BROADSIDES

June 11, 2004

Tributes
"In 1983, I was confined to an eight-by-ten-foot prison cell on the border of Siberia. My Soviet jailers gave me the privilege of reading the latest copy of Pravda. Splashed across the front page was a condemnation of President Ronald Reagan for having the temerity to call the Soviet Union an 'evil empire.' Tapping on walls and talking through toilets, word of Reagan's 'provocation' quickly spread throughout the prison. We dissidents were ecstatic. Finally, the leader of the free world had spoken the truth--a truth that burned inside the heart of each and every one of us." -- Natan Sharansky, former Soviet political prisoner

"When talking about Ronald Reagan, I have to be personal. We in Poland took him so personally. Why? Because we owe him our liberty. This can't be said often enough by people who lived under oppression for half a century, until communism fell in 1989 ... I distinguish between two kinds of politicians. There are those who view politics as a tactical game, a game in which they do not reveal any individuality, in which they lose their own face. There are, however, leaders for whom politics is a means of defending and furthering values. For them, it is a moral pursuit. They do so because the values they cherish are endangered. They're convinced that there are values worth living for, and even values worth dying for. Otherwise they would consider their life and work pointless. Only such politicians are great politicians and Ronald Reagan was one of them." -- Lech Walesa, former president of Poland

"Hope was Ronald Reagan's secret weapon. He gave it to the young and the old, to the worn-out and the weary, to the disenfranchised and the disillusioned. He gave it to the people of our country and of every country, to leaders and little people and everyone in between. And by restoring the hope of all Americans, he restored the greatness of America, because hope is the foundation of freedom ... Ronald Reagan stood against the darkness of communism. He won the fight for freedom and brought down what he rightly termed the 'Evil Empire.' He won the race and, by now, has met God face to face. As for a kingdom of love, well, we've seen a glimpse of that this week from coast to coast. May he rest in peace." -- Terri Lukach, former public liaison staff assistant to President Reagan

"In his lifetime Ronald Reagan was such a cheerful and invigorating presence that it was easy to forget what daunting historic tasks he set himself. He sought to mend America's wounded spirit, to restore the strength of the free world, and to free the slaves of communism. These were causes hard to accomplish and heavy with risk. Yet they were pursued with almost a lightness of spirit. For Ronald Reagan also embodied another great cause - what Arnold Bennett once called `the great cause of cheering us all up'. His politics had a freshness and optimism that won converts from every class and every nation--and ultimately from the very heart of the evil empire ... I cannot imagine how any diplomat, or any dramatist, could improve on his words to Mikhail Gorbachev at the Geneva summit: `Let me tell you why it is we distrust you.' Those words are candid and tough and they cannot have been easy to hear. But they are also a clear invitation to a new beginning and a new relationship that would be rooted in trust. We live today in the world that Ronald Reagan began to reshape with those words ... With the lever of American patriotism, he lifted up the world. And so today the world -- in Prague, in Budapest, in Warsaw, in Sofia, in Bucharest, in Kiev and in Moscow itself - the world mourns the passing of the Great Liberator and echoes his prayer 'God Bless America'." -- Baroness Margaret Thatcher, from the eulogy delivered at the National Cathedral

"Ronald Reagan was more than an historic figure. He was a providential man, who came along just when our nation and the world most needed him. And believing as he did that there is a plan at work in each life, he accepted not only the great duties that came to him, but also the great trials that came near the end. When he learned of his illness, his first thoughts were of Nancy. And who else but Ronald Reagan could face his own decline and death with a final message of hope to his country, telling us that for America there is always a bright dawn ahead. Fellow Americans, here lies a graceful and a gallant man." -- Vice President Dick Cheney, from the eulogy delivered during the State Funeral in the Capitol Rotunda

B. Sides @ 1:40 PM