On Sunday, Pete and I woke up early and went to mass at St. Monica's in Santa Monica (perhaps my favorite female saint other than Mary). After that, Pete, Katie, and I headed up to Simi Valley to visit the Reagan Library. It was my fourth presidential library after trips to the Carter, Truman, and George W. Bush Libraries. So now I've evened up the political parties of the presidential libraries I've visited, but that probably won't last long. I do want to get to the Franklin Roosevelt Library in Hyde Park (I was hoping to do that this summer, but it looks like it's not going to happen). I am planning to go to the John F. Kennedy Library when I go up to Boston for our Shamrock Series game at Fenway Park. The only other library that I think there's a decent chance that I'll get to in the future would be the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, which is about 13 miles farther away from Pete and Katie's apartment than the Reagan Library is. If I happened to go to the Notre Dame-Texas game in 2016, I'd probably try to get to the Lyndon Johnson Library. For the other ones, I don't really know why I'd be in the area (here's the map) so I probably won't ever get to them.
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| Me and the Reagans |
I really enjoyed the Bush Library because I remember his entire presidency. I wasn't alive for Carter's presidency (fortunately) or Truman's presidency. So I enjoyed going to them (especially Truman's, I am more fascinated by his presidency than most 20th century presidents), but they weren't quite as meaningful. As for Reagan, I was born during his presidency. I spent a lot of time in college studying the Cold War and his presidency in particular. I think there was one semester where I pretty much wrote slightly different versions of the same paper three or four different times. I don't usually get into politics in the blog, but I have mentioned my admiration of Reagan for his role in winning the Cold War. The other thing that I greatly admire about Reagan is that his nomination in 1980 changed the Republican Party in a very good way. Before 1980, neither party took a strong stand against Roe v. Wade. Reagan was the first pro-life president after that truly appalling/disastrous/ghastly/horrifying decision (there aren't enough words in the thesaurus). Besides the fact that it allowed the murder of tens of millions of unborn people in the United States, it was complete legal nonsense. But here are some of my favorite Reagan pro-life quotes:
"There is no cause more important for preserving freedom than affirming the transcendent right to life of all human beings, the right without which no other rights have any meaning."
"The real question today is not when human life begins, but what is the value of human life?"
"I've noticed that everyone who is for abortion has already been born."
And in the speech that became most well known for correctly identifying the Soviet Union as an evil empire, Reagan said, "Unless and until it can be proven that the unborn child is not a living entity, then its right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness must be protected."
I love my country, but I'm a Catholic before I'm an American and it's time to speak up, especially with the evil of Planned Parenthood having been so clearly exposed. Since Roe v. Wade, this country has tolerated over 58 million abortions. We're approaching World War II levels of death. And not only is it allowed, but it's celebrated by some people. This is clearly the greatest moral issue of our time. I've had enough with Catholic politicians being "personally opposed to abortion, but unwilling to impose their views on others" or hearing anybody say "I'm pro-choice, not pro-abortion." "Choice" is a word they use to avoid admitting what they are really supporting, which is the brutal murder of millions of human beings in our own country. If you're pro-choice, why can't I choose what I want to do with my bottle of whiskey and my car? Because somebody might die, you say? And of course, you're right. But somebody is guaranteed to die in every single abortion. There are a lot of choices we don't tolerate. Why do we tolerate a "choice" that results in the destruction of an innocent human life? Most pro-"choice" politicians in Washington don't even support your right to choose whether or not to have health insurance. Aren't we all glad that our mothers didn't make the "choice" that is defended by these politicians? As for being "personally opposed to abortion," would you vote for somebody who was personally opposed to slavery, but unwilling to impose his views on the rest of the country? That's the way a lot of people were for a long time, but fortunately Lincoln freed the slaves in 1863 (sort of, he does deserve credit for it even if the Emancipation Proclamation didn't really do it, but I won't get into all of that now) rather than saying "I'm personally opposed to slavery, but I'm not going to impose my personal views on the South after the war."
One last thought before I get back to the Reagan Library. If you look at the second and fourth Reagan quotes above, parts of them are a little contradictory. The fourth one talks about whether "it can be proven that the unborn child is not a living entity." The second one is right on though. In fact, it can be proven that the unborn child is a living entity. This isn't opinion. This isn't Catholic belief. It's a scientific fact. Future generations will be horrified that such evil was tolerated for so long. It's time for the United States and the rest of the civilized world to reject the evil slaughter of the unborn.
So after that rant, back to that Sunday in California. It was a really cool drive. We drove along the Pacific Coast Highway for a little while. Because of the curve of the California coastline, we were actually driving west. Then we turned north and started driving through mountainous terrain. There were some really cool views.
I'm not going to go through the whole museum, but one thing that's highlighted is the assassination attempt. And that brings up an interesting story that I don't know if I've ever told on the blog. When I was at Georgetown, I was taking a business law class. The professor gave us an assignment that involved going to a federal court and observing what was going on in some of the courtrooms. So while I was doing this assignment, I randomly picked a courtroom to go into and in that room was John Hinckley. He was requesting some kind of supervised release. He's not as famous as John Wilkes Booth or Lee Harvey Oswald, but that's only because Reagan survived. It was really weird to be in the same room as him.
Every presidential library has a recreation of the Oval Office. Bush's still ranks as the best because we were allowed to walk around and sit at his desk. Reagan's was like the other three that I've been to. You walk in and there's a railing so you can look around, but you can't really walk around.
Probably the coolest thing about the Reagan Library is that it has the old Air Force One. It was used by seven different presidents, but Reagan used it more than anybody else. It is really cool. You can go in and look around, but you're not allowed to take pictures inside. Apparently the current Air Force One is much bigger. I was wondering how they got it there, which is explained there. They flew it somewhere in southern California and then they took off the wings and towed it to the Reagan Library and reassembled it. It wasn't that far that they had to tow it, but they shut down a highway from 11:00 pm to 5:00 am because they had to move very slowly. In the Air Force One Pavilion they also had a thing about the Secret Service. The Secret Service has been around since just after Lincoln's time. You'd think that it was created in response to the assassination and you'd be wrong. It was actually created by Lincoln as his last official act as president. The job of the Secret Service was to go after counterfeiters until the 1900s. They also had the old Marine One and Reagan's limo from his time as president.
After checking all of that out, we stopped for lunch. The Reagan Library was the first presidential library that I've been to that had it's own pub. Well, sort of, anyway. They had a little place set up that looked like a pub. You could buy pre-made sandwiches and there was a refrigerator with beer (and maybe wine too, but wine is stupid). Actually, it's possible that the other libraries I've visited served alcohol also. I didn't eat at any of them, so I guess I wouldn't know.
All the stuff on the Cold War was really good. There was a big thing on the Berlin Wall and they have a piece of the Berlin Wall outside. There was a good exhibit on Reagan's meetings with Gorbachev.
The last thing we checked out inside was a temporary exhibit on football (between that and the presidents and baseball exhibit at the Bush Library, I really lucked out with the timing of my visits). Of course, Reagan played George Gipp in Knute Rockne, All American. Notre Dame won the National Championship during the last year of Reagan's presidency. So there was a lot of Notre Dame stuff. There was also a lot of USC and UCLA stuff to cater to the California audience. There was stuff from professional football as well. I don't know if this was just a good coincidence or if it was intentional, but there was a display about properly inflated footballs. There were supposed to be a properly inflated football and an under-inflated football attached to that display to feel the difference, but sadly the under-inflated football was missing. I bought a Win One for the Gipper shirt at the gift shop.
Our last stop was outside to check out the piece of the Berlin Wall and Reagan's burial site. I had really been looking forward to visiting the Reagan Library and it lived up to my expectations. I was going to cover my last day in California in this post also, but it's gone on long enough, so I'll save that for later.
So after that rant, back to that Sunday in California. It was a really cool drive. We drove along the Pacific Coast Highway for a little while. Because of the curve of the California coastline, we were actually driving west. Then we turned north and started driving through mountainous terrain. There were some really cool views.
I'm not going to go through the whole museum, but one thing that's highlighted is the assassination attempt. And that brings up an interesting story that I don't know if I've ever told on the blog. When I was at Georgetown, I was taking a business law class. The professor gave us an assignment that involved going to a federal court and observing what was going on in some of the courtrooms. So while I was doing this assignment, I randomly picked a courtroom to go into and in that room was John Hinckley. He was requesting some kind of supervised release. He's not as famous as John Wilkes Booth or Lee Harvey Oswald, but that's only because Reagan survived. It was really weird to be in the same room as him.
Every presidential library has a recreation of the Oval Office. Bush's still ranks as the best because we were allowed to walk around and sit at his desk. Reagan's was like the other three that I've been to. You walk in and there's a railing so you can look around, but you can't really walk around.
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| I didn't notice any jelly beans in the Oval Office. |
Probably the coolest thing about the Reagan Library is that it has the old Air Force One. It was used by seven different presidents, but Reagan used it more than anybody else. It is really cool. You can go in and look around, but you're not allowed to take pictures inside. Apparently the current Air Force One is much bigger. I was wondering how they got it there, which is explained there. They flew it somewhere in southern California and then they took off the wings and towed it to the Reagan Library and reassembled it. It wasn't that far that they had to tow it, but they shut down a highway from 11:00 pm to 5:00 am because they had to move very slowly. In the Air Force One Pavilion they also had a thing about the Secret Service. The Secret Service has been around since just after Lincoln's time. You'd think that it was created in response to the assassination and you'd be wrong. It was actually created by Lincoln as his last official act as president. The job of the Secret Service was to go after counterfeiters until the 1900s. They also had the old Marine One and Reagan's limo from his time as president.
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| I had to take a panoramic picture to fit the whole plane in. |
After checking all of that out, we stopped for lunch. The Reagan Library was the first presidential library that I've been to that had it's own pub. Well, sort of, anyway. They had a little place set up that looked like a pub. You could buy pre-made sandwiches and there was a refrigerator with beer (and maybe wine too, but wine is stupid). Actually, it's possible that the other libraries I've visited served alcohol also. I didn't eat at any of them, so I guess I wouldn't know.
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| It would have been really cool to have a beer here, but I was doing plenty of drinking on this trip so I decided not to. |
All the stuff on the Cold War was really good. There was a big thing on the Berlin Wall and they have a piece of the Berlin Wall outside. There was a good exhibit on Reagan's meetings with Gorbachev.
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| "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" |
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| Reagan and Gorbachev |
The last thing we checked out inside was a temporary exhibit on football (between that and the presidents and baseball exhibit at the Bush Library, I really lucked out with the timing of my visits). Of course, Reagan played George Gipp in Knute Rockne, All American. Notre Dame won the National Championship during the last year of Reagan's presidency. So there was a lot of Notre Dame stuff. There was also a lot of USC and UCLA stuff to cater to the California audience. There was stuff from professional football as well. I don't know if this was just a good coincidence or if it was intentional, but there was a display about properly inflated footballs. There were supposed to be a properly inflated football and an under-inflated football attached to that display to feel the difference, but sadly the under-inflated football was missing. I bought a Win One for the Gipper shirt at the gift shop.
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| The football was given to Reagan by Notre Dame's 1988 National Championship team. |
Our last stop was outside to check out the piece of the Berlin Wall and Reagan's burial site. I had really been looking forward to visiting the Reagan Library and it lived up to my expectations. I was going to cover my last day in California in this post also, but it's gone on long enough, so I'll save that for later.
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| Here lies the man who defeated communism without firing a shot. You probably can't read the quote on the wall in the back, but it's a good one: "I know in my heart that man is good, that what is right will always eventually triumph, and there is purpose and worth to each and every life." Rest in Peace, Ronald Reagan. |
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