Given the fever pitch of debate here over impeachment and ending the war, I had decided to hold off writing this diary until things calmed down—but that could be a long wait. The story begins when I visited the Reagan museum and library at Simi Valley CA. about a year ago. It was a beautiful drive once we were past the congestion of the LA freeways and were on the road to the hilltop site overlooking the glorious view.
With my interest in politics I was viewing the museum with a critical eye, seeing just what balance between the expected hagiography of the recently deceased President would be struck with the complex reality of his political career.
It didn't take me long to find out, and surprisingly the most glaring breach, to me at least, was not relating to the President, but his wife Nancy Reagan. Here's a short video, seen after the jump, from the introductory film that is shown to all who enter the museum.
The film gave a preview of the various exhibits and then........
Showing clips of Nancy Reagan the narrator said:
Meet the most admired first lady of the twentieth century, as a child, a hollywood actress, wife, number one fan, and life's parter to the president.
This diary is in no way intended to demean, defame or even criticize Nancy Reagan. I'm sure she did not write these words and may not even be aware of them. Her life story is interesting, and she was a steadfast supporter of her husband, especially during his failing health, which I consider something to admire. We all wish for partners who give us unconditional love to help face the assaults that life brings
This introduction to a facility that receives a certain amount of public funding, and is a repository of information about one of the most important national figures of our era, has an obligation to simple truth. "Most admired first lady....." That title belongs to someone else, whether the survey were to taken in this country or the world.
I had sort of forgotten about the museum video when a small article from the New York Times a few days ago, excerpted here, reminded me of it:
Fleeing Hitler and Meeting a Reluctant Miss Liberty
As the Statue of Liberty lurched into sight, Malvina Parnes felt a knot rise in her throat. It was Aug. 19, 1940, and she was 11, her skinny legs rooted to the heaving deck of the Quanza, a Portuguese cargo ship that 317 passengers had chartered to flee war-torn Europe.
Malvina was desperate to feel safe. She had been seasick every day of the 13-day voyage, and spent the nights wrapped in a blanket on the open deck, unable to bear the fetid, windowless bunker where her mother, her 3-year-old sister, Annette, and her aunt slept.
But New York offered no sanctuary. While 196 passengers, including 66 American citizens, got off, the other 121 passengers, nearly all of them Jews seeking political asylum, including Malvina and her family, were denied entry. Eighty-six of the 121 passengers were later turned away in Mexico, too, and to their horror, the captain was preparing to go back across the Atlantic.
Preparing to return to Europe, the Quanza stopped for coal in Virginia, where at least one despairing passenger threw himself overboard. (He swam to shore and was returned to the ship.) A lawyer managed to keep the ship in dock until Eleanor Roosevelt stealthily instructed a State Department official, against the wishes of the secretary of state, Cordell Hull, to arrange for everyone onboard to get visas.
The refugees raced ashore and scattered.
Yes, it was this woman, this rather homely, awkward and unglamourous woman, who overruled the Secretary of State to allow these people to survive and to prosper in this country. This event, while being one of the minor achievements of Eleanor Roosevelt's illustrious life, does exemplify who she was as a human being. Her rescuing these people never made it to the papers. It served no political advantage to her husband or their party; rather it was motivated by nothing more than her sense of common humanity with all who face injustice--who suffer and live in fear.
Her husband was the realist, the man who had to calculate each move in the three dimensional chess board of national and global politics. He steeled himself to ignore the atrocities being done to Jews under Nazi domination, and to the injustices towards "Negroes" in this country. Eleanor was less concerned with these geopolitical constraints and said and did what she felt to be right. (Perhaps this would have merited her being a front pager here on Dailykos)
But her life work transcended sporadic bursts of heroism. When the United Nations was being created, she was the leader of the group assigned to draft the universal declaration of human rights. Now she became the politician, cajoling and convincing all parties to agree to principles that still stand today. Sadly, these principles are honored more in the breach than in universal adoption. Her ideals have never been realized, in a world that seems to be sinking deeper into human degradation with each passing decade.
When Time Magazine published their list of the 100 most important people of the twentieth century only a single First Lady was among the list.
Eleanor Roosevelt's life showed the potential of a single individual to affect the lives of many. Breaking the mold of her position, where being a proper hostess and avatar of style was all that was expected, she sought out the desperate, hungry and disenfranchised during national depression and world war. We in this country, along with the rest of the world, know well the name of "The most revered first lady of the twentieth century."
There is really no contest. The statement at the Reagan Library that this accolade belongs to another does more than distort history. It debases the humanitarianism epitomized by this amazing woman that reflects the highest ideals of our country.