President Reagan meeting with William F. Buckley in the Oval Office. 1/21/88.
I really thought that John Pelphrey would be allowed to coach the fine recruits that he signed. In fact, I thought that since all these recruits signed early that they had been given assurances from Jeff Long concerning that. I guess I was wrong.
In a prophetic speech concerning the Soviet Union, Ronald Reagan predicted that “the march of freedom and democracy will leave Marxism-Leninism on the ash-heap of history.” I am posting in the coming days excerpts from one of Reagan best speeches ever. He addressed the members of the British Parliament on June 8, 1982.
Freedom is not the sole prerogative of a lucky few, but the inalienable and universal right of all human beings.
In the Communist world as well, man’s instinctive desire for freedom and self-determination surfaces again and again. To be sure, there are grim reminders of how brutally the police state attempts to snuff out this quest for self-rule — 1953 in East Germany, 1956 in Hungary, 1968 in Czechoslovakia, 1981 in Poland. But the struggle continues in Poland. And we know that there are even those who strive and suffer for freedom within the confines of the Soviet Union itself. How we conduct ourselves here in the Western democracies will determine whether this trend continues.
No, democracy is not a fragile flower. Still it needs cultivating. If the rest of this century is to witness the gradual growth of freedom and democratic ideals, we must take actions to assist the campaign for democracy.
Some argue that we should encourage democratic change in right-wing dictatorships, but not in Communist regimes. Well, to accept this preposterous notion — as some well-meaning people have — is to invite the argument that once countries achieve a nuclear capability, they should be allowed an undisturbed reign of terror over their own citizens.
We reject this course.
As for the Soviet view, Chairman Brezhnev repeatedly has stressed that the competition of ideas and systems must continue and that this is entirely consistent with relaxation of tensions and peace.
Well, we ask only that these systems begin by living up to their own constitutions, abiding by their own laws, and complying with the international obligations they have undertaken. We ask only for a process, a direction, a basic code of decency, not for an instant transformation.
We cannot ignore the fact that even without our encouragement there has been and will continue to be repeated explosions against repression and dictatorships. The Soviet Union itself is not immune to this reality. Any system is inherently unstable that has no peaceful means to legitimize its leaders. In such cases, the very repressiveness of the state ultimately drives people to resist it, if necessary, by force.
While we must be cautious about forcing the pace of change, we must not hesitate to declare our ultimate objectives and to take concrete actions to move toward them. We must be staunch in our conviction that freedom is not the sole prerogative of a lucky few, but the inalienable and universal right of all human beings. So states the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which, among other things, guarantees free elections.
National championship, April 4, 1994 — Nothing fazed Scotty Thurman. Never mind that Hawg fan Bill Clinton was watching. Never mind that Arkansas was tied 70-70 with 51 seconds remaining against Duke, playing in its fourth title game in the last five years. Never mind that Antonio Lang, 6-8 and long-limbed, was flying at Thurman. The junior swingman simply added a little more arc to his shot, which eventually gave Arkansas its only NCAA crown.
No. 30: Scotty Thurman’s
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Little known presidential facts:
- George H. W. Bush (1924-) was the first vice president to be elected president since Martin Van Buren.k
- William Jefferson “Bill” Clinton (1946-) was the first U.S. Democratic president to win re-election since FDR.k
The Daily Hatch 