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Making
things happen - with integrity. A weekly CyberMemo designed to keep you on task. Monday July 14, 2003 Volume V Number 33 |
FOCUS - The Gipper
When Mr. Reagan, in a post-Presidential assignment, stood on a knoll over-looking the Simi Valley on a clear Southern California day, clear enough to see the blue ocean on the horizon, in winter, when the hills are green and the Malibu Mountains look bigger than they really are, and the old oak trees dot the meadows here and there, he agreed. A wealthy real estate developer, a Republican, stood with him and offered the over one hundred acres of prime land before them to the President’s Foundation as a home for the yet to be constructed Presidential Library. The Board left the decision to the recently retired two term President, and in his down home, aw-shucks manner, Ronald Reagan smiled, and nodded, with Nancy at this side, and said, “Yes, this is it. This is the place.”
It was perfect, really. Half-way between his BelAire residence and the Santa Barbara Ranch, it fully represents what the former California Governor called home.
In 1939, Congress recognized that former Presidents held in their possession historic records that really belonged to the people. Up until that time, it was up to historians and collectors and dealers to find valuable documents and journals and written records of events that belong to history, and preserve them for future generations. On the eve of Franklin Roosevelt’s third term, the government allocated a considerable sum to create library in which the archives of a President’s term would be housed and made available to researchers and academics. Today, there are ten such libraries (only the Nixon Library is funded without government money), including the Reagan in Simi Valley.
President’s supporters
have expanded the libraries to go well beyond the simple archiving of
documents. The museums attached to the libraries also celebrate the political
life of the man who occupied what most people consider the most powerful office
on planet earth. There is a mystique that surrounds that office. It’s an aura
of power, elegance and grace.
So it’s fitting that a portion of the Reagan Library and Museum is dedicated to a replica of the Oval Office just as it was when Mr. Reagan was its occupant. There is more. A conference room, built to resemble the Cabinet conference table where guests are invited to sit in a high back leather chair and advise the President at a moment of crisis. There are multi-media remembrances of some of the pivotal moments of his eight years in office, including the celebration of the two-hundredth anniversary of the Statue of Liberty and a somber tribute to the lost crew of the Challenger.
Our Founding Fathers had a problem with Royalty. In the personal diary of King George III, this entry is found on July 4, 1776, “Nothing of importance this day.” Remember, the poor King lived long before access to CNN 24-7. Something of importance happened that day, indeed. But Kings are sometimes caught unaware.
The 1776 Declaration of Independence would signal the end of royalty around the world. One by one. It would take centuries. The absolute power of Monarchs was addressed in those formative years when the Declaration and then the Constitution were established – and in the wisdom that emerged, power would be managed, and balanced, and held in check. No more Kings.
The President of the United States of America would be an executive, they said. He would be elected by the people at large. He would be a civilian. The Commander-in-Chief. With a limited term. But he would represent the best of the nation. He would be served in style. He would enjoy some of the accoutrements of royalty – but he would also be subject to the scrutiny of the opposing party. He would not lay the old spurious claim to divine appointment or divine right. He would be an ordinary man, who for the time being, would be the leader of the nation. Since those days, we’ve dropped the gender specificity – if ever one was intended.
Since the Revolutionary War, when King George III let the New Nation slip away from his grasp, the British recognized the problem of Royalty, too. They stripped their Monarch of political power, and made the office largely ceremonial. To this day, many wonder about the place of Royalty altogether, anywhere. One thing for sure, fascination with Royalty in England is alive and well, thanks to the young and dashing Prince William, who is as we speak, being groomed by the best of the best to carry on the duties of a man who would be King. Will he? Stay tuned.
As for our nation, the President is one of us.
As you enter into the Oval Office as it was in the Reagan years, the familiar voice of the former President greets you in a conversational tone. He tells you about the experience of sitting in that room, day after day. The people he met there. The decisions hammered out. The crises interrupting the day. The rich history of the place, the haunting presence of those who had gone before. And then he chuckles, and admits, yes, it’s true. I always wore a suit and a tie, and never removed my jacket, always kept it buttoned, he says. And the reason? Well, it was my way of showing respect for this hallowed room, he explains. I never got over the sense that it was an extraordinary honor, a humbling privilege, to represent the American people in this place. I knew it was temporary. And while I was here, I just felt it was a sacred duty to be my best. To do my best.
As people spoke to one another on the tour of the office, they whispered.
As though they got the point.
* * * * * *
More than fifteen years have passed since Reagan served as President. Today, the entire nation is saddened that the aging figure, so strong, whose youthful image and striking command is preserved in the movies in which he starred before the political days began (“Just one more for the Gipper…”), suffers a terrible condition (Alzheimer’s) that keeps him isolated from the public. Today, while he’s still alive, he’s become something of a legend. The US Navy recently named a state-of-the-art gargantuan aircraft carrier after him (the USS Ronald Reagan). The foundation is building an annex to the library called the Air Force One Pavilion which will house the actual Boeing 707 poised as though it is taking off – the airplane that carried him on two hundred and eleven missions around the world. These tributes, among others, stand in recognition of a leader who never was Royalty.
It’s difficult to recall the state of the Presidency prior to his coming to office. Think about it. From the dreadful moment the gun was fired in Dallas in 1963, taking out John F. Kennedy forever, the Presidency itself fell on hard times. Lyndon Johnson became so mired in an unpopular war, he withdrew from the race in 1968. Richard Nixon’s tenure was consumed by Watergate, and ended in resignation shortly after winning a landslide victory in 1972. Gerald Ford won public affection at first, but those affections turned sour when he pardoned his predecessor, and the caricature of stumbling and bumbling left him vulnerable to a peanut farmer from Georgia, who soundly defeated him in 1976. Jimmy Carter inherited an economy in shambles, was snubbed by his own party, barely winning the nomination for a second term (seriously wounded in a full on attack in the primaries by Teddy Kennedy), and then losing the presidential race decidedly to the brash California governor, considered by many to be a dangerous, trigger happy arch-conservative.
His leadership surprised a weary Nation.
Reagan
will perhaps best be remembered as the man who restored confidence to the
Office of the Presidency. After a seventeen year string of misfires, when
Presidents buckled under the cynicism and rancor and acrimony and
disintegration of civility in American political life, Ronald Reagan stood tall
for basic American decency. People rallied around the flag again. Patriotism
emerged as an American pastime. Who will ever forget Reagan’s speech at the
memorial service for the fallen astronauts of the Space Shuttle Challenger?
They may have “slipped the surly bonds of earth,” but they will never be
forgotten.
The Great Communicator communicated.
May his tribe increase.
* * * * * *
It’s Monday morning. You are a leader.
Our current President would more than likely tell you that his mentor, his prototype for the Presidency is Ronald Reagan. Not a bad choice.
As a leader, you appreciate the value of a role model – and you appreciate even more an in-the-flesh mentor who believes in you and provides a listening ear, a person who once stood where you now stand, and gives you an encouraging word and asks a clarifying question.
The position you hold is not an entitlement. Yes, you earned the promotions – but you understand that if the whole truth were known, your inadequacies and foibles and distractions mean that you fall short of the ideal. You are where you are in spite of all that.
So, if your position is not an entitlement – what is it?
It’s a privilege.
It’s an honor bestowed by those who view you as a leader. It’s humbling. Many of them know your frailties, but they consider you a leader anyway. It’s temporary, too. Someday, your usefulness will fade. But not today.
Not many of us wear suits and ties anymore. Some do. But the rest of us, well, they’d think we are going to a funeral or applying for a loan if we donned a white collar, tie and a jacket. But whatever the acceptable dress in your workplace, make it a sign of respect for the role you play.
Symbolically – if not literally – button up your jacket. Welcome your guests as though they are entering the Oval Office. Your Oval Office.
It is sacred ground - where decisions are made. Where crises are announced. Where people find direction, encouragement, insight, strength… to carry on.
You’ve got some serious stuff to deliver today.
Your words count.
Maybe even for eternity.
Posted in Valley Center, California
© Copyright Kenneth E. Kemp 2003
Special Thanks to my good friend David Belcher, owner of Rhino Media Group and creator of WisdomGram
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