78-05-A6
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Missing Person
TranscriptI've had an opportunity to be on several campuses lately and the contrast with the riotous 60s makes it a happy experience. I'll be right back. Having had intimate contact with some of the most violent of our universities during the days of anti-war and anti-almost anything demonstrations, I find it a joy to be invited to a campus today. The students are courteous, aware of world happenings and have inquiring not closed minds. The contrast aroused many memories of a decade ago and one experience in particular I'd like to share with you. As governor, I was automatically a member of the Board of Regents of the University of California. The board met monthly, rotating the meeting place to each of the nine campuses. As the governing body of the university, the board, of course, was a target for dissidents. Some would even travel from their own campus to the meeting place to make sure we would receive a proper reception. The incident that continues to haunt me occurred in San Diego. I arrived there on one of those gray California mornings. It wasn't brightened any when I learned a special reception had been planned for my arrival. It seems the meeting was being held in a building deep in the campus requiring about a 200 yard walk. The demonstrators had decided on a kind of silent vigil. The walk to the entrance of the building was flanked by grass-covered sloping embankments in which the students had gathered several deep, leaving only a narrow path through which I would have to march while they stared silently down at me. The security people had another idea. Not knowing whether the vigil would remain silent and inactive for the whole 200 yard walk. They said they could drive me to the rear of the building and smuggle me in through a back door. Well, frankly, I'd had it by this time with the riots, the pickets and the vandalism and I refused. Their silent vigil wasn't going to keep me from going in the front door. So I started down the narrow path. It's pretty hard not to appear self-conscious with more than a thousand hostile people, most of them almost near enough to touch, watching your every step and expression. It was a long 200 yards. I was almost to the end of the ordeal when a rather small, attractive blonde girl stepped out of the crowd and stood on the walk facing me. I thought, "Oh dear lord, what do they plan for me now?" But she put out her hand and spoke, her voice ringing like a bell in all that deep silence. She said, "I just want to tell you, I like everything you're doing." I took her hand, I couldn't thank her there was a baseball sized lump in my throat. I'd never forgotten that moment and her courage. I could go on into the building, she had to stay out there with her peers. I never found out who she was. How I wish I could. I'd like to tell her what her bravery meant to me. I'd like to say thanks. This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening. |
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