Peggy Noonan writes of Ronald Reagan centenary celebrations this past week in Krakow, Budapest, Prague and London. These nations thanked God for President Ronald Reagan and erected monuments in his honor. The leader of Hungary's government ended his speech saying, "We need a Ronald Reagan. Is he there, somewhere, already?" To which Noonan added, 'The world misses him as much as we do. It misses grand leadership as much as we do." Noonan again:
The world looks to America. It doesn't want to be patronized or dominated by America, it wants to see America as a beacon, an example, a dream of what could be. And the world wants something else: American goodness. It wants to have faith in the knowledge that America is the great nation that tries to think about and act upon right and wrong, and that it is a beacon also of things practical—how to have a sturdy, good, unsoiled economy, how to create jobs that provide livelihoods that allow families to be formed, how to maintain a system in which inventors and innovators can flourish. A world without America in this sense—the beacon, the inspiration, the speaker of truth—would be a world deprived of hopefulness. And so we must be our best selves again not only for us but for the world. [more...]