Some Personal Thoughts About President Reagan

By Semperpapa

I arrived in the United States in December 1979, while the second worst president in our history still occupied the White House.
As I took on that frightening step of moving to a foreign land, into a foreign culture and a foreign language, I was also affected by the image that Jimmy Carter had created abroad of the United States.

Iran still held US citizens hostages; everyone in my country of birth, and around the world, laughed at the United States; the US president was looked at with scorn and derision.
I personally had to endure the mocking from people who would ask "why would you want to migrate there?" Ironically, every person who would tease me would jump through anything to be in my shoes.

But I was determined to embrace the opportunity of my lifetime, to take that frightening step and make sure I did all I could to become an American.

A year after my arrival in the US, November 1980, Ronald Reagan was elected President of the United States. As a legal alien and not eligible for citizenship, I did not have the chance to vote for Reagan in 1980 or 1984, as I applied and received my citizenship in 1985.
But Ronald Reagan would have gotten my vote in both elections.

It was not just a matter of agreeing with his ideology, of seeing myself as Conservative as the man, but my admiration for Reagan was multiplied by his attitude toward America.
With Reagan in the Oval Office, nobody laughed at America any longer. The hostages in Iran were returned to their families on the very day he took office. And his tenacity eventually brought an event I never believed I would ever see in my lifetime: the fall of the Soviet Union.
In short, Reagan truly believed in American Exceptionalism, in the goodness of the American people and in the unlimited potential of the American individual.

His optimism toward the future of our Nation was inspirational for every American, but it was even greater in significance for this immigrant.
More specifically, President Reagan inspired me not only to love my adoptive country, but also to make sure I conduct myself in a manner that was worthy of the label "American".

The love for my country Reagan instilled in me in those days has supported and counseled me ever since. It still sustains me today, as I witness an administration bent on destroying everything this Nation has been and still is.

To this American, the United States is still the shiny city on the hill.

Thank you, Mr. President.

Just my thoughts!