By Dave Andrusko
Last night, my wife, Lisa, and I went to the movies to see Reagan. As anyone who knows me is well aware, I am in the tank for our nation’s 40th president and make no bones about it.
The March 30, 1981, assassination attempt is remembered today as much for Mr. Reagan’s quips as it is for how close John Hinckley came to taking the president’s life. He told his wife, Nancy, “Honey, I forgot to duck.” Before the operation, he told the surgeons, “”Please tell me you’re Republicans.” And when he regained consciousness after surgery, Reagan memorably said, “All in all, I’d rather be in Philadelphia.”
We thoroughly enjoyed Reagan. Nobody that I’ve read has commented on the final scene when Reagan’s Alzheimer’s had advanced to the point that he wrote the American people a going away letter, as it were. My wife, who does not tear up at movies often, wiped her eyes.
But as John Fund noted, the critics carved the movie up, illustrating that “the gap between critics and theatergoers has never been bigger.”
“On the Rotten Tomatoes review site, Reagan earns a 20 percent “rotten” rating based on 46 reviews by critics. …
On the other side, the Rotten Tomatoes measure of audience appreciation (“Popcornmeter”) gives the film a 98 percent “fresh” score based on more than 1,000 verified film attendees.
Pro-lifers remember Mr. Reagan for his eloquent defense of unborn life. He wrote a book, Abortion and the Conscience of a Nation. In 1983 it was a scandal (in media circles) that a Presidential first–a book penned while in office–would be “wasted” decrying abortion, a practice as ensconced in our national life they believe as pro-abortion bias was in the journalistic establishment.
President Reagan knew otherwise. He understood that intellectually, jurisprudentially, and morally we had dug ourselves into a deep hole. Getting out of it required posing the right question in a spirit that we are all in this together
Mr. Reagan sent what was described as “a personal letter to the Pro-Life movement from President Ronald Reagan” which appeared on page one of the October 11, 1984, edition of National Right to Life News. In that letter, he wrote
“My administration is dedicated to the preservation of America as a free land, and there is no cause more important for preserving that freedom than affirming the transcendent right to life of all human beings, the right without which no other rights have meaning.”
One other thought. Most everyone has experienced an event or two in their life that had such a lasting impact that you never forget where you were when it occurred. Old geezers like me remember the assassination of President John F. Kennedy like it was yesterday.
As it happened, on March 30, 1981, as a volunteer for Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life, I was dropping something off when I heard the news on the radio. It instantly brought back memories of the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcom X, and Bobby Kennedy.
In my gloom, it seemed inevitable that President Reagan would die, having served only 69 days in office. He didn’t, praise God, and the nation was spared another horrendous murder and Reagan went on to serve two terms.
Finally, in his book, President Reagan reminded us, “Abortion concerns not just the unborn child, it concerns every one of us.” Yes, we are in this all together.
Thank you for your immeasurable contributions, President Reagan. You will never, ever be forgotten.