[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 154 (Thursday, November 6, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11897-S11898]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               RONALD REAGAN WASHINGTON NATIONAL AIRPORT

 Mr. ABRAHAM. Mr. President, I rise today to add my voice to 
the chorus calling for the renaming of our national airport in honor of 
one of our Nation's greatest Presidents, Ronald Reagan.
  It is, of course, a long-standing tradition for us to name important 
buildings and facilities after those who have rendered extraordinary 
service to our country. Indeed, the monuments on the Mall outside this 
Chamber were constructed to show our gratitude toward and honor the 
memory of great men like Washington, Lincoln, and Jefferson, who helped 
build America, and save her in time of peril.
  When Ronald Reagan became President, our Nation was in grave peril. 
Caught in the grip of economic stagnation and moral malaise at home, we 
remained locked in struggle with the most deadly and powerful of armed 
ideologies, communism. Unlike his predecessors, President Reagan called 
the home of that ideology, the Soviet Union, by its proper name: the 
evil empire. He called on us as a nation, not to

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foolishly court mutual annihilation, but to stand up for our principles 
and our way of life, confident that our cause was just, and would be 
looked on with favor by God.
  Ronald Reagan told us to have confidence in the American way, as he 
had confidence in it himself. He cut taxes, fought to bring government 
under control, and launched us on a peacetime recovery unprecedented 
for its strength and longevity.
  Mr. President, Ronald Reagan brought this Nation back. He brought it 
back to prosperity, he brought it back to self-confidence, he brought 
it back to an understanding of its fundamental principles, its 
attachment to well-ordered liberty and the freedom of the human spirit. 
The results are all around us. A prosperous nation at peace, an evil 
empire that has become extinct, replaced by struggling democracies 
throughout Europe, a new dawn of liberty around the globe.
  Ronald Reagan wanted to lead his Nation into a brighter future. Like 
the jet airplanes that carry us to our destinations, he carried the 
United States through turbulent times into a new and brighter era. I 
can think of no more fitting tribute to his strength of character and 
his monumental service to this country, than to name our national 
airport the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

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