Some Reading Notes

Having been down for a "procedure" on Friday, I have been a little out of touch with the news and what is going on in the world, but it did give me an opportunity to finish up my book on Gorbachev, read another one on Reagan, and then a final book on Billy the Kid. All very interesting reads.

I was fascinated with several aspects of the book on Reagan. It is called When Character was King by Peggy Noonan, who was a former speech writer for the president. It was truly inspiring and just a further affirmation of what a genuinely amazing leader and person that Ronald Reagan was.

One thing that Peggy brought up was that after WWII, the upper income tax rate had soared to 94%. That was shocking, but it was also reassuring. If we think the punitive tax increases that we will see in the future are bad, they are nothing compared to what they were before Kennedy and Reagan got to them.

The other thing, and something that made a very big impression on me, was the assassination attempt that was made on Reagan by the mentally ill Hinckley. Not the attempt itself, but the amazing split second response by the secret service. These men jumped into action so quickly it is mind boggling. As the first shots were fired (and there were six of them) the first agent(Parr) doubled Reagan over and pushed him into the car, doing everything he could to shield the president with his own body. Another agent, McCarthy, who opened the door of the car did something that is so counter intuitive that can only be achieved through countless ours of mental and physical training. As gun shots are being fired and everyone is ducking for cover he turns to find the gunman and puts himself between the gunman and the president, with his arms spread out to INCREASE his chances of taking a bullet for the president. In this case, he was effective. In the video you can see as the agent is struck on his right side and nearly lifted off of his feet.

The end result is that the president escapes. The only bullet that strikes him is one that ricochets off the door frame. Of course that was almost enough to kill the 70 year old president, when the bullet came within an inch of his heart.

These two men changed the history of the United States and quite possibly the world by their selfless actions. Just a few months into his presidency, Ronald Wilson Reagan had already begun to shake things up, but not nearly as much as he would.

Thank you Jerry Parr and agent Timothy McCarthy