[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 80 (Wednesday, June 9, 2004)]
[House]
[Page H3825]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN WAS LIVING PROOF THAT IDEAS WIN BATTLES

  (Mr. EHLERS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. EHLERS. Mr. Speaker, for many years I have heard comments about 
the power of ideas. I learned as a youngster that the pen is mightier 
than the sword and that there is nothing so powerful as an idea whose 
time has come. President Ronald Reagan demonstrated that these and 
similar statements, are true. He was living proof that ideas win 
battles.
  He was not regarded as an intellectual, but yet he understood the 
importance of the basic, simple ideas that this country is founded 
upon, the ideas of peace and freedom, freedom to worship, freedom to 
speak, freedom of the press, but he also went beyond that. He 
recognized that these are not ends in themselves, but these are means 
to an end, and freedom to worship is meaningless unless you use it to 
worship. Freedom of the press is meaningless unless you use it to print 
ideas that are for the betterment of the Nation.
  Simple ideas, valiantly fought for. With grace, charm and a twinkle 
in his eye, he succeeded where others had failed. He inspired a 
troubled Nation. He brought us together. He conquered the symbolic Iron 
Curtain and brought it down, along with the very real Berlin Wall. He 
led to nuclear disarmament, the greatest threat to humanity during his 
tenure.
  I rise today to thank President Reagan for what he did for this 
country, for the ideas he fought for and the transformation he made in 
the culture and the attitudes of this Nation.

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