[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 56 Introduced in House (IH)]
113th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. RES. 56
Celebrating the life of President Ronald Wilson Reagan on the
anniversary of his birth.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
February 6, 2013
Mr. Franks of Arizona (for himself, Mr. Schweikert, Mr. Salmon, Mr.
Gosar, Mr. Hultgren, Mr. Hudson, Mr. Miller of Florida, Mr. Bentivolio,
Mr. Luetkemeyer, Mr. Neugebauer, Mr. Harper, Mr. Hall, Mr. Roe of
Tennessee, Mr. Olson, Mr. Marchant, Mr. Barton, Mr. Daines, Mr. Harris,
Mr. Cotton, Mr. Shimkus, Mr. Brooks of Alabama, Mr. Stewart, Mr.
Fleming, Mr. Pearce, Mr. Radel, Mr. Chabot, Mr. Austin Scott of
Georgia, Mr. Williams, Mr. Gardner, Mr. Wilson of South Carolina, Mr.
Mulvaney, Mr. Lamborn, Mr. Rokita, Mr. Gohmert, Mr. Kingston, Mr.
Pittenger, Mr. Conaway, and Mr. Fleischmann) submitted the following
resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Oversight and
Government Reform
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Celebrating the life of President Ronald Wilson Reagan on the
anniversary of his birth.
Whereas, on February 6, 1911, Ronald Wilson Reagan was born to Nelle and John
Reagan in Tampico, Illinois;
Whereas Ronald Reagan's childhood years laid the foundation for his becoming a
man of unfettered principle, who was not afraid to do what was right,
and who was tenaciously committed to doing only that which he believed
was right in his own heart, regardless of any political cost;
Whereas his small-town values of hard work and commitment to God and family were
deeply rooted in his early childhood experiences;
Whereas as a young man in Illinois, Ronald Reagan saved 77 people from drowning
through his courage, physical strength, and vigilance as a lifeguard;
Whereas he attended high school in nearby Dixon, Illinois, and then worked his
way through Eureka College, where he studied economics and sociology,
played on the football team, and acted in school plays;
Whereas in 1937, a screen test won him a contract in Hollywood, leading to his
appearance in over 53 films over the next 2 decades;
Whereas beginning in 1947, Ronald Reagan served as President of the Screen
Actors Guild for 13 years;
Whereas, on March 4, 1952, Ronald Reagan married Nancy Davis, who remained his
best friend and lifelong companion and confidant for more than 5
decades;
Whereas in 1966, Ronald Reagan was elected as the 33rd Governor of California,
and won reelection 4 years later;
Whereas Ronald Reagan believed in United States exceptionalism and asserted that
the Nation has a unique role to play in the world;
Whereas in 1980, Ronald Reagan won the Republican presidential nomination and
was subsequently elected the 40th President of the United States,
winning reelection again in 1984 and becoming the first president in 3
decades to serve 2 full terms;
Whereas Ronald Reagan declared in 1981 in a speech at the University of Notre
Dame that, ``the West will not contain communism, it will transcend
communism'', and stated that ``For the West, for America, the time has
come to dare to show to the world that our civilized ideas, our
traditions, our values, are not--like the ideology and war machine of
totalitarian societies--just a facade of strength. It is time for the
world to know our intellectual and spiritual values are rooted in the
source of all strength, a belief in a Supreme Being, and a law higher
than our own'', thereby recognizing that the source of the Nation's
strength and ultimately its victory over communism would come from God,
the ``source of all strength'';
Whereas in June 1982, Ronald Reagan lifted up the flagging morale of the
democracies and gave hope to millions living under communist rule with
an address to the British Parliament at Westminster Hall in which he
proclaimed an imminent free world victory in the Cold War that would
leave communist totalitarianism, like Nazi totalitarianism before it,
``on the ash heap of history'';
Whereas, on March 8, 1983, President Reagan warned all people in the Nation to
beware of the temptation to draw a moral equivalence between the United
States and the Soviet Union, and the tendency to ignore the facts of
history and the ``aggressive impulses of an evil empire, to simply call
the arms race a giant misunderstanding and thereby remove ourselves from
the struggle between right and wrong, good and evil'', thereby educating
people in the United States about the moral bankruptcy of Soviet
communism and reminding them that ``the real crisis that we face is a
spiritual one; at root, it is a test of moral will and faith'';
Whereas, on March 23, 1983, President Reagan gave a landmark speech at the
zenith of the Cold War, in which he proposed what became known as the
Strategic Defense Initiative, to protect the United States, its allies,
and its vital interests from ballistic missile attack, thereby putting
the United States on a path to ending its vulnerability to missile
attack and harnessing the Nation's scientific and technological
advantages in support of a military effort that the Soviet Union
ultimately could not match;
Whereas less than 6 years later, the world watched the Revolutions of 1989 which
culminated in the fall of the Berlin Wall, the disintegration of
communism, and the dissolution of the once unshakeable Soviet Union;
Whereas Ronald Reagan made millions of people believe again that the United
States was still capable of being victorious, of rising out of and above
difficult circumstances, and of facing devastating challenges;
Whereas Ronald Reagan believed in the sanctity of all human life, saying ``[w]e
cannot diminish the value of one category of human life--the unborn--
without diminishing the value of all human life'';
Whereas Ronald Reagan stated that ``the future does not belong to the
fainthearted; it belongs to the brave'', and desired for people of the
United States to continue to make the Nation great by preserving its
goodness, by persevering in the struggle between right and wrong and
good and evil;
Whereas the policies of the Reagan Administration led to an enduring economic
recovery, the defeat of Soviet communism, and a renewal of United States
patriotism and self-confidence;
Whereas in his Farewell Address, President Reagan warned of the need to develop
an ``informed patriotism'' so that we can teach our children ``what
America is and what she represents in the long history of the world'',
thereby warning that if we forget our history, we won't know who we are;
Whereas Ronald Reagan's life was a transformed one, one that reflected a light
from within, and one that he willingly shared in the brightness and
warmth of his smile and in his grace and good humor;
Whereas Ronald Reagan's faith in God, and his love of family and country were
evident and strong even to the end of his life;
Whereas Ronald Reagan was a patriotic, humble leader and noble American for 93
years;
Whereas hundreds of millions of people now live in freedom because of Ronald
Reagan's conviction and courage; and
Whereas Ronald Reagan stated that ``freedom is never more than one generation
away from extinction'' and called upon all the people of the United
States to remember their ``rendezvous with destiny'': Now, therefore, be
it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
(1) celebrates the extraordinary life of President Ronald
Wilson Reagan on the anniversary of his birth and expresses its
deepest appreciation for his profound public service; and
(2) recognizes the significance of the Presidency of Ronald
Wilson Reagan, and its enduring legacy for the United States
and the rest of the world, and expresses its commitment to
protect, affirm, and defend the heritage of human freedom left
by President Ronald Wilson Reagan.
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