When President Reagan gave his famous “Evil Empire” speech, some who took notice were captors of that empire. Natan Sharansky writes of his experience of hearing Reagan’s label, which seemed a faux pas to some:
In 1983, I was confined to an eight-by-ten-foot prison cell on the border of Siberia. My Soviet jailers gave me the privilege of reading the latest copy of Pravda. Splashed across the front page was a condemnation of President Ronald Reagan for having the temerity to call the Soviet Union an “evil empire.” Tapping on walls and talking through toilets, word of Reagan’s “provocation” quickly spread throughout the prison. We dissidents were ecstatic. Finally, the leader of the free world had spoken the truth — a truth that burned inside the heart of each and every one of us.
[link via Best of the Web]
Reagan had the courage to call Soviet communism what it was: evil. The thing that noby expected was that it worked. Sadly, few today have learned the lesson. “Evil” is just a nefarious term employed by bigots. The architects of political correctness tell us that evil is only an illusion. Ronald Reagan called it out.
In facing Islamofacism today, we must be vigilant to not let true evil go unnoticed. Again, Natan Sharansky:
Reagan may have confused names and dates, but his moral compass was always good. Today’s leaders, in contrast, may know their facts and figures, but are often woefully confused about what should be the simplest distinctions between freedom and tyranny, democrats and terrorists.
After 9/11, few people in the USA had doubts that there was evil in the world, but this understanding quickly disappeared. The talents of filmakers like Michael Moore are wasted on portraying Bush as evil. Why not Osama bin Laden? Why not Kim Jong Il? The answer is that Moore and his like either do not know evil or are in cahoots with it.
Ronald Reagan recognized evil and stood against it. And we should remember and emulate.