April 10, 2022
Ronald Reagan and the Blind Children: A Story of Character
By George P. Harbison
One of the best examples I know of a story about the importance of character is one involving our 40th president, Ronald Wilson Reagan. It is a compelling and inspiring story.
In the midst of the 1976 Republican presidential primary campaign, Reagan was preparing to make a campaign speech in the parking lot of a shopping mall in North Carolina. Just before the speech was about to begin, a woman approached Reagan’s assistant press secretary, Dana Rohrabacher, and asked him if it would be possible for Governor Reagan to spend a few minutes with a group of blind children she had escorted to the event. Rohrabacher conveyed the request to Mike Deaver, Reagan’s campaign chief of staff.
Reagan overheard the exchange between his two staff members and agreed to meet the children, but only if the press contingent was not present when the meeting took place. Reagan did not want to be accused of staging a potentially poignant event for political gain, but he really wanted to meet the children. Rohrabacher said later, “Can you imagine that? He was in the middle of a presidential campaign, and the press would have gone wild for a photo of him with a group of blind kids. But Reagan wanted this to be between him and the kids.”
Deaver concocted a plan in which he would escort Reagan in the direction of the campaign bus after the speech concluded. This action, it was hoped, would lead the press corps to believe that the candidate was leaving for the next campaign stop and thus get them to board their vehicles and depart. Reagan would then circle back and meet the children in the privacy of the area behind the podium.
The plan worked.
more
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2022/04/ronald_reagan_and_the_blind_children_a_story_of_character.html
