Kay Granger: “I am tempted to begin by saying that I come to honor the life of Ronald Reagan; but the truth is nothing I can say…”

“I am tempted to begin by saying that I come to honor the life of Ronald Reagan; but the truth is nothing I can say, nothing anyone can say can speak more loudly than Reagan's own achievements do. His legacy will endure and his memory will remain. Many leaders have changed history. Ronald Reagan changed the future. How soon we forget the environment he inherited in 1981, double-digit inflation, high interest rates at home, and Soviet aggression combined with American malaise abroad. Yet through his conviction, his courage, and his commitment, Ronald Reagan changed the Nation and the world. The story of Ronald Reagan is the story of America. He was an ordinary man who led a most extraordinary life. Born in poverty, Reagan rose to the greatest political office in the world. Along the way he did not merely argue for American values, he lived them. His determination was matched only by his decency, his leadership equaled only by his love of country. He was a great President who was also a good man, and he was a man so unlike any other in politics. Politics is filled with people who go with the flow, change with the times, and exchange principles for polls. These politicians are like tugboats, pushed back and forth by the waves. Not Reagan. He was like a battleship, always moving forward in its destination, always certain of victory. Though he has now left us, his impact never will.”