The Conservative Cave
The Bar => The Lounge => Topic started by: GOP Congress on December 21, 2010, 12:21:38 AM
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In this time where we have a president who has absolutely no idea of how to properly give a Christmas address without making mincemeat of its meaning, one needs a ringing example of a true Presidential Christmas address. To that end, here is Ronald Reagan, 1981. Watch this video, and for the rest of the Christmas season, watch President Obama miss the meaning completely.
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UU0tuah-x7M[/youtube]
Merry Christmas, everyone!
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Damn we need another Reagan.
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Thanks for sharing that. My, how far we have come. (And I don't mean that in a good way.) It is good to remember what we once were, so we can get there again.
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Bump
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Damn we need another Reagan.
Amen to that brother.
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Bump
Ditto.
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+ 1 very good thanks for posting
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I have been thinking about this since I saw it earlier today. GOP, I just want to say thank you for posting this. Again. In the 80's I was a teenager. I hated everything, including the government. It wasn't until I got older that I understood how lucky I was to be able to "hate" the government, with no repercussion because the government protected my right to do so.
Upon much retrospection, I consider myself fortunate to have grown up when I did. I really do.
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Just for clarification:
This video is actually edited from a much longer address that involved the then-developing confrontation with the Soviet Bloc regarding the emerging situation in Poland. The actual address included concrete steps that included sanctions against the Polish Government and unabashed support for the freedom movements emanating in the Polish unions. Indeed, the entire speech was beautifully done to incorporate the meaning of Christmas with the hearts and free will of the oppressed Polish citizenry, which set the stage for the decade-long transformation from oppression to freedom for the eastern bloc, and victory in the Cold War for Reagan.
But the edited video, by itself, is IMO the greatest American Christmas address by a US President. Here is the transcript:
At Christmas time, every home takes on a special beauty, a special warmth, and that's certainly true of the White House, where so many famous Americans have spent their Christmases over the years. This fine old home, the people's house, has seen so much, been so much a part of all our lives and history. G. K. Chesterton once said that the world would never starve for wonders, but only for the want of wonder.
At this special time of year, we all renew our sense of wonder in recalling the story of the first Christmas in Bethlehem, nearly 2,000 year ago.
Some celebrate Christmas as the birthday of a great and good philosopher and teacher. Others of us believe in the divinity of the child born in Bethlehem, that he was and is the promised Prince of Peace. Yes, we've questioned why he who could perform miracles chose to come among us as a helpless babe, but maybe that was his first miracle, his first great lesson that we should learn to care for one another.
Tonight, in millions of American homes, the glow of the Christmas tree is a reflection of the love Jesus taught us. Like the shepherds and wise men of that first Christmas, we Americans have always tried to follow a higher light, a star, if you will. At lonely campfire vigils along the frontier, in the darkest days of the Great Depression, through war and peace, the twin beacons of faith and freedom have brightened the American sky. At times our footsteps may have faltered, but trusting in God's help, we've never lost our way.
Just across the way from the White House stand the two great emblems of the holiday season: a Menorah, symbolizing the Jewish festival of Hanukkah, and the National Christmas Tree, a beautiful towering blue spruce from Pennsylvania. Like the National Christmas Tree, our country is a living, growing thing planted in rich American soil. Only our devoted care can bring it to full flower. So, let this holiday season be for us a time of rededication.
Christmas means so much because of one special child. But Christmas also reminds us that all children are special, that they are gifts from God, gifts beyond price that mean more than any presents money can buy. In their love and laughter, in our hopes for their future lies the true meaning of Christmas.
So, in a spirit of gratitude for what we've been able to achieve together over the past year and looking forward to all that we hope to achieve together in the years ahead, Nancy and I want to wish you all the best of holiday seasons. As Charles Dickens, who said so well in ``A Christmas Carol,'' ``God bless us, every one.''
Good night.
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I've decided to give this thread the yearly bump. For all of us who need a pick-me-up, this is a classic edition of President Reagan's 1981 Christmas address from the White House.
In this time where we have a president who has absolutely no idea of how to properly give a Christmas address without making mincemeat of its meaning, one needs a ringing example of a true Presidential Christmas address. To that end, here is Ronald Reagan, 1981. Watch this video, and for the rest of the Christmas season, watch President Obama miss the meaning completely.
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UU0tuah-x7M[/youtube]
Merry Christmas, everyone!
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Glad you did, GOP. This is a timeless message and it helps to overcome the Christian-bashing that's become de rigueur by so many on the left and the clueless who follow them.
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I've read that Reagan didn't go to church a lot and wasn't a very religious person. That may be true, but he understood and respected the fact that many Americans are.
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I've read that Reagan didn't go to church a lot and wasn't a very religious person. That may be true, but he understood and respected the fact that many Americans are.
IIRC, Reagan thought of the Roman Catholic Church as a "third superpower" in the world, and send George Shultz over to see Pope John Paul II on more than one occasion.
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Thanks for that! It was delicious!
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I have been thinking about this since I saw it earlier today. GOP, I just want to say thank you for posting this. Again. In the 80's I was a teenager. I hated everything, including the government. It wasn't until I got older that I understood how lucky I was to be able to "hate" the government, with no repercussion because the government protected my right to do so.
Upon much retrospection, I consider myself fortunate to have grown up when I did. I really do.
And I have to ditto my previous year's comments, to the day. The more things change, the more they stay the same.