This is a reflective time of year for me. My father, Ronald Reagan, died in June 2004, and each year I let myself drift into whatever realm my thoughts and memories lead me to. Sometimes it’s about who he was as a father — magical when I was a small child, elusive and a bit awkward as I grew up.
This year I have found myself reflecting on who he was as America’s parent — as a human being. I’ve thought about how baffled he would be at the language and the statements that bellow out of the current White House. I can imagine his eyes darkening, his head bowing in sadness when the current president warned on social media that a “civilization will die tonight,” referring to bombings in Iran. My father would wince at talk of overtaking other nations — that “51st state” trope we hear in reference to Canada or Venezuela, or the rumblings of seizing Greenland. I can see him recoiling from the profanities, which he might have used in private but would never allow to cross into his role as leader of the free world.
I’ve thought about his call to Margaret Thatcher in 1983, after he ordered an attack on Grenada, a former British colony, without contacting her. The audio of the phone call is public now, and the exchange shows mutual respect, admiration and adherence to international norms on both their parts. My father began by saying, “If I were there, Margaret, I’d throw my hat in the door before I came in.” He explained to her the phone call he got at 3 a.m., the urgency of the situation and the awareness that somewhere in our government there was a “loose source, a leak.” Hence the secrecy of the mission. Thatcher accepted his apology, called him Ron and all was forgiven.
Obviously, a long list of presidents have adhered to civil discourse with other world leaders and have never publicly descended into profanities and threats. As a child, I listened to President Kennedy and felt that I was listening to someone I was meant to see as a role model to try to emulate.