The Reagan Library
In looking through the archive of my journal, I found an entry from April 30, 2006, when I was visiting LA, and decided to visit the Reagan Library in Simi Valley. Rather than repeat what I saw that day, I cut and pasted the entry, complete with pictures, behind the cut. Here's what I saw.
I was out the door at about 11:00 a.m. and on the freeway to Simi Valley. It was a beautiful morning and the drive was nice, especially once I got off the freeway. I drove up a nice scenic hill to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum for a fix for the history geek in me. I enjoyed myself at his museum both for the pleasant scenery and for the history. Here are some pictures.
1. This is the front of the building. It's high atop a hill in Simi Valley. The view was nice and I took lots of pictures, but despite the lack of cloud cover, it was very hazy, likely the famous LA smog.
2. At the entrance to the museum is this nice bronze statue of Cowboy Ron.
3. I wanted to snap lots of pictures, but they have a rule against flash cameras and my digital camera flashes indoors. But before they warned me, I did manage to snap this pic of a lifesize portrait of President Reagan. It looks like he's walking right out of the wall.
4. They have an actual Air Force One (the name for whatever plane the President happens to be on) that Reagan used. I got a nice picture of myself at the entrance to the plane (they sell them, I have to scan it to post it) and really found the walk through the inside of the plane very interesting. Here is a shot of the plane from outside the building.
5. Reagan's gravesite is at the back of the museum overlooking a spectacular view of Simi Valley. Some other tourist remarked that there didn't appear to be any room for Nancy when her time comes, but I'm guessing there's probably a second plot under there.
6. I found these signs kind of interesting. They were all over the grass at the edge before the drop off to the valley. I didn't see any snakes though and was grateful for that.
7-8. Probably the most famous event of Reagan's term is the end of communism in eastern Europe and the tearing down of the Berlin wall. They have a piece of the wall, shown here, behind the museum. The last picture is of the plaque beside it.
I listened to these words that Reagan spoke in his first inaugural address:
Reagan: These United States are confronted with an economic affliction of great proportions. We suffer from the longest and one of the worst sustained inflations in our national history. It distorts our economic decisions, penalizes thrift, and crushes the struggling young and the fixed-income elderly alike. It threatens to shatter the lives of millions of our people.
Idle industries have cast workers into unemployment, causing human misery and personal indignity. Those who do work are denied a fair return for their labor by a tax system which penalizes successful achievement and keeps us from maintaining full productivity.
But great as our tax burden is, it has not kept pace with public spending. For decades, we have piled deficit upon deficit, mortgaging our future and our children's future for the temporary convenience of the present. To continue this long trend is to guarantee tremendous social, cultural, political, and economic upheavals.
You and I, as individuals, can, by borrowing, live beyond our means, but for only a limited period of time. Why, then, should we think that collectively, as a nation, we are not bound by that same limitation?
We must act today in order to preserve tomorrow. And let there be no misunderstanding—we are going to begin to act, beginning today.
The economic ills we suffer have come upon us over several decades. They will not go away in days, weeks, or months, but they will go away. They will go away because we, as Americans, have the capacity now, as we have had in the past, to do whatever needs to be done to preserve this last and greatest bastion of freedom.
In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem.
I had a nice Waldorf salad at the cafeteria there. Then I drove back and ended up in Beverly Hills.
I'm glad that this community gives me the opportunity to relive some of my trips to various Presidential Libraries and Museums. Perhaps it will motivate me to return there again sometime soon.
I was out the door at about 11:00 a.m. and on the freeway to Simi Valley. It was a beautiful morning and the drive was nice, especially once I got off the freeway. I drove up a nice scenic hill to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum for a fix for the history geek in me. I enjoyed myself at his museum both for the pleasant scenery and for the history. Here are some pictures.
1. This is the front of the building. It's high atop a hill in Simi Valley. The view was nice and I took lots of pictures, but despite the lack of cloud cover, it was very hazy, likely the famous LA smog.
2. At the entrance to the museum is this nice bronze statue of Cowboy Ron.
3. I wanted to snap lots of pictures, but they have a rule against flash cameras and my digital camera flashes indoors. But before they warned me, I did manage to snap this pic of a lifesize portrait of President Reagan. It looks like he's walking right out of the wall.
4. They have an actual Air Force One (the name for whatever plane the President happens to be on) that Reagan used. I got a nice picture of myself at the entrance to the plane (they sell them, I have to scan it to post it) and really found the walk through the inside of the plane very interesting. Here is a shot of the plane from outside the building.
5. Reagan's gravesite is at the back of the museum overlooking a spectacular view of Simi Valley. Some other tourist remarked that there didn't appear to be any room for Nancy when her time comes, but I'm guessing there's probably a second plot under there.
6. I found these signs kind of interesting. They were all over the grass at the edge before the drop off to the valley. I didn't see any snakes though and was grateful for that.
7-8. Probably the most famous event of Reagan's term is the end of communism in eastern Europe and the tearing down of the Berlin wall. They have a piece of the wall, shown here, behind the museum. The last picture is of the plaque beside it.
I listened to these words that Reagan spoke in his first inaugural address:
Reagan: These United States are confronted with an economic affliction of great proportions. We suffer from the longest and one of the worst sustained inflations in our national history. It distorts our economic decisions, penalizes thrift, and crushes the struggling young and the fixed-income elderly alike. It threatens to shatter the lives of millions of our people.
Idle industries have cast workers into unemployment, causing human misery and personal indignity. Those who do work are denied a fair return for their labor by a tax system which penalizes successful achievement and keeps us from maintaining full productivity.
But great as our tax burden is, it has not kept pace with public spending. For decades, we have piled deficit upon deficit, mortgaging our future and our children's future for the temporary convenience of the present. To continue this long trend is to guarantee tremendous social, cultural, political, and economic upheavals.
You and I, as individuals, can, by borrowing, live beyond our means, but for only a limited period of time. Why, then, should we think that collectively, as a nation, we are not bound by that same limitation?
We must act today in order to preserve tomorrow. And let there be no misunderstanding—we are going to begin to act, beginning today.
The economic ills we suffer have come upon us over several decades. They will not go away in days, weeks, or months, but they will go away. They will go away because we, as Americans, have the capacity now, as we have had in the past, to do whatever needs to be done to preserve this last and greatest bastion of freedom.
In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem.
I had a nice Waldorf salad at the cafeteria there. Then I drove back and ended up in Beverly Hills.
I'm glad that this community gives me the opportunity to relive some of my trips to various Presidential Libraries and Museums. Perhaps it will motivate me to return there again sometime soon.