By: Peggy Grande - Ronald Reagan: An Essay on the Legacy of an American Icon

“The Beautiful Mosaic of Ronald Reagan’s Legacy”

This essay is an excerpt from her book, “The President Will See You Now: My Stories and Lessons from Ronald Reagan’s Final Years”.

Twenty years after Ronald Reagan’s passing, we are still not over the loss of him. Instead, we want to get back to him. Obviously not as president, but as a symbol for the best we can be individually and collectively. We want to get back to principled leadership, optimism, vision, faith, civility, and confidence in ourselves and in our united purpose. We want to get back to being a beacon of freedom bringing light and direction to dark corners of the globe where oppression still exists and get back to loving ourselves and loving America as we did when Ronald Reagan was president.

He gave us everything we need to do so. Ronald Reagan left a piece of himself in each of our lives —a memory from watching a speech, perhaps a handshake in person, or an autographed photo in the mail. Maybe it was a wave at an event or a smile into the camera you were certain was just for you. A quote in the newspaper you cut out as inspiration, a joke that made you laugh and you loved to retell, a change in a regulation that lowered your taxes, an improvement in the economy which created a more prosperous and secure future, a chance to innovate that grew your business, or a dose of optimism and faith that inspired you to do more, be more, build more. Or maybe he gave you, your family, or your nation of origin the ultimate gift: freedom.

We don’t need one man, Ronald Reagan, again in America. We need everyone who was blessed by that man to bring his legacy back to their families, workplaces, communities, and the world. These separate little pieces of Ronald Reagan’s legacy are scattered far and wide and now need to be brought back together and reassembled to reveal the beautiful mosaic of Ronald Reagan’s legacy, which exists in all of us and can once again change the nation and inspire the world. Just as he would have wanted.