free world's security. For the freedom we guard is not just our own. As the land of liberty, the last best hope of man on earth, America has a special obligation to remain strong and lead in world events. But we cannot put our armed forces at the beck and call of that global bureaucracy over on the east river in New York, for that is not leadership.

There are 4 vital foreign policy interests:---

1. Defend the security of the U.S.

2. Defend freedom and oppose expansionist tyranny around the world.

3. Defend the lives and well being of Americans around the world.

4. Defend U. S. access to world markets for products, commodities materials and energy.

We do not need this FAST TRACK to new trade treaties. We need free trade for the U.S. on an equal basis. Thus today we face more and more problems. As Asia and China especially are showing much expansion, then we see Taiwan as a base of freedom to be protected, but not by our President. North Korea is a danger spot and the Clinton-Carter policy did not solve the problem of a nuclear armed North Korea. Russia even today fragmented presents a tough challenge to American foreign policy. And Bosnia will be a thorn in America's side for a long time to come. Even the middle east is a dangerous area. There are many such areas around the globe. Besides our Sovereignty is not for sale. It is not that Glass walled-slab shaped building on the east river that will build this SHINING CITY ON A HILL. This is what the Clinton's see as the future but it is not a SHINING CITY ON A HILL. The Globalists will impose a global taxation to fund. The U.N. and redistribute wealth world wide. America was founded on the idea of no taxation without representation but that is not the global plan. This is just a stealth process of chipping away at our national sovereignty thru such seemingly laudable goals as protecting the ecosystem.

Michael Reagan remembers the day his father stood on the west side of the capital to take his oath of office. America was then a deeply divided nation. We had gone thru the long nightmare of the Iran hostage crisis. We had endured years of oil embargoes, double digit inflation, unemployment, national malaise and entrenched pessimism. America seemed weak and impotent, hemmed in by enemies. A once great nation seemed to be inevitably on the decline. But over the next eight years his father brought all of this together.

Michael Reagan recalls that as his father took the oath of office his hand rested on the words God spoke to King Solomon. (Quote) "If my people who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways. Then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sins and heal their land."

In the margin, his mother had written --A most wonderful verse for the healing of nations. Michael thinks that America did heal herself in large part because of the Reagan Presidency, because this president dedicated his life and his presidency to the service of his God.

Michael Reagan still believes that we will dismantle the welfare state, load the pieces into a big U-haul truck and move it to the corner of faith and charity. We will take a wrecking ball to the Department of Education and build a local school house, out in the neighborhood where it belongs, and where it meets the local needs. And where it meets the local needs. We will drive a steam roller thru the center of the city, and flatten the tax system so families can keep more of what they make. We will slay the regulatory monster and balance the Budget. Then we will watch the wealth producing dynamos of mainstream roar into life.

Government, the city square will always have a critical roll to play in our Shining city on the Hill. Rut we will be careful to limit the role of Government. This city will not be easy to build for there will always people who will resist this change even if it is clearly for the better. But we can withstand this criticism, we can allay this fear, and build that SHINING CITY ON A HILL. We believe we have the capacity to perform great deeds and with God's help we can and will resolve the problems which face us for we are Americans.

As Michael Reagan's Dad often said: --"You ain't seen nothing yet." For a certain president came to town and asked your parents and grandparents to join him in setting America on the right path for a new millennium. And even tho you stumbled and fall off the path, get up and get back on. Tomorrow's mountain greets the dawn. Would you go out there and win one more for the Gipper?

Michael Reagan believes that the Republicans have lost their backbone. That George Bush and then Bob Dole, as candidates forgot the grass roots American and turned to the Eastern Rockefeller Republicans and that small click never wins elections. After watching eight years of Grassroots Republicans in action then George Bush as soon as elected purged the Grassroots Republicans and brought in the eastern liberals and four years later Bill Clinton served him an eviction notice. The Republicans won the Congress then ran away from the 'Contract with America'. When the Republicans are ready to come back to grassroots America then Michael says he will come back to the Republican party. That is the promise.

We need a leader to lead us. A quarter backer to carry the ball who will this be? Let’s be sure our goal is the same that Ronald Reagan had his signs on when he talked of that SHINING CITY ON A HILL.