I only remember two things that Ronald Reagan said while serving as President of the United States. Both were addressed to then Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, the first being, in Russian: “Doveryai no proveryai” — “trust but verify.” The second, delivered at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin in 1987, was: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.”

Just over two years later, on November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall actually was breached, foreshadowing the end of the Soviet Union’s hegemony over much of Eastern Europe . . . and ultimately, its own demise in 1991.

In a recent article by former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, he mentioned that he did not recall ever having quoted Reagan before. But he did reproduce a portion of a 1988 speech in which Reagan talked about the meaning of being an American. And I found it so compellingly relevant to today’s political climate (as, obviously, did Mr. Reich), that I’ve taken the liberty of repeating it here as a reminder, in these troubled times, of what we ordinary Americans have always known, but so may of those in power today have chosen to forget:

“I received a letter not long ago from a man who said, ‘You can go to Japan to live, but you cannot become Japanese. You can go to France to live and not become a Frenchman. You can go to live in Germany or Turkey, and you won’t become a German or a Turk.’ But then he added, ‘Anybody from any corner of the world can come to America to live and become an American.’

“A person becomes an American by adopting America’s principles, especially those principles summarized in the ‘self-evident truths’ of the Declaration of Independence, such as ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.’ . . .

“As an immigrant friend once put it to me: ‘I was always an American. I was just born in the wrong country.’”

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We Americans who were born here — unless we are full-blooded members of one of the many tribes of Indigenous People — are descendants of immigrants. It is we who are the foreigners, the invaders who took their sacred lands, changed their laws, and consigned them to a way of life for which they were not suited.

Yet now, while we claim the right to call ourselves Americans, our government seeks to deny that right to others — the right, inscribed in our Declaration of Independence and our Constitution, to become Americans as have so many generations before.

The man who wrote to President Reagan knew what it means to be an American; and Reagan’s immigrant friend also knew what it means. We need to listen to them, in order that we never forget.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
12/2/25